Book Club Guide

Catch-22

by Joseph Heller · 1961 · Psychology

Key themes

War as absurdist bureaucracy, not heroism
The catch-22 as a model of systemic logic that always serves power
Sanity, self-preservation and what it means to resist

About this book

Catch-22 is like no other novel. It has its own rationale, its own extraordinary character. It moves back and forth from hilarity to horror. It is outrageously funny and strangely affecting. It is tot

Published in 1961, Catch-22 was rejected by multiple publishers before finding one willing to take a chance on its unusual form. It became one of the defining anti-war novels of the 20th century.

Discussion questions

The novel's central paradox — that claiming you're crazy proves you're sane enough to fly — is presented as the logic of the whole military system. What is Heller saying about the relationship between institutional logic and human wellbeing?
The novel's non-linear structure deliberately disorients. What does this formal choice say about how war experience is processed — and how does it serve the comedy?
Yossarian is motivated purely by survival — he wants to live, not to perform heroism. Is this cowardice or the only honest response to what he is being asked to do?
The novel shifts registers suddenly from comic to horrifying, often within the same paragraph. How does this tonal instability work — does it make the horror more or less affecting?
Catch-22 was published in 1961 about WWII but was read as Vietnam satire. What in the novel makes it applicable to any war — and what is specific to its period?