''Catch-22'' is a
satirical war novel
A war novel or military fiction is a novel about war. It is a novel in which the primary action takes place on a battlefield, or in a civilian setting (or home front), where the characters are preoccupied with the preparations for, suffering the ...
by American author
Joseph Heller
Joseph Heller (May 1, 1923 – December 12, 1999) was an American author of novels, short stories, plays, and screenplays. His best-known work is the 1961 novel ''Catch-22'', a satire on war and bureaucracy, whose title has become a synonym for ...
. He began writing it in 1953; the novel was first published in 1961. Often cited as one of the most significant novels of the twentieth century,
it uses a distinctive non-chronological
third-person omniscient narration, describing events from the points of view of different characters. The separate storylines are out of sequence so the timeline develops along with the plot.
The novel is set during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, from 1942 to 1944. It mainly follows the life of
antihero
An antihero (sometimes spelled as anti-hero) or antiheroine is a main character in a story who may lack conventional heroic qualities and attributes, such as idealism, courage, and morality. Although antiheroes may sometimes perform actions ...
Captain John Yossarian
:''Also covered in this article are the characters Snowden and Yossarian's tentmates.''
Capt. John Yossarian is a fictional character, the protagonist of Joseph Heller's satirical 1961 novel ''Catch-22'' and its 1994 sequel '' Closing Time''. ...
, a
U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bombardier. Most of the events in the book occur while the fictional 256th US Army Air Squadron is based on the island of
Pianosa
Pianosa () is an island in the Tuscan Archipelago in the Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy. It is about in area, with a coastal perimeter of .
Geography
In Roman times the island was named ''Planasia'' (plain) because of its flatness – its highest poin ...
, in the
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...
west of Italy, although it also covers episodes from basic training at
Lowry Field
Lowry Air Force Base (Lowry Field in 1938–1948) is a former United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) training base during World War II and a United States Air Force (USAF) training base during the Cold War, serving as the initial 1955–1958 si ...
in Colorado and Air Corps training at
Santa Ana Army Air Base
Santa Ana Army Air Base (SAAAB) was a World War II-era air base located near Santa Ana, California. The air base was decommissioned in 1946, and part of the land was annexed by Costa Mesa in 1953. The air base was used for basic training, alth ...
in California. The novel examines the
absurdity of war and military life through the experiences of Yossarian and his cohorts, who attempt to maintain their sanity while fulfilling their service requirements so that they may return home.
The book was made into a
film adaptation in 1970, directed by
Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols (born Michael Igor Peschkowsky; November 6, 1931 – November 19, 2014) was an American film and theater director, producer, actor, and comedian. He was noted for his ability to work across a range of genres and for his aptitude fo ...
. In 1994, Heller published a sequel to the 1961 novel entitled ''
Closing Time''.
Synopsis
The development of the novel can be split into segments. The first (chapters 1–11) broadly follows the story fragmented between characters, but in a single chronological time in 1944. The second (chapters 12–20) flashes back to focus primarily on the "Great Big Siege of
Bologna
Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...
" before once again jumping to the chronological present of 1944 in the third part (chapter 21–25). The fourth (chapters 26–28) flashes back to the origins and growth of
Milo's syndicate, with the fifth part (chapter 28–32) returning again to the narrative present and maintaining the tone of the previous four. The sixth and final part (chapter 32 and on) remains in the story's present, but takes a much darker turn and spends the remaining chapters focusing on the serious and brutal nature of war and life in general.
[Clinton S. Burhans, Jr. "Spindrift and the Sea: Structural Patterns and Unifying Elements in Catch 22". ''Twentieth Century Literature'', Vol. 19, No. 4, pp. 239–250, 1973]
JSTOR online access
/ref>
Previously the reader had been cushioned from experiencing the full horror of events, but in the final section, the events are laid bare. The horror begins with the attack on the undefended Italian mountain village, with the following chapters involving despair (Doc Daneeka
:''Also covered in this article are the minor characters Gus & Wes, Dr Stubbs and Mrs Daneeka.''
Doc Daneeka is a fictional character in the 1961 novel ''Catch-22'' by Joseph Heller.
Doc Daneeka is the squadron physician and a friend of the no ...
and the chaplain), disappearance in combat ( Orr and Clevinger), disappearance caused by the army (Dunbar) or death of most of Yossarian
:''Also covered in this article are the characters Snowden and Yossarian's tentmates.''
