Joseph Heller · 1961 · survival

Joseph Heller's 1961 novel. On the island of Pianosa off the Italian coast, Captain Yossarian tries to get himself grounded, and runs into the regulation that says anyone sane enough to want out of combat is sane enough to fly. The missions to Bologna and Avignon go on raising the count, until the only rational move left is the one nobody thinks is possible.

1. 1
   Pianosa

   On Pianosa, Yossarian works through the base hospital, the chaplain and the medical officer trying to be declared unfit to fly - and meets the clause that makes wanting to stop proof that you are well enough to continue.

2. 2
   Bologna

   The mission to Bologna hangs over the squadron for days while the bomb line is moved on the map and the rain refuses to stop - and Yossarian's solution, moving the line himself, only postpones a run everyone expects to die on.

3. 3
   Avignon

   Over Avignon, a gunner is hit in the aircraft and Yossarian works over him with a first-aid kit before finding the real wound - the moment that sits underneath the whole book and explains why he will not put the uniform on again.

4. 4
   Rome

   Rome is where the squadron goes on leave, and where Yossarian walks the city at night through everything the war has made of it - and finds the apartment cleared, the girls gone, and a knife waiting for him.

5. 5
   Sweden

   Then word comes that Orr, shot down and lost, has washed up in Sweden - having rowed there, which means it can be done. Yossarian takes off his uniform and goes, deserting toward the one country that will not send him back.