Catch 22

Joseph Heller's debut novel satirizes military bureaucracy through an American bomber squadron based on Pianosa, an island west of the Italian mainland, during World War II. Its antihero, the bombardier Captain John Yossarian, is furious that thousands of strangers keep trying to kill him, yet his real trouble is his own army, above all his commander, Colonel Cathcart, who keeps raising the mission count required before anyone can go home. Any attempt to get out runs into Catch-22: a man who keeps flying dangerous missions must be insane, but asking to be relieved proves he is sane enough to stay. Told out of sequence from shifting viewpoints, it first appeared in 1961 and was filmed by Mike Nichols in 1970.

Brian Burkhart of SquarePlanet Presentations and Strategy found it very funny and said its hero questions not only authority but how authority thinks, a message he reads as permission to challenge the status quo. Anatomonics founder Mike Benkovich gave it an honourable mention in a Book-Talk interview.