Joseph Heller's "Catch 22" Book Review

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American Postmodernism A book review of Joseph Heller's Catch 22 Undoubtedly, Joseph Heller is a name which has earned a lot of status and reputation. Creator of some great American novels, he is known mostly as a writer of fiction. In addition he also has produced numerous plays and autobiographies. Satire is heavily concerned in his works as most of which has political nuances. Joseph Heller started his career as a clerk. Eventually he joined the army during the Second World War. What he had experienced there to a certain extent served as a base for the creation of his best novel "Catch 22" . It immediately brought along uniqueness in its kind achieved by unprecedented mixture of plot structure and stylistic expressions. Referred to as a war novel, "Catch 22" is one of his best works ,an embodiment of Postmodern features of that time. Being a critique of bureaucratic operation as a whole the novel subsequently gave birth to an idiomatic phrase "catch 22" which basically means a no-win situation of any type. The book develops its storyline in a span of 42 chapters most of which entitled after a character's name. Yossarian,an American soldier, is claiming to be ill, only because he wants to avoid being given air-borne missions. Strangely enough he manages to convince somehow the doctors that he has a liver condition. He spends some time in the hospital among other wierdos one of which Dunbar who believes that longevity is achieved by immobility for which he stares at the ceiling all the time. An irritating Texan, who actually seems quite normal , in no time manages to bring back all the soldiers back on duty. Flashes of sanity occur as Yossarian talks to Clevinger about all the negatives that a war brings along. However, insanity prevails as Yossarian is pretty convinced everybody's major concern is his own death. Keeping himself alive makes

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