The initial reviews of the book ranged from very positive to very negative. There were positive reviews from The Nation ("the best novel to come out in years"), the New York Herald Tribune ("A wild, moving, shocking, hilarious, raging, exhilarating, giant roller-coaster of a book") and The New York Times ("A dazzling performance that will outrage nearly as many readers as it delights"). On the other hand, The New Yorker disliked it ("doesn't even seem to be written; instead, it gives the impression of having been shouted onto paper", "what remains is a debris of sour jokes"), and a second review from the New York Times also disliked it ("repetitive and monotonous. Or one can say that it is too short because none of its many interesting characters and actions is given enough play to become a controlling interest").[24] One commentator of Catch-22 recognized that "many early audiences liked the book for just the same reasons that caused others to hate it".[25]: 11 The book eventually gained a cult following, especially among teenagers and college students. Heller later remarked that in 1962, after appearing on the Today show he went out drinking with the host at the time, John Chancellor, who handed him stickers that Chancellor had got privately printed reading "YOSSARIAN LIVES". Heller also said that Chancellor had been secretly putting them on the walls of the corridors and executive bathrooms in the NBC building.[25]: 11
Although the novel won no awards upon release, it has remained in print and is seen as one of the most significant American novels of the 20th century.[3] Scholar and fellow World War II veteran Hugh Nibley said it was the most accurate book he ever read about the military.[26] As of 2019 ten million copies have been sold.
Although he continued writing, including a sequel novel Closing Time, Heller's later works were inevitably overshadowed by the success of Catch-22. When asked by critics why he had never managed to write another novel as good as his first, Heller would retort with a smile, "Who has?"[27]
Challenges
Catch-22 has landed on the list of the American Library Association's banned and challenged classics.
In 1972, the school board in Strongsville, Ohio, removed Catch-22, as well as two books by Kurt Vonnegut, from school libraries and the curriculum.[28] Five families sued the school board. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the claim, stating that school boards had the right to control the curriculum.[29] The decision was overturned on appeal in 1976.[28][30] The court wrote, "A library is a storehouse of knowledge. Here we are concerned with the right of students to receive information which they and their teachers desire them to have."[29][31] In 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court employed a similar rationale in its decision in Island Trees School District v. Pico on the removal of library books.[29]
Because the book refers to women as "whores", it was challenged at the Dallas, Texas, Independent School District (1974) and Snoqualmie, Washington (1979).[28][30]
