Catch-22
Joseph Heller, 1961
544 pp.

Book Review by Molly Lundquist
January, 2015
Catch-22—with its wild, dark comedic view of war, power, greed, and corruption—is one of the great works of the 20th century. Fifty years ago, the title itself landed in the popular lexicon, referring to a logical trap from which there's no way out: You must do A before you can do B, but there's no way to do A without first doing B. Tah-dah...you're stuck.

Like the twisted logic the title refers to, reading the book creates its own sense of absurdity. You love it, yet you don't. You find it hilarious yet horrifying. You end on a sense of hope but also despair. By the end, readers are left dangling—like the iconic figure on its cover.

The story takes place during World War II and revolves around Captain John Yossarian, a bombardier. Yossarian complains continually that people he's never met are trying to murder him.
  —Why would you say such a stupid thing, he's asked?
  —Because they shoot at me when I drop bombs on them.
  —But they're shooting at everybody, not just you!
  —What difference does that make?

Yossarian doesn't want to be killed. So if he can get himself declared insane, he'll be relieved of flying. But if he asks to be declared insane, then he's considered sane. Only crazy people want to continue flying bombing missions. Thus, the military's catch-22.

Outlandish characters with even more outlandish names (the funniest: Major Major Major Major) abound in the novel. Chapters follow one another in short bursts, each providing slender bits of information, like clues. Succeeding chapters repeat the clues, releasing more information—until by the end, all the cryptic references are fully revealed. That technique, combined with word-play, nonsense jokes, riddles in logic, and a non-chronological narrative, makes for a dizzying—and dazzling—read.

To take the novel as an antiwar screed only, is to miss its universality. Peter Heller's Absurdist view applies to all unjust systems, military or otherwise, that value their own survival—and those in positions of power—at the expense of everyone else.

A sometimes challenging read, Catch-22 is both maddening and hilarious in its irony, word play, and in the antics of its characters. There is nothing like it—a lifetime Must Read classic.

See our Reading Guide for Catch-22.