Capt. John Yossarian is a fictional character, the protagonist of Joseph Heller's satirical 1961 novel ''Catch-22'' and its 1994 sequel '' Closing Time''. ...
's friends (Nately
Edward J. Nately III is a fictional character in Joseph Heller's satirical 1961 novel ''Catch-22''.
Background information
Nately starts off the book as a 19-year-old Lieutenant, who will be "twenty next January" and who came from a very rich and ...
, McWatt, Kid Sampson, Dobbs, Chief White Halfoat and Hungry Joe), culminating in the horrors of Chapter 39, in particular the rape and murder of the innocent young woman Michaela.[ In Chapter 41 the full details of the death of Snowden are finally revealed.
Nevertheless, the novel ends on an upbeat note with Yossarian learning of Orr's miraculous escape to Sweden and Yossarian's pledge to follow him there.
]
Style
Many events in the book are repeatedly described from differing points of view, so the reader learns more about each event from each iteration, with the new information often completing a joke, the setup of which was told several chapters previously. The narrative's events are out of sequence, but events are referred to as if the reader is already familiar with them so that the reader must ultimately piece together a timeline of events. Specific words, phrases, and questions are also repeated frequently, generally to comic effect.
Much of Heller's prose in ''Catch-22'' is circular and repetitive, exemplifying in its form the structure of a Catch-22
''Catch-22'' is a satirical war novel by American author Joseph Heller. He began writing it in 1953; the novel was first published in 1961. Often cited as one of the most significant novels of the twentieth century, it uses a distinctive non-ch ...
. Circular reasoning is widely used by some characters to justify their actions and opinions. Heller revels in paradox
A paradox is a logically self-contradictory statement or a statement that runs contrary to one's expectation. It is a statement that, despite apparently valid reasoning from true premises, leads to a seemingly self-contradictory or a logically u ...
. For example: " The Texan turned out to be good-natured, generous and likable. In three days no one could stand him"; and "The case against Clevinger was open and shut. The only thing missing was something to charge him with." This atmosphere of apparently logical irrationality pervades the book. This style is also recognizable regarding how exactly Clevinger's trial would be executed by Lieutenant Scheisskopf: "As a member of the Action Board, Lieutenant Scheisskopf was one of the judges who would weigh the merits of the case against Clevenger as presented by the prosecutor. Lieutenant Scheisskopf was also the prosecutor. Clevinger had an officer defending him. The officer defending him was Lieutenant Scheisskopf."
While a few characters are most prominent, especially Yossarian and the Chaplain, the majority of named characters are described in detail with fleshed out or multidimensional personas to the extent that there are few if any "minor characters". There are no traditional heroes in the novel, reflecting the underlying commentary that war has no heroes, only victims.
Although its nonchronological structure may at first seem random, ''Catch-22'' is highly structured. It is founded on a structure of free association; ideas run into one another through seemingly random connections. For example, Chapter 1, titled "The Texan", ends with "everybody but the CID man, who had caught a cold from the fighter captain and come down with pneumonia." Chapter 2, titled "Clevinger", begins with "In a way, the CID man was pretty lucky because outside the hospital the war was still going on." The CID man connects the two chapters like a free association bridge and eventually Chapter 2 flows from the CID man to Clevinger through more free association links.
Themes
Paradox
Yossarian
:''Also covered in this article are the characters Snowden and Yossarian's tentmates.''
Capt. John Yossarian is a fictional character, the protagonist of Joseph Heller's satirical 1961 novel ''Catch-22'' and its 1994 sequel '' Closing Time''. ...
comes to fear his commanding officers more than he fears the Germans attempting to shoot him down and he feels that "they" are "out to get him". The reason Yossarian fears his commanders more than the enemy is that as he flies more missions, Colonel Cathcart
Colonel Cathcart is a character in Joseph Heller's novel ''Catch-22'' (1961) and the novel's de facto main antagonist.
A full colonel, he is a group commander at a U.S. Army Air Forces base in Pianosa and is obsessed with becoming a general. As ...
increases the number of required combat missions before a soldier may return home; he reaches the magic number only to have it retroactively raised. He comes to despair of ever getting home and is greatly relieved when he is sent to the hospital for a condition that is almost jaundice. In Yossarian's words:
Tragedy and farce
Much of the farce in the novel is fueled by intentional and unintentional miscommunication, occasionally leading to tragic consequences. For example, Cathcart's desire to become a general is thwarted by ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen sabotaging his correspondence. Major Major's and Yossarian's mis-censoring of correspondence is blamed on the Chaplain, who is threatened with imprisonment as a result.
