Catch 22: Joseph Heller (Everyman's library, 220)

Heller, Joseph

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1857152204 ISBN 13: 9781857152203

Publisher: Everyman, 1995

A burlesque epic in the tradition of The Good Soldier Schweik, Catch-22 exposes the absurdity of war by applying its own demented logic to America's involvement in Korea. The 'catch' is that soldiers have to claim to be mad in order to get out of fighting - but being capable of making such a claim automatically proves them sane. With a cast of magnificently larger-than-life characters who are rushed along at a breathless pace, for once this really is a novel it's hard to put down., Catch-22 was made into a film.

Review:

""Catch-22" is the only war novel I've ever read that makes any sense." Harper Lee"

One of the greatest anti-war books ever written. "Vanity Fair""

One of the most bitterly funny works in the language . . . Explosive, bitter, subversive, brilliant. The New Republic"

To my mind, there have been two great American novels in the past fifty years. Catch-22 is one. Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly"

This novel is not merely the best American novel to come out of World War II, it is the best American novel that has come out of anywhere in years. Nelson Algren, The Nation"

It s the rock and roll of novels . . . There s no book like it. . . . Surprisingly powerful. Norman Mailer, Esquire"

To call it the finest comic novel of our day is faulting it. If Joseph Heller writes no other book, he will be well remembered for this apocalyptic masterpiece. Studs Terkel, Chicago Sun-Times"

Wildly original, brilliantly comic, brutally gruesome, it is a dazzling performance that will probably outrage nearly as many readers as it delights. Orville Prescott, New York Times Book Review"

One of the greatest anti-war books ever written. Vanity Fair"

"Catch-22 is the only war novel I've ever read that makes any sense." --Harper Lee

"One of the most bitterly funny works in the language . . . Explosive, bitter, subversive, brilliant." --The New Republic

"To my mind, there have been two great American novels in the past fifty years. Catch-22 is one." --Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly

"This novel is not merely the best American novel to come out of World War II, it is the best American novel that has come out of anywhere in years." --Nelson Algren, The Nation

"It's the rock and roll of novels . . . There's no book like it. . . . Surprisingly powerful." --Norman Mailer, Esquire

"To call it the finest comic novel of our day is faulting it. If Joseph Heller writes no other book, he will be well remembered for this apocalyptic masterpiece." --Studs Terkel, Chicago Sun-Times

"Wildly original, brilliantly comic, brutally gruesome, it is a dazzling performance that will probably outrage nearly as many readers as it delights." --Orville Prescott, New York Times Book Review

"One of the greatest anti-war books ever written." --Vanity Fair

Book Description:

One of the great novels of the twentieth century -- a satirical indictment of military madness and stupidity, and the desire of the ordinary man to survive it.