The Vietnam War

Catch-22

Catch-22

Joseph Heller New York: Simon and Schuster, 1961. Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature.

Although written about World War II, during the sixties Catch-22 was perhaps the novel that best embodied the anti-war sentiments of the counterculture. A dark, bitter satire, Heller's title has become a common catch-phrase indicating an unwinnable situation and a choice between two impossibilities. Wildly popular during the sixties, Catch-22 focused attention on the cruel absurdities of war, and news reports coming in from Vietnam only served to validate the surrealistic contentions of the author.

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