Bargain @ $3.99 CAD for today only as part of what Kobo CA says is a 1-day Xmas sale in Canada only from Simon & Schuster (also available at Amazon.ca):
Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition by the late Joseph Heller (
Wikipedia), his vintage classic literary fiction war satire. This edition is substantially enhanced with an introduction by novelist Christopher Buckley, and what the blurb says are personal essays by the author about the writing of the book, as well as contextual bonus materials such as contemporary critical responses and reviews, publicity materials from a vintage advertising campaign, and more.
In the US, this is $11.99 and has never gone below $4.99 USD since 2010, according to eReaderIQ, so this is a very good deal, especially if you like annotated editions. There's also one for Ray Bradbury's
Fahrenheit 451: 50th Anniversary Edition which is similarly enhanced, for the same price as part of the same sale (details and linkage in the SF/Fantasy megathread).
Fifty years after its original publication, Catch-22 remains a cornerstone of American lit-erature and one of the funniest—and most celebrated—novels of all time. In recent years it has been named to “best novels” lists by Time, Newsweek, the Modern Library, and the London Observer.
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 enemy—it 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 he’s assigned, he’ll 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. Since its publication in 1961, no novel has matched Catch-22’s intensity and brilliance in depicting the brutal insanity of war.
This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller’s masterpiece with a new introduction by Christopher Buckley; personal essays on the genesis of the novel by the author; a wealth of critical responses and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos from Joseph Heller’s personal archive; and a selection of advertisements from the original publishing campaign that helped turn Catch-22 into a cultural phenomenon. Here, at last, is the definitive edition of a classic of world literature.