TURN-ONS AND TURN-OFFS IN CURRENT HOME ENTERTAINMENT RELEASES : Excellent Good Fair Poor : AUDIOCASSETTES

“Catch-22” by Joseph Heller, read by Alan Arkin. Listen for Pleasure. “That’s some catch, that Catch-22,” says the novel’s central character, Yossarian (played by Arkin in the underrated Mike Nichols film). “It’s the best there is,” agrees Doc Daneeka. And Heller’s World War II novel is perhaps the best of its kind, too, picturing bomber-base life as a mad world of horrifying/hilarious absurdities and ritualized nonsense, where sanity is the square peg that doesn’t fit. Arkin occasionally gets lazy on voice changes but otherwise perfectly renders a superb condensation where nothing crucial seems missing. 1/2