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While being humorous it can also repeat itself and confuses its reader. Catch 22By Joseph HellerFiction Novel. $10.88By John 2/16/10Catch-22 is a story of an Air Corp bombardier who is resistant to fly the ever increasing number of combat missions. He writes a story that is interesting and mildly attention-grabbing at times. However, he offers twist and turns in the plot, which makes the story interesting and not mundane. Heller attempts to show the side of the "war heroes" that isn't often seen in a humorous and interesting way.Joseph Heller, a novelist and playwright, also wrote two other books called Something Happened and Closing Time.
He shows that some soldiers will defy their commanding officers and take a cowardly way out of their orders.Heller shows how some things in war can be funny and not so serious. 464 pp.Simon and Schuster. I think he accomplished his goal of showing a side of soldiers that is hidden from most of the civilians of the world. One play he wrote was called We Bombed in New Haven, which debuted on Broadway in 1969. He also taught creative writing at the City College of New York.I believe that Joseph Heller accomplishes his goal by writing in a way that you would usually see in a historical fiction book. While offering humorous implications he can confuse the reader and often repeats himself throughout the book.
Although the Yossarian, Milo Minderbinder, Chaplain Albert Tappman, and others return from "Catch-22", this book certainly does not possess the soul of the previous book. Even when war is revisited, it is only in a ghostly manner. This would seem to be comic gold, though Heller never seems to follow through with it. Yet aside from a few glimmering moments, "Closing Time" is as tired and worn-out as the World War II veterans in its pages. The charm that made "Catch-22" one of the great works of the 20th Century evaporated before the story of "Closing Time" makes its half way point. The charm of mocking warfare that made "Catch-22" a hit is sparsely revisited in the book. Sequels are difficult to pen, so writing this book was not an enviable task. Perhaps the most interesting predicament is the Chaplain's passing of heavy water.
Instead, the World War II veterans endure the 1990's with failing health, sexual vigor, and even delusions of reality. Class society is mocked in the elaborate wedding at a bus terminal, while the presidency is satirized in a form far inferior to Heller's "Good as Gold". Unfortunately, Heller only seemed to be filling pages in an attempt to extend the lives of his best characters in "Closing Time". One might argue that Heller should have never attempted this endeavor.
The book varies between a dull pondering of the significance of war and an ill-advised turn to science fiction/fantasy. This book would be poor as a stand alone work; as a sequel to the ground-breaking original, it's dreadful. Maybe it's because I loved 'Catch-22' so much, but this novel was nothing but a disappointment. The plot revolves around a new US president who is a clear parody of former VP Dan Quayle. We're presented with an older Yossarian, Chaplain and Milo, with no mention of what happened at the end of Catch-22. Readers are not told how Yossarian escaped from Italy, or his further adventures. Since Quayle was a political non-entity by the time the book came out, 'Closing Time' became instantly dated. I would not recommend this for fans of 'Catch-22', or to anyone for that matter.
What a mess. I just finished this book. Damn. I think the title for my review says it all. Probably, one of the worst books I have ever read.
It just didn't hold together for me. This unfortunate and unnecessary sequel to the immortal "Catch-22" actually includes some very good material. It read as a hodgepodge of nutty characters and absurd circumstances that didn't pull together to make a point other than that the military is bad and that the children of the "greatest generation" are pallid imitations of their elders. These are the interludes about Sammy Singer and Lew Rabinowitz, good friends and contemporaries of Yossarian, who look back with nostalgia on their Brooklyn childhoods and with bemused horror on their WWII experiences in riveting first-person narratives. I would have been happy to read a book centered on these two, and perhaps at one time author Joseph Heller intended to write just that, since these sections have very little to do with the main portion of the novel--stylistically, thematically, or narratively.The novel is mostly concerned with the surreal circumstances surrounding Yossarian's final days. Heller wants to skewer the military-industrial complex, but he does so by presenting such outrageous, ridiculous circumstances that it is difficult to believe he had any deep understanding of it or much desire to acquire such an understanding.
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