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Catch-22 is like no other novel we have ever read. It has its own style, its own rationale, its own extraordinary character. It moves back and forth from hilarity to horror. It is outrageously funny and strangely affecting. It is totally original.

Yossarian says, "You're talking about winning the war, and I am talkingabout winning the war and keeping alive."
"Exactly," Clevinger snapped smugly. "And which do you think is moreimportant?"
"To whom?" Yossarian shot back. "It doesn't make a damn bit of difference whowins the war to someone who's dead."
"I can't think of another attitude that could be depended upon to give greatercomfort to the enemy."
"The enemy," retorted Yossarian with weighted precision, "is anybody who'sgoing 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 goodthing, 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 utterlyserious and sad, but damn funny book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (886)

Catch 22
America's Galactic Foreign Legion - Book 1: Feeling Lucky

The book is as funny as the movie, and I suggest both.

Great book. I really enjoyed it.
This book came highly recommended and I was not disappointed. Catch-22is weird, mixed up, irrational and bewildering, but totally sane. Some parts provoked thought, some parts provoked confusion, some parts provoked laughter, all parts were entertaining. I absolutely recommend it.

The funniest book I have ever read
Catch-22 is the funniest book I have ever picked up. Joseph Heller has to be one of the greatest wits in literature history. The story of Yossarian the pilot who simply wants to live works on so many different levels. In the end the book transcends simply being comedy, it uses humor to pack a helluva moral punch that absolutely reduces the blindness of war, the slavish devotion to government to total ruin. By the end of the book the illogical nature of war is so clear that it's a wonder the UN hasn't declared war illegal and a crime. The dialogue is incredibly clever and the characters so unique and colorful. On of my favorite parts is the scene where General Dreedle at first wants the chaplain to hang out in the bar ("So that he can sympathize with the men and gain their trust. How else are they going to believe in God?") but in the next breath says, "That's a fine thing, a man of God hanging out with a bunch of drunks and losers." And ends up threatening to have the chaplain taken outside and shot. Most of the humor fallows this same pattern, proving over and over again the illogical, contradictory, and insane nature of the military and of war. Or how about Milo and the syndacite? Milo plays both sides of every conflict and ends of funding an enemy bombing of his own batallion...There are better reviews on here and I could go on and on but this book literally blew me over with its powerful message and savagely satirical humor.

Well done, but much too true to be funny
A true story:
Some time ago, I was in the Marine Corps, scheduled for a deployment in Iraq.After six months of maddeningly boring pre-deployment "training", I had become somewhat scornful and skeptical of, not to mention endlessly disappointed, frustrated and disillusioned with, the military.All of this had me extremely depressed.
During the few days of leave (just a few days; military policy is to give two weeks of leave, but we only got five days, and this is just one of the ways they screwed my unit over) between the end of the "training" and the movement to Iraq, I went to visit my brother.
During thee visit we happened to pass a bookstore, and he offered to buy me a copy of Catch-22.He thought I might identify with it.I replied that I was sure I would.I'd heard of the book, of course, but never read it, and figured that if it was as ingeniously satirical as everyone said, reading it at that point in my life might just drive me over the edge.I was afraid it would hit too close to home, and so I refused his generosity.
I went to Iraq, which turned out to be even more maddening than the "training", stayed there for five months without incident, returned home and retired from the service just as soon as I could.And then I read Catch-22.
As I was safely retired at that point, it didn't hit particularly close to home.It's well-written, and very effective in making its point.Unfortunately for me (and for any reader who has first-hand experience with the military) it's the most obvious point possible, and so most of the book's humor and absolutely all of its shock value are completely lost.
In many instances the book is simply too true to be funny.There's hardly anything in it that didn't sound exactly like real life to me.Time after time, my reaction to the various absurd incidents of bureaucratic inertia, institutional asininity, and higher-up incompetence was a simple shrug. I'd seen it all myself, so why should Heller's fictive recounting of it seem like a revelation?

messy masterpiece
So yes, the book can read a bit messy. It does take some acclimation, but it is more than worth the work (for some people, such a style makes perfect sense and would give such a book 10 stars if possible). However, if you are not one of thee latter folks, hang with it, and you will be stuck with a brilliant piece of writing that will haunt you for a very long time. This book has staying power, and that's what may make it something of a masterpiece (albeit a messy one). ... Read more

Product Description
Alan Wolf Arkin (born March 26, 1934) is an American actor, director, and musician. He is best-known for starring in such films as: Catch-22; The In-Laws; Edward Scissorhands; The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming; Glengarry Glen Ross; Little Miss Sunshine, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2007; and Get Smart. He is the father of actors Adam Arkin, Anthony Arkin and Matthew Arkin. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Siempre!, published by Edicional Siempre on February 27, 2002. The length of the article is 827 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: La gran estafa.(TT: Ocean's eleven.)(Reseña)
Author: Tomás Pérez Turrent
Publication: Siempre! (Refereed)
Date: February 27, 2002
Publisher: Edicional Siempre
Volume: 48Issue: 2541Page: 70

Article Type: Reseña

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This digital document is an article from The Santa Fe New Mexican (Santa Fe, NM), published by The Santa Fe New Mexican on December 6, 2008. The length of the article is 741 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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Title: SANTA FE FILM FESTIVAL; ACTORS REVEAL TALES ABOUT THEIR CRAFT.(Main)
Author: Gale Reference Team
Publication: The Santa Fe New Mexican (Santa Fe, NM) (Newspaper)
Date: December 6, 2008
Publisher: The Santa Fe New Mexican
Page: A-1

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This digital document is an article from The Santa Fe New Mexican (Santa Fe, NM), published by The Santa Fe New Mexican on October 22, 2010. The length of the article is 1856 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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Title: DAMNED IF YOU DO ...; SANTA FE FILM FESTIVAL.(Pasatiempo)
Author: Unavailable
Publication: The Santa Fe New Mexican (Santa Fe, NM) (Newspaper)
Date: October 22, 2010
Publisher: The Santa Fe New Mexican
Page: PA-42

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This digital document is an article from Jet, published by Thomson Gale on March 12, 2007. The length of the article is 1022 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: 'Look what God can do!' Hudson, Whitaker take Oscar Gold: 8 black nominations set record.(Forest Whitaker and Jennifer Hudson )(Cover story)
Author: Margena A. Christian
Publication: Jet (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 12, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 111Issue: 10Page: 8(5)

Article Type: Cover story

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