Theodicy
Yossarian questions the idea that God is all-powerful, all-good, and all knowing. The narrator seems to believe that God, if not evil, is incompetent. In chapter 18, Yossarian states that he "believes in the God he doesn't believe in", this version of God having created Hitler, the war, and all the failures of human life and society, as exemplified in the following passage:"And don't tell me God works in mysterious ways
"God Moves in a Mysterious Way" is a Christian hymn, written in 1773 by William Cowper from England. It was written by Cowper in 1773 as a poem entitled "Light Shining out of Darkness".
The poem was the last hymn text that Cowper wrote. It was w ...
", Yossarian continued, hurtling over her objections. "There's nothing so mysterious about it. He's not working at all. He's playing or else He's forgotten all about us. That's the kind of God you people talk about—a country bumpkin, a clumsy, bungling, brainless, conceited, uncouth hayseed. Good God, how much reverence can you have for a Supreme Being who finds it necessary to include such phenomena as phlegm and tooth decay in His divine system of creation? What in the world was running through that warped, evil, scatological mind of His when He robbed old people of the power to control their bowel movements? Why in the world did he ever create pain? … Oh, He was really being charitable to us when He gave us pain! o warn us of dangerWhy couldn't He have used a doorbell instead to notify us, or one of His celestial choirs? Or a system of blue-and-red neon tubes right in the middle of each person's forehead. Any jukebox manufacturer worth his salt could have done that. Why couldn't He? … What a colossal, immortal blunderer! When you consider the opportunity and power He had to really do a job, and then look at the stupid, ugly little mess He made of it instead, His sheer incompetence is almost staggering. …"
Later Heller writes of Yossarian wandering through a war-torn Italian city (Chapter 39): "Yossarian quickened his pace to get away, almost ran. The night was filled with horrors, and he thought he knew how Christ must have felt as he walked through the world, like a psychiatrist through a ward full of nuts, like a victim through a prison full of thieves. What a welcome sight a leper must have been. At the next corner a man was beating a small boy brutally in the midst of an immobile crowd of adult spectators who made no effort to intervene ..."
Anti-capitalism
While the military's enemies are Germans, none appear in the story as enemy combatants. This ironic situation is epitomized in the single appearance of German personnel in the novel, who act as pilots employed by the squadron's mess officer, Milo Minderbinder
First Lieutenant Milo Minderbinder is a fictional character in Joseph Heller's 1961 novel, ''Catch-22''. As the mess officer of Yossarian's squadron, Minderbinder is an entrepreneur during World War II, "perhaps the best known of all fictional bus ...
, to bomb the American encampment on Pianosa. This predicament indicates a tension between traditional motives for violence and the modern economic machine, which seems to generate violence simply as another means to profit, quite independent of geographical or ideological constraints which creates a military–industrial complex
The expression military–industrial complex (MIC) describes the relationship between a country's military and the defense industry that supplies it, seen together as a vested interest which influences public policy. A driving factor behind the r ...
. Heller emphasizes the danger of profit-seeking by portraying Milo without "evil intent". Milo's actions are portrayed as the result of greed, not malice.
Characters
The novel has over 50 named characters, many of which have titular chapters dedicated to expanding on their personalities or motivations.
Influences
Heller wanted to be a writer from an early age. His experiences as a bombardier during World War II inspired ''Catch-22''; Heller later said that he "never had a bad officer". In a 1977 essay on ''Catch-22'', Heller stated that the "antiwar and antigovernment feelings in the book" were a product of the Korean War and the 1950s rather than World War II itself. Heller's criticisms are not intended for World War II but for the Cold War and McCarthyism.
The influence of the 1950s on ''Catch-22'' is evident through Heller's extensive use of anachronism. Though the novel is ostensibly set in World War II, Heller intentionally included anachronisms like loyalty oaths and computers ( IBM machines) to situate the novel in the context of the 1950s. Many of the characters are based on or connected to individuals from the 1950s:
* Milo Minderbinder's maxim "What's good for M&M Enterprises is good for the country" alludes to the former president of General Motors Charles Erwin Wilson
Charles Erwin Wilson (July 18, 1890 – September 26, 1961) was an American engineer and businessman who served as United States Secretary of Defense from 1953 to 1957 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Known as "Engine Charlie", he was pre ...
