Catch-22

Catch-22 is a 1961 novel by American novelist Joseph Heller.

Related Topics:
1961 - Novel - Joseph Heller

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Although primarily classified as an anti-war novel, Catch-22 is also a critique of bureaucracy in general. The phrase "catch-22" has come into common use to mean a cyclical conundrum, or "no-win situation" based on its meaning in the book as described below. A Catch-22 situation is also inherently self-defeating: the very act of performing it prevents it from happening.

Related Topics:
Anti-war - Bureaucracy - Catch-22 - Conundrum - No-win situation

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The novel follows Captain Yossarian, a fictional World War II US Army Air Corps B-25 bombardier, and a number of other American airmen during World War II. They are based on the island of Pianosa, west of Italy.

Related Topics:
Captain - Yossarian - World War II - US Army Air Corps - B-25 - Bombardier - Pianosa - Italy

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A magazine excerpt from the novel was originally published as "Catch-18," but Heller changed the title after another World War II novel, Leon Uris's Mila 18, was published.

Related Topics:
Leon Uris - Mila 18

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The pacing of Catch 22 is frenetic, its tenor is intellectual, and its humor is largely absurdist -- but with grisly moments of realism interspersed. As the Czech writer Arno?t Lustig recounts in his latest book 3x18, Joseph Heller personally told him that he would never have written Catch-22 had he not first read The Good Soldier ?vejk by Jaroslav Ha?ek. Some would also trace the influences on Catch-22 to the novel, A Fable, by William Faulkner

Related Topics:
Absurdist - The Good Soldier ?vejk - Jaroslav Ha?ek - A Fable - William Faulkner

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The sequel to Catch-22, Closing Time, was published by Joseph Heller in 1994.

Related Topics:
Closing Time - 1994

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