Adobe DRM
Product Details
Simon & Schuster, October 2010
eBook, 464 pages
ISBN-10: 1451632967
ISBN-13: 9781451632965
Description
Fifty years after its original publication, Catch-22 remains a cornerstone of American lit-erature and one of the funniest—and most celebrated—novels of all time. In recent years it has been named to “best novels” lists by Time, Newsweek, the Modern Library, and the London Observer. Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But 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. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he’s assigned, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved. Since its publication in 1961, no novel has matched Catch-22’s intensity and brilliance in depicting the brutal insanity of war. This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller’s masterpiece with a new introduction by Christopher Buckley; personal essays on the genesis of the novel by the author; a wealth of critical responses and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos from Joseph Heller’s personal archive; and a selection of advertisements from the original publishing campaign that helped turn Catch-22 into a cultural phenomenon. Here, at last, is the definitive edition of a classic of world literature.
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"Catch-22 is the only war novel I've ever read that makes any sense."
-- Harper Lee
“One of the most bitterly funny works in the language . . . Explosive, bitter, subversive, brilliant.”
-- The New Republic
“To my mind, there have been two great American novels in the past fifty years. Catch-22 is one.”
-- Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly
“This novel is not merely the best American novel to come out of World War II, it is the best American novel that has come out of anywhere in years.”
-- Nelson Algren, The Nation
“It’s the rock and roll of novels . . . There’s no book like it. . . . Surprisingly powerful.”
-- Norman Mailer, Esquire
“One of the greatest anti-war books ever written.”
-- Vanity Fair
"Wildly original, brilliantly comic, brutally gruesome, it is a dazzling performance that will probably outrage nearly as many readers as it delights."
-- Orville Prescott, New York Times Book Review
WNYC, October 13, 2011
...By Fifty years ago, a new phrase began to make its way into American conversations: Catch-22. Joseph Heller's irreverent World War II novel — named for the now-famous paradox — was published on Oct. 11, 1961. His take on war meshed ...
Corvallis Gazette-Times, October 12, 2011
...Library. A book signing follows. In “Just One Catch” (St. Martin’s Press), Daugherty traces famed American author Joseph Heller’s life in from his early days as a Coney Island kid and the son of Russian immigrants, to his growth as a ...
Huffington Post, October 11, 2011
...Catch-22, my father's other "child" (with a gestation period of nine long years), was published that day. A hardcover copy cost $5.95 and 7,500 books were printed. As ...
Huffington Post UK, October 10, 2011
...and Across the Pond: 50 Years of Catch 22 React Read more 50 Years Catch 22 , Catch 22 , Joseph Heller , Books , Catch 22 50 , Erica Heller , Joseph-Heller-Catch-22 , Uk Books , UK Entertainment News share this story Add to ...
Huffington Post, October 10, 2011
...Catch 22 , Joseph Heller , Catch 22 50 Years , Catch 22 50th Anniversary , Catch 22 Anniversary , Catch-22 , Erica Heller , Joseph Heller Catch 22 , Culture News share this story Add to collections Collect articles and ...
Irish Times, October 9, 2011
...to get out of combat duty isn?t really crazy.? ?There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one?s own safety in the face of dangers that were immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy ...
Irish Times, October 7, 2011
...BIOGRAPHY: Just One Catch: The Passionate Life of Joseph Heller, By Tracy Daugherty, The Robson Press, 548pp. £25 Yossarian Slept Here: When Joseph Heller Was Dad and Life Was a Catch-22 , By Erica Heller, Vintage Books, 272pp. £8.99 ...
The Independent, October 6, 2011
...Erica Heller, daughter of Catch-22 author Joseph Heller, seems to have weathered her girlhood better than most daughters of celebrated literary lions. As we know from the memoirs of Susan Cheever, Janna Malamud Smith and ...
Statesman Journal, October 6, 2011
...this is the 50th anniversary of the publication of one of the last century's great anti-war novels, "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller. The novel follows B-25 bombardier Capt. John Yossarian's efforts to keep body and soul together — "to live ...
Jakarta Globe, September 30, 2011
...Hyper-cynical anti-war novel “Catch-22” turns 50 next month, and Joseph Heller must be chortling in his grave over how apropos the phrase he coined remains today, from the US jobs crisis to a bottomless ...