's statement before the Senate: "What's good for General Motors is good for the country."
* The question of "Who promoted Major Major?" alludes to Joseph McCarthy's questioning of the promotion of Major Peress, an army dentist who refused to sign loyalty oaths.
Czech writer Arnošt Lustig
Arnošt Lustig (; 21 December 1926 – 26 February 2011) was a renowned Czech Jewish author of novels, short stories, plays, and screenplays whose works have often involved the Holocaust.
Life and work
Lustig was born in Prague. As a Jewish boy ...
recounts in his book ''3x18'' that Joseph Heller told him that he would never have written ''Catch-22'' had he not first read ''The Good Soldier Švejk
''The Good Soldier Švejk'' () is an unfinished satirical dark comedy novel by Czech writer Jaroslav Hašek, published in 1921–1923, about a good-humored, simple-minded, middle-aged man who pretends to be enthusiastic to serve Austria-Hungar ...
'' by Jaroslav Hašek
Jaroslav Hašek (; 1883–1923) was a Czech writer, humorist, satirist, journalist, bohemian and anarchist. He is best known for his novel '' The Fate of the Good Soldier Švejk during the World War'', an unfinished collection of farcical inc ...
.
In 1998, some critics raised the possibility that Heller's book had questionable similarities to Louis Falstein's 1950 novel, '' Face of a Hero''. Falstein never raised the issue between ''Catch-22'' publication and his death in 1995 and Heller claimed never to have been aware of the obscure novel. Heller said that the novel had been influenced by Céline
Céline, sometimes spelled Celine, is a French female first name of Latin origin, coming from ''Caelīna'', the feminine form of the Roman cognomen ''Caelīnus'', meaning "heavenly". , Waugh and Nabokov
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bo ...
. Many of the similarities have been stated to be attributable to the authors' experiences, both having served as U.S. Army Air Forces aircrew in Italy in World War II. However, their themes and styles are different.
Concept
A "Catch-22
''Catch-22'' is a satirical war novel by American author Joseph Heller. He began writing it in 1953; the novel was first published in 1961. Often cited as one of the most significant novels of the twentieth century, it uses a distinctive non-ch ...
" is "a problem for which the only solution is denied by a circumstance inherent in the problem or by a rule." For example, losing something is typically a conventional problem; to solve it, one looks for the lost item until one finds it. But if the thing lost is one's glasses, one cannot see to look for them – a Catch-22. The term "Catch-22" is also used more broadly to mean a tricky problem or a no-win or absurd situation.
In the book, Catch-22 is a military rule typifying bureaucratic
The term bureaucracy () refers to a body of non-elected governing officials as well as to an administrative policy-making group. Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments staffed with non-elected offi ...
operation and reasoning. The rule is not stated in a precise form, but the principal example in the book fits the definition above: If one is crazy, one does not have to fly missions; and one must be crazy to fly. But one has to apply to be excused, and applying demonstrates that one is not crazy. As a result, one must continue flying, either not applying to be excused, or applying and being refused. The narrator explains:
There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he were sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to, but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle. (p. 56, ch. 5)
Other forms of Catch-22 are invoked throughout the novel to justify various bureaucratic actions. At one point, victims of harassment by military police quote the MPs' explanation of one of Catch-22's provisions: "Catch-22 states that agents enforcing Catch-22 need not prove that Catch-22 actually contains whatever provision the accused violator is accused of violating." Another character explains: "Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can't stop them from doing."
Yossarian comes to realize that Catch-22 does not actually exist, but because the powers that be claim it does, and the world believes it does, it nevertheless has potent effects. Indeed, because it does not exist, there is no way it can be repealed, undone, overthrown, or denounced. The combination of force with specious and spurious legalistic justification is one of the book's primary motifs.
The motif of bureaucratic absurdity is further explored in 1994's ''Closing Time'', Heller's sequel to ''Catch-22''. This darker, slower-paced, apocalyptic novel explores the pre- and post-war lives of some of the major characters in ''Catch-22'', with particular emphasis on the relationship between Yossarian and tail gunner Sammy Singer.
