Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Los Angeles Times

    Why Joseph Heller's 'Catch-22' is a relevant antiwar satire in the age of Trump

    by Jeffrey Fleishman, Los Angeles Times May 20, 2019 6 minutes

    America's wars are scattered with the brave, rabid and opportunistic.

    From Vietnam to Iraq, the toll of conflict has taught us that leaders will lie, false heroes will be exalted, corporations will reap hundreds of billions of dollars in contracts, and those who protest the horror and farce of unfolding bloodshed will be stamped unpatriotic and sent on their way so as not to disturb the flag-draped reverie.

    That is the essence of Joseph Heller's 1961 masterwork "Catch-22," a novel set in World War II that stripped away the glory of battle through conniving, clueless and scary characters that would symbolize the misadventures of future wars. With President Trump threatening Iran and North Korea testing missiles, Heller's book, an allegory for life's mayhem, is as prescient today as when it was published at the threshold of America's foray into Vietnam.

    "The novel is an incredibly, beautiful, hilarious, moving satire about the insanity of war," says novelist, poet and screenwriter Luke Davies ("Lion," "Candy"),

    You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

    More from Los Angeles Times

    Los Angeles Times2 min read
    Editorial: Biden Expanded Two National Monuments In California. Three More To Go
    President Joe Biden’s move Thursday to expand two national monuments in California is unquestionably good news for our climate and environment. One proclamation will increase the size of San Gabriel Mountains National Monument by nearly one third, ad
    Los Angeles Times4 min read
    Commentary: My Mother Set Herself On Fire. Why Do People Choose To Self-immolate?
    Ten years before I was born, at 4:40 on the morning of Nov. 10, 1971, my mother and another woman sat “yogi-style” on the floor of an Ann Arbor, Michigan, kitchen and lit themselves on fire. They were just blocks from the University of Michigan campu
    Los Angeles Times3 min readCrime & Violence
    UCLA Detectives Use Jan. 6 Tactics To Find Masked Mob Who Attacked Pro-Palestinian Camp
    LOS ANGELES — It is shaping up to be perhaps the biggest case in the history of the UCLA Police Department: how to identify dozens of people who attacked a pro-Palestinian camp at the center of campus last week. The mob violence was captured on live

    Related Books & Audiobooks