Catch-22
As recommended on BBC2’s Between the Covers
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4.3 • 107 Ratings
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
Discover Joseph Heller's hilarious and tragic satire on military madness, and the tale of one man's efforts to survive it.
It's the closing months of World War II and Yossarian has never been closer to death. Stationed in an American bomber squadron off the coast of Italy, each flight mission introduces him to thousands of people determined to kill him.
But the enemy above is not Yossarian's problem - it is his own army intent on keeping him airborne, and the maddening 'Catch-22' that allows for no possibility of escape.
'The greatest satirical work in the English language' Observer
'The most devastating satire ever written about the lunacy of war and military bureaucracy' Antony Beevor
INTRODUCED BY HOWARD JACOBSON
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Catch-22 remains an unsettling read, at once a darkly hilarious survey of the absurdities of military life and a deadly serious meditation on the horrors of war. Inspired by Joseph Heller’s own experience as a World War II fighter pilot, the 1961 novel depicts an Air Force squadron where increasingly unhinged enlisted men and inept officers are each other’s worst enemies. Heller swerves between puckish satire, brutal drama, and a genuinely terrifying climax, introducing us to one-of-a-kind characters like Captain Yossarian, who consistently fails in his efforts to be ruled insane, and Milo Minderbinder, a ruthless war profiteer. This could be the 20th century’s most powerful—and funny—anti-war novel.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
It would be difficult to imagine richer material for an audiobook reader, comedically speaking, than Joseph Heller's classic novel of wartime madness. Sanders is the lucky actor chosen to read Heller's masterpiece, and he does well by it, proceeding gamely through the novel's staggering array of comic set pieces and deliriously woozy dialogue. Heller's humor is straight-faced, requiring little more than a steady, sure voice, and Sanders offers just that. Line by line, joke by joke, Sanders reels through the marvelous phantasmagoria of Heller's World War II, tongue planted firmly in cheek. Caedmon's impressive package includes a 1970s-era recording of Heller reading selections from his book. Heller is a delightful contrast to Sanders, his slight lisp accentuating a marvelous Brooklyn accent. Heller reads as if with cigar perched on his lip and turns his novel into an extended borscht belt comic's riff.
Customer Reviews
Catch 22
This is my favourite book of all time, second only to my own book, but nevertheless it is better, even though I would always put mine first.
Wow fantastic read
At the start if the book I was interested in the way the author concentrated on the characters more than anything else. I can be a bit daunting at first but, when you get a quarter of the way into it well then the talent from Joseph heller to write really comes out. Must buy!!!!
'Brilliant' does not do this book justice
This is simply the funniest, most tragic, cleverest, and (in my opinion) greatest book written in the 20th century, and my, it does have some competition.
Do this book some justice, read it and I promise you, you will not put it down.