Literary allusions
''Catch-22'' contains allusions to many works of literature. Howard Jacobson
Howard Eric Jacobson (born 25 August 1942) is a British novelist and journalist. He is known for writing comic novels that often revolve around the dilemmas of British Jewish characters.Ragi, K. R., "Howard Jacobson's ''The Finkler Question'' as ...
, in his 2004 introduction to the Vintage Classics publication, wrote that the novel was "positioned teasingly ... between literature and literature's opposites – between Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
and Rabelais and Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...
and Dostoevsky and Gogol
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, translit=Mykola Vasyliovych Hohol; (russian: Яновский; uk, Яновський, translit=Yanovskyi) ( – ) was a Russian novelist, ...
and Céline
Céline, sometimes spelled Celine, is a French female first name of Latin origin, coming from ''Caelīna'', the feminine form of the Roman cognomen ''Caelīnus'', meaning "heavenly". and the Absurdists and of course Kafka
Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typi ...
on the one hand, and on the other vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
and slapstick and Bilko and Abbott and Costello and Tom and Jerry
''Tom and Jerry'' is an American Animated cartoon, animated media franchise and series of comedy short films created in 1940 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Best known for its 161 theatrical short films by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the series c ...
and the Goons (if Heller had ever heard of the Goons)."
One critic argues that it is Kafka's influence that can be seen most strongly in the novel: "Like Kafka's heroes, Yossarian is riddled with anxiety and caught in an inexorable nightmare – in his case created by Colonel Cathcart and the inevitability of his raising the number of missions he has to fly."
Historical context
The idea for ''Catch-22'' was based on Joseph Heller's personal experience in World War II. The feelings that Yossarian and the other bomber crew felt were taken directly from problems he suffered while on duty. Heller flew 60 bombing missions from May to October in 1944. Heller was able to make it out of the war, but it took until 1953 before he could start writing about it. For this reason, the book contains references to post World War II phenomena like IBM computers and loyalty oath
A loyalty oath is a pledge of allegiance to an organization, institution, or state of which an individual is a member. In the United States, such an oath has often indicated that the affiant has not been a member of a particular organization or ...
s. The war experience turned Heller into a "tortured, funny, deeply peculiar human being".
After publication in 1961, ''Catch-22'' became very popular among teenagers at the time. ''Catch-22'' seemed to embody the feelings that young people had toward the Vietnam War. A common joke was that every student who went off to college at the time took along a copy of ''Catch-22''. The popularity of the book created a cult following, which led to more than eight million copies being sold in the United States. On October 26, 1986, professor and author John W. Aldridge wrote a piece in ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' celebrating the 25th anniversary of the publishing of ''Catch-22''. He commented that Heller's book presaged the chaos in the world that was to come:
The comic fable that ends in horror has become more and more clearly a reflection of the altogether uncomic and horrifying realities of the world in which we live and hope to survive.
Although ''Catch-22'' is considered by many to be an anti-war novel, Heller stated in a talk he gave at the New York Public Library on August 31, 1998, that he and the other men he knew in World War II considered the war to be "noble" and "nobody really objected to fighting it". The anti-war reputation of the novel was fueled instead by the pacifist, anti-war ethos among young Americans surrounding the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
.
Title
The title refers to a fictional bureaucratic stipulation that embodies illogical and immoral reasoning. The opening chapter of the novel was first published, in 1955, by ''New World Writing
''New World Writing'' was a paperback magazine, a literary anthology series published by New American Library's Mentor imprint from 1951 until 1960, then J. B. Lippincott & Co.'s Keystone from volume/issue 16 (1960) to the last volume, 22, in 19 ...
'' as ''Catch-18'', but Heller's agent, Candida Donadio, asked him to change the title, to avert its confusion with Leon Uris
Leon Marcus Uris (August 3, 1924 – June 21, 2003) was an American author of historical fiction who wrote many bestselling books including ''Exodus'' (published in 1958) and ''Trinity'' (published in 1976).
Life and career
Uris was born in Bal ...
's recently published '' Mila 18''. The implications in Judaism of the number 18 — which refers to '' chai'', meaning "alive", in Gematria
Gematria (; he, גמטריא or gimatria , plural or , ''gimatriot'') is the practice of assigning a numerical value to a name, word or phrase according to an alphanumerical cipher. A single word can yield several values depending on the cipher ...
