Novel
Catch-22
Joseph Heller · 1961
Synopsis
Pianosa, an island in the Mediterranean, in 1944. Captain Yossarian, an American bombardier, watches Colonel Cathcart raise the number of missions required every time the men get close to it. He asks to be declared insane so that he can stop flying. The doctor, Doc Daneeka, explains the rule to him: anyone who asks to be excused proves by doing so that he is aware of the danger, and therefore that he is not insane, and therefore that he must fly. Around him, Milo Minderbinder, a lieutenant in charge of the mess, builds a commercial empire that trades with everyone, the enemy included, and the men die one by one.
Context
Its author took eight years to write it, in the evenings, while working in advertising. The title carried the number 18 until 1961, a few months before publication: it was changed because a novel by Leon Uris, Mila 18, had just been announced. The book sold modestly in the United States, without entering the bestseller list, and was first a success in England, before being adopted by the protest movement of the sixties, which made of it a book about Vietnam although it was about the previous war.
Who it is for
A long novel, with a fragmented chronology and many characters. The circular construction is bewildering at first and is understood in retrospect. Translated by Brice Matthieussent.
Prizes and reception
More than ten million copies sold, and its title has become a common expression in English.
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