Joseph Heller's novel Catch 22, 50 years old this year, is regarded as an American-Jewish classic. But would its hero Captain Yossarian have been able to make up a minyan?
In a letter being auctioned next week in California, Heller revealed the truth. "Yossarian isn't Jewish and was not intended to be," he wrote, though adding: "On the other hand, no effort was expended to make him anything else."