I’d like some opinions, please: **aside from Catch-22, what is Joseph Heller’s best book? Or your favorite of the bunch?
Something Happened I found very interesting and very odd. Closing Time, which Heller wrote as a sequel to Catch-22, I found a hard read and nowhere near the quality of Catch-22.
I’ve always enjoyed God Knows, Heller’s very human retelling of the Biblical story of David.
I agree. I liked it much better than his other non C-22 stuff.
I think Catch-22 is a genius piece of literature but God Knows would be my second choice. I liked Picture This even though it didn’t get as much critical acclaim as Good As Gold, which I didn’t care for at the time but feel like it now deserves a re-read in the context of current politics. I agree with @Monty that Closing Time, while having a lot of interesting ideas just wasn’t a very good sequel to Catch-22; it felt like a collection of concepts and scenes that the Heller ran out of steam in trying to tease into a narrative. I struggled to get through Something Happened, mostly because the gag that nothing much happens for most of the novel wears pretty thin after a couple hundred pages but it probably also deserves a reread, and I’m pretty sure I have Catch as Catch Can in a box somewhere but never got around to reading it even though I imagine that Heller would actually be a really good short fiction writer.
Stranger
I keep seeing the thread title as Joseph Heller ESSAY Question.
Nope, too much like work.
I can easily get through Umberto Eco and Robert Pirsig, but still have trouble with Catch-22. I’m not sure why it’s so problematic, but this thread is making me want to get it another shot. I’ve retried another difficult book, Infinite Jest, dozens of times and never get through more than 50 or so pages before I just can’t bear it any more. I’ve only tried Catch-22 a couple of times, so maybe the third time is the charm.
Unlike Infinite Jest, I am convinced that there are people who have truly read Catch-22 cover to cover.
I would be one of them. Several times, although not for many years.
I will probably be an outlier in this thread, but I’ve read only two other Heller works: Something Happened and Good as Gold. I did not like either one of them; in fact, I could not finish Something Happened.
I’ve read it “cover to cover” eight or nine times since 1972. One of my two all-time favorite novels.
Because of Catch-22, over the years I’ve read all of his other novels and haven’t liked any of them.
I can’t remember anything about them except for Something Happened being a godawful slog. But now that I’m older and ever so much wiser I’d like to give one of them another try. Hence this thread.
I think it is much easier to follow in subsequent readings because the changes to characters and narrative which occur in repeated scenes become more clear. It also helps to understand that the story isn’t about the plot but about the frustration that Yossarian experiences in the bureaucratic insanity of the Army and his responses to how different characters deal with or use it to their advantage. And also it is set in WWII Italy, the themes are timeless; every time I hear some cryptobro talking about the advantages of a decentralized currency and effective altruism I im,ediately flash back to Milo Minderbinder explaining how he makes a profit by selling eggs at a loss, and pitching chocolate-covered cotton balls as the next hot commodity.
Stranger
And as Heller said, the book was not about the war, but a satire of capitalism. With that in mind, it may be easier to appreciate the book. (Is there a “while” missing from your post after “and also”?)
I loved Good As Gold which I read when it came out. I rarely read a book more than once.
It took two or three readings for me to understand how Milo accomplished it:
He bought the eggs with the Army’s money, sold the eggs and kept the money.
Agreed. Also helped (in my case, anyway) to have read the book twice before the disappointing movie came out.
I’ve read Catch-22 cover to cover several times. The first in high school, which I remember as being a challenge, but persisting because of a feeling that I was on to something.
Something Happened, OTOH, I persisted through out of sheer stubbornness. I also read Good as Gold and No Laughing Matter (non-fiction).
God Knows is the only one I’ve revisited, and would easily be my answer to the OP.