Luciana

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For other uses, see Luciana (disambiguation).

Luciana is a character in Joseph Heller's classic novel Catch-22,

Yossarian meets Luciana in Rome, Italy, and takes her out for dinner, then for 'ficky-fick' the next morning. They later engage in a typically circular Hellerian exchange, in which Yossarian convinces Luciana that he is crazy for wanting to marry her, and then tells her she is crazy for not wanting to marry him.

Hungry Joe bursts in, hoping to capture a photograph of the two in action, with Yossarian and Luciana nimbly side stepping his attempts. Later, Luciana gives Yossarian her address saying that he will tear it up as soon as she goes thinking that he is some of kind of big shot. Although Yossarian promises not to, he tears it up as soon as she leaves, only to regret his actions soon after. He tries hard, but he never is able to find her address or Luciana again.

[edit] Catch-22

As with most female characters in Catch 22, Luciana was a sex object to Yossarian. Heller uses her to illustrate a further Catch 22 situation: that of a girl refusing to marry a boy when he knows that she is not a virgin, because to the girl, a boy who wants to marry her in that non-virginal state must be crazy. Luciana will only want to marry people who do not want to marry her. With this set of rules, Luciana will not get married at all.