Book Review: Catch-22
This book, written by Joseph Heller and published in 1961, is perhaps best known for its title alone, which has become a familiar expression in the English language, meaning any “no-win” situation, originally derived from a specific set of circumstances occurring in the novel. Heller set his novel in 1943 in World War II, much of the action located on a small island called Pianosa, near to Elba on the Italian Tuscan coast in the Mediterranean Sea. (The island is real, but much smaller than this work of fiction purported it to be). The main character is Captain John Yossarian, a B-25 bombardier ...