CATCH-22 Audiobook By Joseph Heller cover art

CATCH-22

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CATCH-22

By: Joseph Heller
Narrated by: Jay O. Sanders
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This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller’s masterpiece with a new introduction; critical essays and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos; and much more.

Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.

Now a Hulu limited series starring Christopher Abbott, George Clooney, Kyle Chandler, and Hugh Laurie.

Fifty years after its original publication, Catch-22 remains a cornerstone of American literature and one of the funniest—and most celebrated—books of all time. In recent years it has been named to “best novels” lists by Time, Newsweek, the Modern Library, and the London Observer.

Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy—it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he’s assigned, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.

This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller’s masterpiece with a new introduction by Christopher Buckley; a wealth of critical essays and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos from Joseph Heller’s personal archive; and much more. Here, at last, is the definitive edition of a classic of world literature. Jewish Heritage Literature & Fiction Funny Satire Literary Fiction Witty Comedy Fiction Dark Humor Classics Genre Fiction

Featured Article: The top 100 classics of all time


Before we whipped out our old high school syllabi and dug deep into our libraries to start selecting contenders for this list, we first had to answer the question, "How do we define a classic?" The answer isn’t as straightforward as you might guess, though there’s a lot to be said for the old adage, "You know it when you see it" (or, in this case, hear it). Of course, most critically, each of our picks had to be fabulous in audio. So dust off your aspirational listening list—we have some amazing additions you don’t want to miss.

Featured Article The top 100 classics of all time
Satirical Humor • Memorable Characters • Absurd Situations • Thought-provoking Themes • Clever Dialogue

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I’m not going to lie, I didn’t think I was going to enjoy this book. Based off of the first half of it. Luckily I can’t start a book without finishing it and it turned out that the book has a interesting and very unique story. The narration was above par. I’m glad I listened to catch 22

Very strange

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I loved this book for about 1/3. By the half way point I couldn't do it anymore. Everyone has the same circular talking style (think: Who's on first), loves the thing they hate, and hates the thing they love. There are genuinely funny parts, and I really did love that first 1/3. Top notch performance by the guy reading it.

Repetitive

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Catch-22 has aged well with time, but starts getting old after awhile. It has everything you remember: the goofy characters, the convoluted reasoning that really sticks it to ya, the slapstick situations.
But after some time, you start getting a little used to the buffoons, the buffoonery. After all, it clocks in at almost 20 hours. You get used to people spazzing out and doing the unutterably stupid.
But that's its only flaw.
What particularly struck me, what I didn't remember, was how touching it actually is: the friendships, the fear, the overwhelming desire to just live another day. This is a book that can be quite moving.
And Jay O. Sanders turns in a truly remarkable performance. Each character is delivered in fine form, and you can tell that, stupid as they come off as, they each feel themselves to be the hero of their own story.
And then there's the end. It's one of touching high hopes, no matter how odd it may seem to the reader. Yossarian is willing to do anything, absolutely anything, to save his crumbling sanity, his very precarious existence.
Written with humor and desperate pathos, Catch-22 is a wriggly romp into a nightmare of a time. Even if it starts getting a bit old at times, it's always worth the chuckles.

Soo Funny, Even If It Does Get A Tad Old

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The plot in the book had everything: business, deceit, insubordination, politics, honour, injustice, love, to name a few.

The Plot Had Everything

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It's a super depressing but most likely accurate view of the world in many areas not exclusively held by the military.

Super depressing

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