— were relevant to Heller's somewhat greater emphasis on Jewish themes in early drafts of his novel.[N James. "The Early Composition History of Catch-22". In ''Biographies of Books: The Compositional Histories of Notable American Writings'', J Barbour, T Quirk (edi.) pp. 262–290. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1996.]
Parallels among a number of character exchanges in the novel suggested the doubled-one title of ''Catch-11'', but the 1960 release of ''Ocean's Eleven
''Ocean's Eleven'' is a 2001 American heist comedy film directed by Steven Soderbergh from a screenplay by Ted Griffin. The first installment in the ''Ocean's'' film trilogy, it is a remake of the 1960 Rat Pack film of the same name. The ...
'' eliminated that. ''Catch-17'' was rejected so as not to be confused with the World War II film ''Stalag 17
''Stalag 17'' is a 1953 American war film which tells the story of a group of American airmen confined with 40,000 prisoners in a World War II German prisoner of war camp "somewhere on the Danube". Their compound holds 630 Sergeants representi ...
'', as was ''Catch-14'', apparently because the publisher did not believe that 14 was a "funny number". Eventually, the title came to be ''Catch-22'', which, like 11, has a duplicated digit, with the 2 also referring to a number of ''déjà vu
''Déjà vu'' ( , ; "already seen") is a French loanword for the phenomenon of feeling as though one has lived through the present situation before.Schnider, Armin. (2008). ''The Confabulating Mind: How the Brain Creates Reality''. Oxford Univers ...
''-like events common in the novel.
Publication and movie rights
''Catch-22'' was sold to Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest pu ...
, where it had been championed by editor Robert Gottlieb
Robert Adams Gottlieb (born April 29, 1931) is an American writer and editor. He has been editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster, Alfred A. Knopf, and ''The New Yorker''.
Early life and education
Robert Gottlieb was born to a Jewish family in New Y ...
, who, along with Nina Bourne Nina Bourne (1916–2010) was a publishing executive for more than 70 years for both Simon & Schuster and Alfred A. Knopf. She was known for her marketing and advertising campaigns for many books including ''Catch-22'' and the '' Eloise'' series of ...
, would edit and oversee the marketing of the book. Gottlieb was a strong advocate for the book along with Peter Schwed Peter Schwed (1911–2003) was an American editor and the editorial chairman and a trade book publisher for Simon & Schuster. Among the authors he edited were P.G. Wodehouse, Irving Wallace, Harold Robbins, David McCullough and Cornelius Ryan. S ...
and Justin Kaplan
Justin Daniel Kaplan (September 5, 1925 in Manhattan, New York City – March 2, 2014 in Cambridge, Massachusetts) was an American writer and editor. The general editor of ''Bartlett's Familiar Quotations'' (16th and 17th eds.), he was best kn ...
. Henry Simon, a vice president at Simon & Schuster, found it repetitive and offensive. The editorial board decided to contract the book when Heller agreed to revisions; he signed for .
Officially published on October 10, 1961, the hardcover sold for $5.95. The book was not a best-seller in hardcover in the United States. Though twelve thousand copies were sold by Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden ...
, it never entered ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list. It received good notices and was nominated for the National Book Award
The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors.
The Nat ...
in March 1962, though Walker Percy
Walker Percy, OSB (May 28, 1916 – May 10, 1990) was an American writer whose interests included philosophy and semiotics. Percy is noted for his philosophical novels set in and around New Orleans; his first, '' The Moviegoer'', won the Nat ...
's ''The Moviegoer
''The Moviegoer'' is the debut novel by Walker Percy, first published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf in 1961. It won the U.S. National Book Award.
Upon publication in Great Britain, the book became the No. 1 best-seller. Don Fine of Dell Paperbacks bought the paperback reprint rights to ''Catch-22'' for $32,000. Between the paperback's release in September 1962 and April 1963, it sold 1.1 million copies.
In August 1962, Donadio brokered the sale of movie rights to Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...
for $100,000 plus $25,000 to write a treatment or a first draft of a screenplay.
Reception
The initial reviews of the book ranged from very positive to very negative. There were positive reviews from ''The Nation
''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...
