- Paperback: 464 pages
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (Sep 4 1996)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0684833395
- ISBN-13: 978-0684833392
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 13.8 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 481 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (624 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #27,860 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
There was a time when reading Joseph Heller's classic satire on the murderous insanity of war was nothing less than a rite of passage. Echoes of Yossarian, the wise-ass bombardier who was too smart to die but not smart enough to find a way out of his predicament, could be heard throughout the counterculture. As a result, it's impossible not to consider Catch-22 to be something of a period piece. But 40 years on, the novel's undiminished strength is its looking-glass logic. Again and again, Heller's characters demonstrate that what is commonly held to be good, is bad; what is sensible, is nonsense.
Yossarian says, "You're talking about winning the war, and I am talking about winning the war and keeping alive."
"Exactly," Clevinger snapped smugly. "And which do you think is more important?"
"To whom?" Yossarian shot back. "It doesn't make a damn bit of difference who wins the war to someone who's dead."
"I can't think of another attitude that could be depended upon to give greater comfort to the enemy."
"The enemy," retorted Yossarian with weighted precision, "is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on."
Mirabile dictu, the book holds up post-Reagan, post-Gulf War. It's a good thing, too. As long as there's a military, that engine of lethal authority, Catch-22 will shine as a handbook for smart-alecky pacifists. It's an utterly serious and sad, but damn funny book.
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. It would be difficult to imagine richer material for an audiobook reader, comedically speaking, than Joseph Heller's classic novel of wartime madness. Sanders is the lucky actor chosen to read Heller's masterpiece, and he does well by it, proceeding gamely through the novel's staggering array of comic set pieces and deliriously woozy dialogue. Heller's humor is straight-faced, requiring little more than a steady, sure voice, and Sanders offers just that. Line by line, joke by joke, Sanders reels through the marvelous phantasmagoria of Heller's World War II, tongue planted firmly in cheek. Caedmon's impressive package includes a 1970s-era recording of Heller reading selections from his book. Heller is a delightful contrast to Sanders, his slight lisp accentuating a marvelous Brooklyn accent. Heller reads as if with cigar perched on his lip and turns his novel into an extended borscht belt comic's riff.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Far, far more than an anti-war piece,
By Mandamus (Saint Louis) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Catch-22 (Paperback)
Catch 22 is a story set during World War II. A significant choice for what is, ostensibly, an anti-war satire, since that particular war was a universally popular one butressed by high moral motivations. But that is the point, for Catch 22 is not simply a lampoon of war, but a searing indictment of man's spiritual crisis in the modern world.On all fronts, the main character, Yossarian, is assailed by the dehumanized absurdities of mondern life, manifested most concretely in that perfected science of death, modern warfare. Yossarian, like all of us, is chained by rationality that has been stripped of reason, engineered thus for the purpose of control. That is the essence of Catch 22. The character of Milo Minderbinder represents the cold, opportunistic thinking of the corporate world, dead as it is to humanistic concerns in its tireless pursuit of profit and power. Chaplain Tappman embodies the impotence and self-doubt common to many people of faith who feel adrift in a culture of materialisticly driven insanity. But it is Yossarian's wanderings through Rome, the Eternal City, and as such, the representation of modern "civilized" society, that is the coup de grace. It is a moonlit, poetic scene lamenting the spiritual and humanistic decay and ultimate bankruptcy of modern Western society. Simply powerful stuff. Properly speaking, Catch 22 is more a series of vignettes or short stories rather than a novel. But it is told with a humor that bristles with moral outrage. While not perfect, it is an excellent read, and definitely recommened.
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the greatest novels of all time,
By Chris Makas (Dearborn, MI) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Catch-22 (Paperback)
I disagree with the reviewer who said that readers should try not to be offended given the current global situation; this book is more relevant now than ever, for the war of today is even more disjointed and Catch-22ish than World War II ever was. This novel is simply brilliant, and despite its bleakness it does end on a hopeful note and is hilarious throughout with its cruel and unrelented exposures of the insanity of the military, such as the colonel who arbitrarily raises the missions to get his picture in the Saturday Evening Post and the chaplain's interrogation (in which he is found guilty of all the crimes he would ever commit; of course he is guilty, they are HIS infractions!). Through it all, Yossarian, the only sane character in the madness, tries to get himself grounded but finds himself repeatedly blocked by Catch-22, and tries in vain to convince others around him that he is crazy while at the same time they are all crazy around him. The novel reads like a dream, completely out of sequence and often making no sense, but in the world of Catch-22 everything you know is wrong, and afterwards you begin to question everything you know. The final paragraph, even though it's only three sentences, is a gleeful twist on itself and is the perfect ending to a perfect novel.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very Amusing,
By
This review is from: Catch-22 (Paperback)
This was the most humorous book I've read recently! Very entertaining from beginning to end! It is about a World War II bombardier, Captain Yossarian, who desparately wants to be sent home but he is caught in the military's Catch-22. Catch-22 states that one can only be excused from flying missions on the grounds of insanity; one must request to be excused; one who requests to be excused is presumably in fear of his life, thus proof of his sanity so therefore he must continue to fly; one who is insane would not make the request and would continue to fly the missions despite the fact that he would be excused from them if he were to ask. The typical no-win situation. There are many characters presented in this book, adding to the confusion and enhancing the hilarity. The plot...well, there doesn't seem to be much of a plot but once the reader becomes caught up in the circular logic of the military, the plot doesn't seem important anyway. There are grisly moments of realism interspersed with the absurb humor. The time-line of the story is not chronological, but somehow it all makes sense. Throughout the book, I found myself cheering for Yossarian and his efforts, hoping that in all the confusion he would come out a winner in the end. If you enjoyed the T.V. series M*A*S*H, then you're sure to love this book as the writers of the sitcom were inspired by Joseph Heller's amazingly bizarre tale.
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