Catch-22 is like no other novel.It has it's own rationale, it's own extraordinary character. Set in the closing months of World War II in an American bomber squardron off Italy, this is the story of a bombardier named Yosserian, who is frantic and furious because thousands of people he hasn't even met keep trying to kill him. This is a masterpiece of our time.
Catch 22: An Excerpt
Yossarian was in the hospital with a pain in his liver that fell just short of being a jaundice. The doctors were puzzled by the fact that it wasn't quite jaundice. If it became jaundice they could treat it. If it didn't become jaundice and went away they could discharge him. But this just being short of jaundice all the time confused them.
They hurled lights in his eyes to see if he could see, rammed needles into his nerves to hear if he could feel. There was a urologist for his urine, a lymphologist for his lymph, an endocrinologist for his endocrines, a psychologist for his psyche, a dermatologist for his derma, there was a pathologist for his pathos, a cystologist for his cysts, and a bald and pendentic cetologist from the zoology department at Harvard who has been shanghaied ruthlessly into the Medical Corps, by a faulty anode in the I.B.M machine and spend his sessions withh the dying colonel trying to discuss Moby Dick with him
Hungry Joe was crazy, and no one knew it better than Yosserian, who did everything he could to help him. Hungry Joe just wouldn't listen to Yosserian. Hungry Joe just wouldn't listen because he thought Yosserian was crazy.
"That bastard !" He began. "That goddam stunted, red faced, big cheeked, curlyheaded, buck-toothed rat bastard son of a bitch !
"What ?" said Aarfy.
"That dirty goddam midget-assed, apple cheeked, goggle-eyed, undersized, buck-toothed, grinning, crazy sonofabitchinbastard!" Yosserian sputtered.
"What?"
"Never mind!"
"I still cant hear you," Aarrfy answered
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Last Updated: December 11, 1998