'' ("the best novel to come out in years"), the '' New York Herald Tribune'' ("A wild, moving, shocking, hilarious, raging, exhilarating, giant roller-coaster of a book") and ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' ("A dazzling performance that will outrage nearly as many readers as it delights"). On the other hand, ''The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' ("doesn't even seem to be written; instead, it gives the impression of having been shouted onto paper", "what remains is a debris of sour jokes") and a second review from the ''New York Times'' ("repetitive and monotonous. Or one can say that it is too short because none of its many interesting characters and actions is given enough play to become a controlling interest") disliked it. One commentator of ''Catch-22'' recognized that "many early audiences liked the book for just the same reasons that caused others to hate it". The book had a cult following though, especially among teenagers and college students. Heller remarks that in 1962, after appearing on the ''Today'' show he went out drinking with the host at the time, John Chancellor
John William Chancellor (July 14, 1927 – July 12, 1996) was an American journalist who spent most of his career with NBC News. He is considered a pioneer in TV news. He served as anchor of the ''NBC Nightly News'' from 1970 to 1982 and continu ...
, who handed him stickers that Chancellor had got privately printed reading "YOSSARIAN LIVES". Heller also said that Chancellor had been secretly putting them on the walls of the corridors and executive bathrooms in the NBC building.
Although the novel won no awards upon release, it has remained in print and is seen as one of the most significant American novels of the 20th century. Scholar and fellow World War II veteran Hugh Nibley
Hugh Winder Nibley (March 27, 1910 – February 24, 2005) was an American scholar and an apologist of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) who was a professor at Brigham Young University (BYU) for nearly 50 years. He was a ...
said it was the most accurate book he ever read about the military. ten million copies have been sold.
Although he continued writing, including a sequel novel '' Closing Time'', Heller's later works were inevitably overshadowed by the success of ''Catch-22''. When asked by critics why he had never managed to write another novel as good as his first, Heller would retort with a smile, "Who has?"
Challenges
''Catch-22'' has landed on the list of the American Library Association
The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members ...
's banned and challenged classics.
In 1972, the school board in Strongsville
Strongsville is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States, and a suburb of Cleveland. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 44,750. The city's nickname 'Crossroads of the Nation,' originated from the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O ...
, Ohio removed ''Catch-22'', as well as two books by Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American writer known for his satirical and darkly humorous novels. In a career spanning over 50 years, he published fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and ...
, from school libraries and the curriculum. Five families sued the school board. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals
The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (in case citations, 6th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:
* Eastern District of Kentucky
* Western District of K ...
rejected the claim, stating that school boards had the right to control the curriculum. The decision was overturned on appeal in 1976. The court wrote, "A library is a storehouse of knowledge. Here we are concerned with the right of students to receive information which they and their teachers desire them to have." In 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court employed a similar rationale in its decision in ''Island Trees School District v. Pico
''Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26 v. Pico'', 457 U.S. 853 (1982), was a case in which the United States Supreme Court split on the First Amendment issue of local school boards removing library books from junior ...
'' on the removal of library books.
Because the book refers to women as "whores", it was challenged at the Dallas, Texas, Independent School District (1974) and Snoqualmie, Washington (1979).
Rankings
* The Modern Library ranked ''Catch-22'' as the 7th (by review panel) and 12th (by public) greatest English-language novel of the 20th century.
* The Radcliffe Publishing Course rank ''Catch-22'' as number 15 of the 20th century's top 100 novels.
* ''The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...
'' listed ''Catch-22'' as one of the 100 greatest novels of all time.
* ''Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'' puts ''Catch-22'' in the top 100 English-language modern novels (1923 onwards, unranked).
* The Big Read
The Big Read was a survey on books carried out by the BBC in the United Kingdom in 2003, where over three-quarters of a million votes were received from the British public to find the nation's best-loved novel of all time. The year-long survey w ...
by the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
ranked ''Catch-22'' as number 11 on a web poll of the UK's best-loved book.
Adaptations
* ''Catch-22'' was adapted into a feature film of the same name in 1970, directed by Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols (born Michael Igor Peschkowsky; November 6, 1931 – November 19, 2014) was an American film and theater director, producer, actor, and comedian. He was noted for his ability to work across a range of genres and for his aptitude fo ...
. Alan Arkin
Alan Wolf Arkin (born March 26, 1934) is an American actor, director and screenwriter known for his performances on stage and screen. Throughout his career spanning over six decades, he has received various accolades, including an Academy Award ...
portrayed Capt. Yossarian
:''Also covered in this article are the characters Snowden and Yossarian's tentmates.''
Capt. John Yossarian is a fictional character, the protagonist of Joseph Heller's satirical 1961 novel ''Catch-22'' and its 1994 sequel '' Closing Time''. ...