Regina Leader-Post, September 28, 2011
...WASHINGTON - Hyper-cynical anti-war novel "Catch-22" turns 50 next month, and Joseph Heller must be chortling in his grave over how apropos the phrase he coined remains today — from the U.S. jobs crisis to ...
Vancouver Sun, September 28, 2011
...WASHINGTON - Hyper-cynical anti-war novel "Catch-22" turns 50 next month, and Joseph Heller must be chortling in his grave over how apropos the phrase he coined remains today — from the U.S. jobs crisis to ...
Hartford Courant, September 21, 2011
...this is the 50th anniversary of the publication of one of the last century's great anti-war novels, "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller. The novel follows B-25 bombardier Capt. John Yossarian's efforts to keep body and soul together — "to live ...
Manhasset Press, September 9, 2011
...divorce, got me thinking about King’s tale while reading her entertaining, just-published memoir, Yossarian Slept Here: When Joseph Heller Was Dad, the Apthorp was Home, and Life was a Catch-22 (Simon & Schuster). Ms. Heller is promoting ...
Book Reporter, September 8, 2011
...ago in this space, I had the pleasure of reviewing JUST ONE CATCH, Tracy Daugherty’s biography of Joseph Heller. Heller’s daughter Erica's sometimes scarifying, but often hilarious, memoir of life in the Heller household is a worthy ...
Kansas City Star, September 4, 2011
...great first novel is that you spend the rest of your career trying to live up to it. Joseph Heller, who followed Catch-22 with a handful of ambitious but less celebrated novels, developed a clever response to what must have been an ...
Kansas City Star, September 3, 2011
...great first novel is that you spend the rest of your career trying to live up to it. Joseph Heller, who followed ?Catch-22? with a handful of ambitious but less celebrated novels, developed a clever response to what must have been an ...
WA Today, September 3, 2011
...Half a century on, the late Joseph Heller's satirical masterpiece is still making waves, topping lists and winning over new readers. ''IT WAS love at first sight. The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell ...
STLtoday.com, September 3, 2011
...Fifty-one years ago, nobody used the term "Catch-22" to describe a victim trapped in a contradictory, often bureaucratic, paradox. Not even Joseph Heller, who'd spent seven years writing his satirical World War II novel; he was still ...
NUVO, August 30, 2011
...Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition By Joseph Heller New introduction by Christopher Buckley For more information: simonandschuster.com It's a rare book whose title becomes part of peoples' everyday speech. But ...
STLtoday.com, August 28, 2011
...Fifty-one years ago, nobody used the term "Catch-22" to describe a victim trapped in a contradictory, often bureaucratic, paradox. Not even Joseph Heller, who'd spent seven years writing his satirical World War II novel; he was still ...
The Independent, April 10, 2011
...those thrusting early-Mad Men days and family life (with two young children at home) severely delayed the book. Joseph Heller missed his first deadline by around five years. Within another year or two, millions of readers had reason to be ...
People's Daily Online, March 18, 2011
...says the Zhejiang University professor, who also has translated Thomas Hardy's classic "The Mayor of Casterbridge" and Joseph Heller's black comedy "Catch-22." "This has been the most difficult I have translated so far," Professor Guo says. ...
New Haven Independent, March 11, 2011
...on their own, without the staff to help students like him unlock them, he said. The novel was Joseph Heller’s “Catch-22.” Lee presented aldermen with a paradox worthy of the book: The city has made a promise to put qualifying students ...
Suite101.com, March 10, 2011
...Joseph Heller, author of the contemporary classic, Catch-22, knew what he wrote about. He served as a bombardier in Italy during WWII, during which time he flew sixty missions. However, Heller ...
The Independent, October 31, 2010
...end of November. And although there are plenty of tales of great novelists spending years crafting their masterpieces Joseph Heller took eight years to write Catch-22 many of the literary world's most popular works were knocked out in a few ...
The Independent, October 30, 2010
...end of November. And although there are plenty of tales of great novelists spending years crafting their masterpieces Joseph Heller took eight years to write Catch-22 many of the literary world's most popular works were knocked out in a few ...
