CATCH-22: JOSEPH HELLER 2004 FOLIO SOCIETY BRADBURY

Book is in Near Fine condition with sage green boards and red lettering on spine and several different illustrations on front.  Pristine.  No blemishes.   Binding is tight with no tears or cracks to gutters.  Printed on Caxton Wove paper, the pages are clean, crisp and bright with no blemishes.

Slipcase is in Near Fine condition.  Blue paper-covered boards.  The only blemish is a pinhead sized white spot on right side.  No rubbing.  No tears or cracks along the edges.

Published by The Folio Society, London, this 9.75" x 6.235" book has 438 pages.

There was a time when reading Joseph Heller's classic satire on the murderous insanity of war was nothing less than a rite of passage. Echoes of Yossarian, the wise-ass bombardier who was too smart to die but not smart enough to find a way out of his predicament, could be heard throughout the counterculture. As a result, it's impossible not to consider Catch-22 to be something of a period piece. But 40 years on, the novel's undiminished strength is its looking-glass logic. Again and again, Heller's characters demonstrate that what is commonly held to be good, is bad; what is sensible, is nonsense.

Yossarian says, "You're talking about winning the war, and I am talking about winning the war and keeping alive."
"Exactly," Clevinger snapped smugly. "And which do you think is more important?"
"To whom?" Yossarian shot back. "It doesn't make a damn bit of difference who wins the war to someone who's dead."
"I can't think of another attitude that could be depended upon to give greater comfort to the enemy."
"The enemy," retorted Yossarian with weighted precision, "is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on."
Mirabile dictu, the book holds up post-Reagan, post-Gulf War. It's a good thing, too. As long as there's a military, that engine of lethal authority, Catch-22 will shine as a handbook for smart-alecky pacifists. It's an utterly serious and sad, but damn funny book.