Reading List
Authors Like
Joseph Heller, born on Coney Island in 1923, joined the US Army Air Corps in 1942 and flew sixty combat missions as a B-25 bombardier on the Italian front. The first chapter of the novel he made from it appeared in 1955 under the title “Catch-18”; the number was changed shortly before publication in 1961 to avoid confusion with Leon Uris’s Mila 18. By the end of Catch-22 his bombardier, Yossarian, has flown seventy-one missions, and the novel eventually sold around ten million copies in the United States alone. Heller spent the rest of his career on the same subject in other buildings: a corporate office in Something Happened (1974), Washington in Good as Gold (1979), the court of King David in God Knows (1984). The ten writers below share it too — a system that is perfectly logical and completely mad — and most of them decided the only honest response was to make it funny.
By Lisanne Swart · 10 authors · War satire · Absurd bureaucracy · Updated October 2026
Quick answer
If you like Joseph Heller, start with Kurt Vonnegut, a fellow American veteran whose Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) turns the bombing of Dresden into black comedy. Jaroslav Hašek’s The Good Soldier Švejk is the First World War version, written forty years earlier, and Evelyn Waugh’s Sword of Honour is the British army seen the same way. Further down are three writers who refuse the joke altogether.
10 authors like Joseph Heller
Where to start if you loved Joseph Heller
If you loved Catch-22, read Kurt Vonnegut.
Slaughterhouse-Five (1969): another American veteran’s war, told as black comedy.
If you want the original, read Jaroslav Hašek.
The Good Soldier Švejk: the First World War, as one cheerful soldier survives it.
If you loved Something Happened, read Joshua Ferris.
Then We Came to the End (2007): the office as a place nobody can leave.
If you want the war without the joke, read Tim O’Brien.
The Things They Carried (1990), and then Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front.
If you are new to Heller, start with Catch-22.
Then Something Happened (1974), God Knows (1984) and the sequel Closing Time (1994).
Frequently asked questions about authors like Joseph Heller
Who writes like Joseph Heller?
Kurt Vonnegut is the closest, especially Slaughterhouse-Five (1969). Jaroslav Hašek’s The Good Soldier Švejk is the First World War version, and Evelyn Waugh’s Sword of Honour trilogy is the British army seen with the same deadpan.
What should I read after Catch-22?
Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, Jaroslav Hašek’s The Good Soldier Švejk and Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow (1973). For a contrast, read Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried (1990).
Is Joseph Heller like Kurt Vonnegut?
Both were American veterans of the Second World War who later wrote about it as black comedy. Vonnegut is shorter and sadder, with time travel where Heller has circular logic.
Is there a sequel to Catch-22?
Yes. Closing Time (1994) follows Yossarian, Milo Minderbinder and the chaplain into old age in New York.
Which Joseph Heller book should I read first?
Start with Catch-22 (1961). Then Something Happened (1974), God Knows (1984) and the sequel Closing Time (1994).
Did Joseph Heller copy Catch-22?
In 1998 a reader pointed out similarities between Catch-22 and Louis Falstein’s 1951 novel Face of a Hero. Heller said he had never read or heard of it.
Sources
- Joseph Heller — Wikipedia
- Jaroslav Hašek — Wikipedia
- Kurt Vonnegut — Wikipedia
- Thomas Pynchon — Wikipedia
List last reviewed 31 October 2026.
More from the shelf
From the bookshelf
If this shelf interested you, the full bookshelf has more: reading lists by theme, author guides, and notes on what is actually worth your time.
Browse the full bookshelf Get book recommendationsRead next
