Catch-22 is a famous war novel by the American author Joseph Heller, published in 1961. The novel is set on a fictional American military base on a Mediterranean island called Pianosa during the last months of World War II (1939-1945). The main character is Captain John Yossarian, an American bombardier desperately trying to survive the dangers of battle and the absurdities of military bureaucracy. Heller filled his novel with colorful, sometimes outrageous, characters, many of whom die during the story. Although Catch-22 is primarily an imaginative comic novel, it is considered a classic of black humor because of its bitter and satiric examination of warfare.
The title of the novel comes from an obscure military regulation, known as “Catch-22,” invented by Heller. Yossarian tries to escape the terrors of his bombing missions by pleading insanity. He applies to a military doctor for discharge on account of insanity but the doctor cites the “Catch-22” regulation. The doctor says that according to that rule an individual “would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn’t, but if he was 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.” The expression Catch-22 has entered the English language as a term for an illogical and contradictory bureaucratic rule. Heller wrote a sequel to Catch-22 called Closing Time (1994).
