Great product!</br></br>Product Description</br></br><B>This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Hellers masterpiece with a new introduction; critical essays and reviews by Norman Mailer Alfred Kazin Anthony Burgess and others; rare papers and photos; and much more.</B><BR><BR>Fifty years after its original publication Catch-22 remains a cornerstone of American literature and one of the funniestand most celebratedbooks of all time. In recent years it has been named to best novels lists by Time Newsweek the Modern Library and the London Observer. <BR> <BR>Set in Italy during World War II this is the story of the incomparable malingering bombardier Yossarian a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemyit is his own army which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions hes assigned hell be in violation of Catch-22 a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions?? but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty?? he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved. <BR> <BR>This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller??s masterpiece with a new introduction by Christopher Buckley; a wealth of cri"l essays and reviews by Norman Mailer?? Alfred Kazin?? Anthony Burgess?? and others; rare papers and photos from Joseph Heller??s personal archive; and much more. Here?? at last?? is the definitive edition of a classic of world literature.</br></br>Amazon.com Review</br></br>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 <I>Catch-22</I> 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 non