Brisbane Times, October 29, 2010
...was not seen as the norm for women in the 1960s and early 1970s." Brian Tee read Joseph Heller's great satirical war novel Catch-22 at 16. He found it "startling, new and refreshing" and it made him realise "current injustices were not ...
Inside Higher Ed, October 1, 2010
...makes it all worthwhile. That tiny one percent allows you to handle the mallet, I’m convinced. Like Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, Holy Book of the Beard saves some horrors for us to experience before its end, which provide late exposition ...
Elburn Herald, October 1, 2010
...by E. B. White • A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce • Catch-22 by Joseph Heller • Brave New World by Aldous Huxley • Animal Farm by George Orwell • The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway • As I Lay Dying by ...
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, September 24, 2010
...1960 -"The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin," Benjamin Franklin, 1791 -"The Scarlet Letter," Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1850 -"Catch-22," Joseph Heller, 1961 -"On the Origin of Species," Charles Darwin, 1859 -"James and the Giant Peach," Roald ...
Macomb Daily, September 20, 2010
...that they encourage authors to lie. In that regard, "The Thieves of Manhattan" may be to publishing what Joseph Heller's "Catch-22" was to the military ...
AllBusiness Champions of Small Business, December 29, 2009
...e-book venture Styron's family hopes to use has run into similar resistance from the print publisher of "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller. On Friday, Markus Dohle, chief executive of Random House, sent a letter to dozens of literary agents, ...
Worcester Telegram & Gazette, December 13, 2009
...new e-book venture Styrons family hopes to use has run into similar resistance from the print publisher of Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. Backlist titles, which continue to be reprinted long after their initial release, are crucial to publishing ...
TH Online, December 12, 2009
...sentenced to four years in prison and fined $7.1 million for tax evasion. * In 1999, Author Joseph Heller, whose darkly comic first novel 'Catch-22' defined the paradox of the no-win dilemma and added a phrase to the American language, died ...
New York Times, December 12, 2009
...e-book venture Mr. Styrons family hopes to use has run into similar resistance from the print publisher of Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. On Friday, Markus Dohle, chief executive of Random House, sent a letter to dozens of literary agents, ...
FOX 61, December 12, 2009
...bars, plus a month at a halfway house and two months of house arrest.) Ten years ago: Author Joseph Heller, whose darkly comic first novel 'Catch-22' defined the paradox of the no-win dilemma and added a phrase to the American language, died ...
Reflector.com, December 12, 2009
...bars, plus a month at a halfway house and two months of house arrest.) Ten years ago: Author Joseph Heller, whose darkly comic first novel "Catch-22" defined the paradox of the no-win dilemma and added a phrase to the American language, died ...
Washingtonian.com, October 13, 2009
...in bright colors how Iraq got so complicated and messed up. This could be a nonfiction version of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. No wonder Matt Damon is said to be negotiating for the movie rights. The main character isn’t Rumsfeld, Bush, or ...
Financial Post, September 26, 2009
...and ends with a short anecdote Kurt Vonnegut Jr. described in New Yorker magazine, about a chat with Catch-22 author Joseph Heller at a party thrown by a hedge-fund billionaire. Told the hedgie made more money in a day than his novel made ...
St. Petersburg Times, September 12, 2009
...I would say Skin Tight is favorite, Tourist Season is sentimental favorite. What author inspired you early on? Joseph Heller was the watershed. When I read Catch-22, that sealed it. Reach Piper Castillo at pcastillo@sptimes.com [Last ...
Deccan Chronicle, August 18, 2009
...since its 1978 publication. A recent edition features an introduction by John Updike, who ranks the book alongside Joseph Heller?s famed military satire, Catch-22. Over the years, it has served as a required guidebook for medical neophytes ...
Examiner.com, June 21, 2009
...for you while you're investing in one for Dad. 16. For the Dad who reveres classic humor: Catch-22 by Joseph Heller What can I possibly say about this book that hasn't been said a thousand times better by untold numbers of other writers? ...
Observer, June 13, 2009
...publisher and agent, with the strongest voice having the biggest say. My friend, American editor Robert Gottlieb, told Joseph Heller that 'Catch 18' would not do. (There was a rival novel on the market with 18 in the title). They had to ...
