Catch 22

50th Anniversary Edition

Joseph Heller

$22.99

Paperback

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English

Vintage
01 August 2011

Fiction & Literature; Classic fiction (pre c 1945)

ABBEY’S BOOKSELLER PICK —— It is 50 years since Joseph Heller’s wonderful creation first appeared. My first encounter was as a young backpacker in Liechtenstein. Entering the hostel dorm, a young German was lying on his bunk with escalating outbursts of laughter. When curiosity finally overwhelmed me I asked what on earth he was reading.

Catch 22 is like no other book you will ever read. The narrative tumbles out, eddies and circles back, piling absurdity upon nonsense until your want for sense and order surrenders. Give yourself over to Heller’s anarchic playfulness and you will be richly rewarded with a story about the enterprise of war that is both tragic and comic. Craig Kirchner

——

Explosive, subversive, wild and funny, 50 years on the novel's strength is undiminished. Reading Joseph Heller's classic satire is nothing less than a rite of passage. Set in the closing months of World War II, this is the story of a bombardier named Yossarian who is frantic and furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. His real problem is not the enemy - it is his own army which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. If Yossarian makes any attempts to excuse himself from the perilous missions then he is caught in Catch-22: if he flies he is crazy, and doesn't have to; but if he doesn't want to he must be sane and has to. That's some catch...

By: Joseph Heller
Imprint: Vintage
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: 50th Anniversary ed
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 33mm
Weight: 372g
ISBN: 9780099529125
ISBN 10: 0099529122
Pages: 544
Publication Date: 01 August 2011
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Joseph Heller was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1923. In 1961, he published Catch-22, which became a bestseller and, in 1970, a film. He went on to write such novels as Something Happened, God Knows, Picture This, Closing Time (the sequel to Catch-22), and Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man. Heller died in December 1999.

Reviews for Catch 22 (50th Anniversary Edition)

Never has a book been laughed and wept over so many times * Guardian * To my mind, there have been two great American novels in the past fifty years. Catch-22 is one -- Stephen King Catch-22 is the only war novel I've ever read that makes any sense -- Harper Lee The war novel to end all war novels * Independent * Blessedly, monstrously, bloatedly, cynically funny and fantastically unique. No one has ever written a book like this * Financial Times *