Catch-22 Summary
Joseph Heller

Catch-22 - Joseph Heller - 1961 Introduction Catch-22, published in 1961, is probably the best-known and most widely read novel of World War II. Its author, Joseph Heller, saw combat as an American bo... Read more

When Joseph Heller learned that the New York Times Book Review's response to his first novel was negative, he and his family were terribly depressed. "Waiting for that review to come out," he later to... Read more

Despite his relatively small output, Joseph Heller is considered a major contemporary author. His reputation rests principally on his first book, the experimental antiwar novel Catch-22, one of the mo... Read more

Critical Essay by Alfred Kazin [The essence of Catch-22 is that though it is ostensibly about the 1941–1945 war, in which Heller served, it is] really about The Next War, and thus about a war ... Read more

Critical Essay by Richard Locke "Catch-22" is probably the finest novel published since World War II. "Catch-22" is the great representative document of our era, linking h... Read more

In the following essay, Pratt explores parallels between Catch-22 and the experience of fighting in the Vietnam War. At the outset, I must confess to some unintentional skullduggery. When going to ... Read more

In the following essay, Nagel explores Heller's writing process for Catch-22, finding the early draft manuscripts rich with implications for the final published version of the novel. In 1978... Read more

Since the novel Catch-22 takes place in an army encampment during World War II, women are not mentioned very often in Yossarian's story. Yet Joseph Heller does not let their minimal presence reduce th... Read more

In Joseph Heller's Catch-22, every man, situation, and institution is at some point called crazy. At the core of these accusations of insanity is Yossarian who serves as both the accuser and the accu... Read more

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller is a book about a quadrant of fighter pilots on an island of the coast of Italy during World War II. The book starts out with Yossarian in a Pianosa hospital fighting illness... Read more

Catch 22, written by Joseph Heller, was a unique satire which described strange situations and under-lying motives behind World War II without encumbering it with the false glory and honor normally a... Read more

Irrational Minds: Catch-22 by Joseph Heller Throughout the book senseless irrationalities are found that affect the men in the squadron. The authorities demonstrate an array of bizarre reasoni... Read more