Guardian Unlimited, June 13, 2009
...publisher and agent, with the strongest voice having the biggest say. My friend, American editor Robert Gottlieb, told Joseph Heller that 'Catch 18' would not do. (There was a rival novel on the market with 18 in the title). They had to ...
America Magazine, June 13, 2009
...what if Salinger did write a sequel, and it?s?well, terrible? There are precedents for such a letdown. Joseph Heller published his debut novel Catch-22 in 1961 to mixed reviews (the New Yorker sniffed that it ?gives the impression of having ...
TH Online, May 3, 2009
...quizzed me on details of Bible history from the novel.' Following a phenomenon is publishing's toughest act. Joseph Heller took more than a decade to finish his first novel after 'Catch-22.' 'Forever Amber' novelist Kathleen Winsor wrote ...
North Jersey.com, April 26, 2009
...quizzed me on details of Bible history from the novel.' Following a phenomenon is publishing's toughest act. Joseph Heller took more than a decade to finish his first novel after 'Catch-22.' 'Forever Amber' novelist Kathleen Winsor wrote ...
Helium, April 22, 2009
...book better sums up the double-bind that is modern warfare - and much of modern life - than Joseph Heller's novel, Catch-22. We use the term 'catch-22' so casually now to refer to a double-bind, that many people likely think that's why ...
Canton Repository, April 21, 2009
...quizzed me on details of Bible history from the novel.? Following a phenomenon is publishing?s toughest act. Joseph Heller took more than a decade to finish his first novel after ?Catch-22.? ?Forever Amber? novelist Kathleen Winsor wrote ...
Examiner.com, March 20, 2009
...above the 'curiosity' level. 15 publishers (other than this dope) also rejected The Diary of Anne Frank. 5. Joseph Heller In an act of almost unparalled stupidity, one publisher wrote of Mr. Heller's Catch-22: I haven?t the foggiest idea ...
New York Observer, February 6, 2009
...two limbs and his neck. Hemingway, working as a volunteer ambulance driver, was wounded on the Italian front. Joseph Heller, 19, enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1942, flew 60 B-52 combat missions and wrote Catch-22. (Smart boys ...
Lower Hudson Online, January 25, 2009
...and writers, from Cheever to William Styron. It was a finalist for a National Book Award, along with Joseph Heller's 'Catch-22,' losing to Walker Percy's 'The Moviegoer.' But it didn't sell well and slipped out of print, until a Yates' ...
The Australian, January 16, 2009
...National Book Awards says it all: Revolutionary Road, Walker Percy's The Moviegoer (that year's winner), and Joseph Heller's Catch-22. In later years, when interviewers would ask Heller why he hadn't written anything as great as Catch-22, he ...
TheaterMania, December 18, 2008
...and greed to the feudal military dictatorship of 12th century Japan. Aquila Theatre Company presents its adaptation of Joseph Heller's novel, Catch-22 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, November 14-December 20; Martha Clarke's dance drama Garden ...
Joseph Heller's Books
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Closing TimeA darkly comic and ambitious sequel to the American classic Catch-22. In Closing Time, Joseph Heller returns to the characters of Catch-22, now...Read More
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No Laughing MatterAn inspiring, hilarious memoir of a calamitous illness and the rocky road to recuperation from Catch-22 author, Joseph Heller.Read More -
Catch As Catch CanA collection of short stories and other miscellaneous writings by Joseph Heller, one of America's most influential and idiosyncratic writers.Read More
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Portrait of an Artist, As an Old ManImagine that the novelist -- his name here is Eugene Pota -- realizes that the days are dwindling and he needs to come up with one more novel. But...Read More
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Picture ThisPicture this: Rembrandt is creating his famous painting of Aristotle contemplating the bust of Homer. As soon as he paints an ear on Aristotle,...Read More
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Something HappenedBob Slocum was living the American dream. He had a beautiful wife, three lovely children, a nice house...and all the mistresses he desired. He had it...Read More
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Good as GoldBruce Gold, a middle-aged, Jewish professor of English literature, finds himself on the brink of a golden career in politics -- and not a moment too...Read More
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