Hilarious and tragic, at the heart of CATCH-22 is a savage indictment of twentieth century madness, and a desire of the ordinary man to survive it.
"The greatest satirical work in the English language since EREHWON"--Philip Toynbee,Observer
"Blessedly, monstrously, bloatedly, cynically funny, and fantastically unique. No one has ever written a book like this"--Financial Times
In 1961, the New York Times was a newspaper with eight columns. And on November 11 of that year, one day after the official publication date of Catch-22, the page with the book review carried an unusual advertisement that ran from top to bottom and was five columns wide. To the eye the effect was stupendous. The book review that day, of a work by somebody else, was squeezed aside to the fold of the page, as were the crossword puzzle and all else. The ad had this caption: WHAT'S THE CATCH? And displayed at the top in silhouette was the comic cartoon of a uniformed figure in flight, glancing off to the side at some unspecified danger with an expression of panic.
