# Closing time - the sequel to Catch-22 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 21, 2002, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closing-time-the-sequel-to-catch-22/133162 "2002-10-21T02:05:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![shy\_guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@shy\_guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shy_guy)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2002, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closing-time-the-sequel-to-catch-22/133162/1 "2002-10-21T02:05:48Z")
Keeping in mind that Catch-22 is one of my favorite books - is its sequel worth reading? I’ve heard a lot of negative opinions of it and some positive as well. So should I read it, or is it better to leave the greatness that is Catch-22 untarnished? ---
**Author:** ![shy\_guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@shy\_guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shy_guy)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2002, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closing-time-the-sequel-to-catch-22/133162/2 "2002-10-21T02:11:15Z")
Double post because I’m an idiot. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Melandry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Melandry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melandry)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2002, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closing-time-the-sequel-to-catch-22/133162/3 "2002-10-21T02:38:21Z")
I personally didn’t like _Closing Time_ very much. However I didn’t think it was totally bad, just confusing and a bit disjointed. I reread it about a month ago just after finishing _Catch-22_ and it certainly didn’t tarnish _Catch-22_ for me. If anything it made me realize how good it really was, since the sequel wasn’t anything special. I’ve read every Joseph Heller book except _Good as Gold_ and I still like _Catch-22_ better than all the rest, with _Something Happened_ a close second. I would rank _Closing Time_ as my least favorite among those I’ve read. Anyway, my recommendation would be to read it because it’s worth seeing if _you_ like it, rather than if other folks do, and I doubt it will hurt your love of _Catch-22_. ---
**Author:** ![Treviathan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/838e76/32.png) [@Treviathan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treviathan)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2002, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closing-time-the-sequel-to-catch-22/133162/4 "2002-10-21T02:44:27Z")
Catch-22 is also one of my favorite books, and while Closing Time is a less spicy meatball, it’s not horrendous. Didn’t quite have the madcap zaniness of Heller’s masterpiece, and I’m not sure if it makes total sense, but there is a very poignant scene at the end featuring McWatt and Kid Sampson. That seems to be all I specifically remember about the novel. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2002, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closing-time-the-sequel-to-catch-22/133162/5 "2002-10-21T05:00:52Z")
_Closing Time_ has some of the same twisted logic as _Catch-22_, but I think it suffers from being set on such a large scale. The world of _Catch-22_ was a closed system, a small Army Air Force base where everybody knew everybody else. The surreality with the eggs and the parachutes and the bombings all tied together. There was no escape or appeal to the outside world, and no way to live within that world without dealing with it all. _Closing Time_ is missing that crushing inevitability. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2002, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closing-time-the-sequel-to-catch-22/133162/6 "2002-10-21T05:13:22Z")
I think if you read _Closing Time_ expecting a continuation of the same kind story as _Catch-22_, you’ll be disappointed. It’s a different book, but with some of the same characters, centering on Yossarian and Milo. Personally, my favorites of Heller’s after _Catch-22_ are _God Knows_ and _Picture This_, both of which I unreservedly recommend. ---
**Author:** ![ralphthemuppet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@ralphthemuppet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralphthemuppet)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2002, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closing-time-the-sequel-to-catch-22/133162/7 "2002-10-21T10:30:04Z")
Given the choice between _Closing Time_ and _Something Happened_ I’d go for the latter. Heller was certainly in a slightly different frame of mind when he wrote the former - personally I’d read them both anyway, just out of respect for his original. ---
**Author:** ![widdershins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f0a364/32.png) [@widdershins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/widdershins)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2002, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closing-time-the-sequel-to-catch-22/133162/8 "2002-10-22T14:32:26Z")
_Catch-22_ is one of my favorite books of all time, but _Closing Time_ is one of the few books I gladly quit reading and never went back to. I knew it couldn’t be as good as the original, but, these didn’t come across as the same charcters to me. They were like some kind of pale imitation of old friends and enemies. The same people in name only, not a view of them much later in life. ---
**Author:** ![RadioWave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/91b2a8/32.png) [@RadioWave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadioWave)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2002, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/closing-time-the-sequel-to-catch-22/133162/9 "2002-10-22T23:33:44Z")
Go ahead and read it, but think of it as a book unrelated to his earlier work. I think it does as good a job as any book I’ve ever read on what it means to grow old and face the fact that it’s almost time for you to die. It’s a good book, it’s just not comparable to the original in that there just isn’t the same connection with the characters that there was in Catch-22. P.S. The first time I read it, I stopped 20 pages from the end because I got confused as to what was happening. It took me two years to go back and reread it through the end. Make sure you take notes about who all the characters are and read it all the way through. The ending’s pretty surprising.