- The company that made a movie out of Joseph Heller's first novel, "Catch-22," had to assemble what became the 11th or 12th largest bomber force on the planet at the time. If somebody wants to make a movie out of his second novel, "Something Happened," he can get most of his props at Bloomingdale's--a few beds, a few desks, some tables and chairs.
Has anybody read Joseph Heller's Something Happened? I've been tempted to read it, especially after reading this review. I'm a huge fan of Catch-22, and also of Vonnegut's works. But I haven't heard many good things about anything else that Heller has written, and have largely heard that he had but one good book in him.
Something Happened is a crushing book. It is an unrelentless, crushing book. It left a shadow in my mind. Like LSD, you either have or you haven't, and you don't know which is better.I say that this is the most memorable, and therefore the most permanent variation on a familiar theme, in that it says baldly what the other variations only implied, what the other variations tried with desperate sentimentality not to imply: That many lives, judged by the standards of the people who live them, are simply not worth living.
Good review, mk - I read this a few years back, and feel exactly the same way. It is a good book, and Heller is a gifted writer, but (unlike Catch-22) this book is absolutely no fun, at all, and I would be hesitant to recommend it. Bleak and depressing, with a pathetic and unlikable protagonist. There aren't many good things written about Hellers other works, because there ARE no other Hellers novels, by the way. This is a well-written novel, but if it weren't for Catch-22, Something Happened would be unknown, I'd wager.
I love this book. I read it a few years ago and was very impressed. By no means is it a tremendous and earth-shattering novel; in fact the plot is painfully simple and rather repetitive, but it is most definitely worth a read. By the end you really understand Bob Slocum and his life (at least from his point-of-view). You get to see the banality of his 9-to-5 life and the tragedy of his existance. He is a man who has one thing to be happy about: his son. Something Happened is a beautitul tragedy and I highly recommend it, although it may seem boring or slow. But one thing to remember when reading it is this: it is not Catch-22. Don't try to compare the two.
Between you, mk, and Vonnegut saying good things about this about must mean something. I'll have to try and get a hold of this book once I've finished reading John Steinbeck's East of Eden.