In the twenty or so years that have passed since I first read Catch-22 I’d forgotten just how absolutely brilliant Heller’s debut was. If the best satire draws blood, Catch-22 is a glorious, genocidal bloodbath:

“In a democracy, the government is the people,” Milo explained. “We’re people, aren’t we? So we might just as well keep the money and eliminate the middleman. Frankly, I’d like to see the government get out of war altogether and leave the whole field to private industry. If we pay the government everything we owe it, we’ll only be encouraging government control and discouraging other individuals from bombing their own men and planes. We’ll be taking away their incentive.”