The greatest satirical work in the English language
Observer

It is the Rock and Roll of novels
Norman Mailer,

To my mind, there have been two great American novels in the past fifty years. Catch-22 is one.
Stephen King,

Blessedly, monstrously, bloatedly, cynically funny and fantastically unique. No one has ever written a book like this
Financial Times

My all-time favourite war-novel
Andy McNab, Spectator

Catch-22 is the only war novel I've ever read that makes any sense
Harper Lee,

The greatest satirical work in the English language
Observer

Catch-22 gave us a right to laugh at the macabre. Laughter is a soldier's response to a lot of absurdity and the terror of it all. The military machine does the strangest things that make no sense to the rest of us.
Tim O'Brien

Blessedly, monstrously, bloatedly, cynically funny and fantastically unique. No one has ever written a book like this
Financial Times

Catch-22 is the only war novel I've ever read that makes any sense
Harper Lee, 1961,

This novel is not merely the best American novel to come out of World War II; it is the best American novel that has come out of anywhere in years
Nelson Algren, The Nation, 1961

Written with brilliance. Echoes with mad laughter
Time

An astonishing range of imagination... exciting
Graham Greene,

Written with brilliance. Echoes with mad laughter
Time, 1961

An astonishing range of imagination... exciting
Graham Greene, 1961,

Catch-22 is the greatest satirical work in English since Erewhon...remarkable... This is a book that I could wish everyone to read. It is a book which should help us feel more clearly
Philip Toynbee, Observer

My all-time favourite war-novel
Andy McNab,

Catch-22 is the greatest satirical work in English since Erewhon...remarkable... This is a book that I could wish everyone to read. It is a book which should help us feel more clearly
Philip Toynbee, Observer, 1962

It is the Rock and Roll of novels
Norman Mailer,

A wondrous book with many layers. When I first read it at 14 the story of war and passion really inspired me. It was like reading something in neon: everything came alive. As a teenager you start to feel the world is against you and I identified strongly with Yossarian and his dilemma. One of the funniest things I’ve ever read.
Nathaniel Parker, Daily Express

To my mind, there have been two great American novels in the past fifty years. Catch-22 is one.
Stephen King,

My favourite book is Joseph Heller's Catch-22, which captures the black farce of war.
John Pilger, Guardian

Bitterly bouncy military farce, responsible for inventing the dilemma to which it gave its name
Daily Telegraph

It's a tremendously funny book, but it also makes you think..A masterpiece.
Andrew Davies,

A hilarious but savage indictment of the mechanised military system that came to define the anti-Vietnam generation... Never has a book been laughed and wept over so many times. Today Heller's dazzling, surreal achievement is undimmed.
Guardian

I think this is possibly the funniest book that has ever been written. I love the constant invention and the absolutely relentless energy that it has. Like all the best satirical and absurd novels, it sticks really strictly to its own bizarre logic.
Christopher Brookmyre, Daily Express

In Yossarian, Joseph Heller minted a counter-culture Everyman for the late 20th century
William Sutcliffe,

A wise-cracking, yarn-spinning Kafka of the Coca-Cola generation
Independent

The war novel to end all war novels
Independent

Randy Rubin 25 November 2011

First book to ever make me laugh out loud. The experience of the book still resonates in this new century.

Diarmid Lambert 07 February 2012

Despite now being 50 years old Catch-22 is a fantastic book which still has much to say. The central character is Yossarian, a bombardier in an American bomber squadron based in Italy. With the number missions the pilots have to fly endlessly rising, and the increasing conviction that people are trying to kill him, Yossarian is desperate to find a way out of the war. The book jumps backwards and forwards in time, and with the host of characters and changes in tone between absurd and tragic, may not be to everybody’s taste, but it’s a book I’ve loved since the first time I read it and which I have kept coming back to.

John Mark Frankland 16 February 2012

Bentham Reading Group had a lively discussion about Catch 22. Many of the group talked about their difficulty in getting to grips with the wise-cracking tone of the book, which some found a bit too frivolous for the subject matter. Some could not see the humour at all, and questioned its status as one of the novels of the century. Conversely, other members of group enjoyed it, and for some it was their second or third reading. They found that the absurdities presented in Catch 22 rang true in real life and could be adapted for any organisational setting. It was agreed by those who got to the end that the final chapters, which reveal the motives behind Yossarian’s desperate actions, were particularly moving. However, these views were in a minority, and the overall feeling was that the book was highly over-rated.