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Discover Joseph Heller's hilarious and tragic satire on military madness, and the tale of one man's efforts to survive it.
It’s the closing months of World War II and Yossarian has never been closer to death. Stationed in an American bomber squadron off the coast of Italy, each flight mission introduces him to thousands of people determined to kill him.
But the enemy above is not Yossarian’s problem – it is his own army intent on keeping him airborne, and the maddening ‘Catch-22’ that allows for no possibility of escape.
‘ The greatest satirical work in the English language’ Observer
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Catch 22 is a novel that's so similar in terms of structure, plot, dialogue, and characters to the theatre of the absurd. Being a story about war, such similarities between genres stand explained. Heller was attempting to convey, among other things, the absurdity of the armed struggle, and what's a better technique to do that than a literal demonstration of absurdity by introducing contradictions, nonsensical exchange between characters, and an endless maze of illogical thoughts and actions. In his novel, Heller exposes the military disorganization and the injustice of officers who sought career advancement rather than the safety of their men. The latter faction had to fight the war, and were depicted as truly heroic, in spite of their occasional comicality, on account of their relentless efforts to save one another. In addition to the absurdity of war, the plot is also thematically implicated with the frustrations and dilemmas of Modern life, and how it, too, borders on sheer absurdity.
