Joseph Heller

Catch-22 is a novel by the American author Joseph Heller. The novel follows Captain John Yossarian, a U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bombardier, and a number of other characters during World War II. Most events occur while the airmen of the Fighting 256th (or "two to the fighting eighth power") Squadron are based on the island of Pianosa, west of Italy. Many events in the book are repeatedly described from differing points of view, so the reader learns more about the event from each iteration. The pacing of Catch-22 is frenetic, its tenor intellectual, and its humor largely absurd, but interspersed with grisly moments of realism.