, with an ensemble cast including Art Garfunkel
Arthur Ira Garfunkel (born November 5, 1941) is an American singer, poet, and actor. He is best known for his partnership with Paul Simon in the folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel.
Highlights of Garfunkel's solo music career include one top-10 h ...
as Nately, Jon Voight
Jonathan Vincent Voight (; born December 29, 1938) is an American actor. He came to prominence in the late 1960s with his Academy Award–nominated performance as Joe Buck, a would-be gigolo, in ''Midnight Cowboy'' (1969). During the 1970s, h ...
as Milo Minderbinder
First Lieutenant Milo Minderbinder is a fictional character in Joseph Heller's 1961 novel, ''Catch-22''. As the mess officer of Yossarian's squadron, Minderbinder is an entrepreneur during World War II, "perhaps the best known of all fictional bus ...
, Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
as General Dreedle, and Martin Balsam
Martin Henry Balsam (November 4, 1919 – February 13, 1996) was an American actor. He had a prolific career in character roles in film, in theatre, and on television. An early member of the Actors Studio, he began his career on the New Yo ...
as Colonel Cathcart
Colonel Cathcart is a character in Joseph Heller's novel ''Catch-22'' (1961) and the novel's de facto main antagonist.
A full colonel, he is a group commander at a U.S. Army Air Forces base in Pianosa and is obsessed with becoming a general. As ...
, amongst many others.
* A pilot
An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...
for a comedy series based upon ''Catch-22'' was made and televised in 1973, with Richard Dreyfuss in the starring role of Yossarian.
* ''Catch-22'' play: Aquila Theatre
The Aquila Theatre was founded in London in 1991 by Peter Meineck and has been based in New York City since 1999. Aquila's mission is to bring the greatest theatrical works to the greatest number and presents a regular season of plays in New York ...
produced a stage adaptation of ''Catch-22'', based on Heller's 1971 stage adaption. It was directed by Peter Meineck Peter Meineck (born 1967) is Professor of Classics in the Modern World at New York University. He is also the founder and humanities program director of Aquila Theatre and has held appointments at Princeton University and University of South Carol ...
. This production toured the US in 2007/8 with a Bexhill on Sea production in the fall of 2008.
* A six-episode miniseries produced by, and co-starring, George Clooney was picked up by Hulu for a straight-to-series order. It streamed on May 17, 2019. It was also broadcast by Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
. Kyle Chandler
Kyle Martin Chandler (born September 17, 1965) is an American actor. Making his screen acting debut in a 1988 television film, '' Quiet Victory: The Charlie Wedemeyer Story'', Chandler's first regular television role was in the ABC drama '' Ho ...
portrays Colonel Cathcart and Christopher Abbott portrays Yossarian.
Selected releases
This list covers the first and most recent printed publications by the original publisher Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest pu ...
as well as all other formats. Other print publishers include Dell, Corgi, Vintage
Vintage, in winemaking, is the process of picking grapes and creating the finished product—wine (see Harvest (wine)). A vintage wine is one made from grapes that were all, or primarily, grown and harvested in a single specified year. In certa ...
, Knopf
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...
, Black Swan, Grasset & Fasquelle, and Wahlström & Widstrand.
The original manuscript is held by Brandeis University
, mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts"
, established =
, type = Private research university
, accreditation = NECHE
, president = Ronald D. Liebowitz
, ...
.Heller archive
, Brandeis University.
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See also
* Antinomy
* Morton's fork
References
External links
Librarything.com with many photos of other ''Catch-22'' covers
Photos of the first edition of ''Catch-22''
''Catch-22'' study guide
nbsp;– analysis, themes, quotes, and teaching guide
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20141212095416/http://www.afhra.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-080424-048.pdf History of combat crew rotation - World War II and Korean War
Historical Sources for the Events in Joseph Heller's Novel, Catch-22 By Daniel Setzer
{{Authority control
Fiction set in 1943
1961 American novels
American comedy novels
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American philosophical novels
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Anti-war novels
Aviation novels
Black comedy books
Fiction about the United States Army
Books with cover art by Paul Bacon
Censored books
Military humor
Novels by Joseph Heller
Postmodern novels
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Simon & Schuster books
Fiction about suicide
Novels set during World War II
Books about Assyrian people
Bureaucracy in fiction
1961 debut novels
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