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Just One Catch: The Passionate Life of Joseph Heller
Born the child of Russian immigrants, Joseph Heller served as a US airman, and his Second World War bombing missions provided the inspiration for the savagely satirical novel that gave a new word to the catch-22. Drawing on the recollections of friends and confidants such as Norman Mailer, Mario Puzo and Woody Allen, this affectionate but frank biography traces Heller's life and literary career, vividly evoking his huge personality, his passions and his politics.
- GenresBiography
548 pages, Hardcover
First published August 2, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
May 28, 2017
racy Daugherty has written a scholarly and thoughtful biography of an author unfairly thought of as a one-hit wonder. Unlike many modern biographies he has not done more than hint at the darker psychology of Mr. Heller nor has he written a tell-all listing Heller's indiscretions and detailing his failures.
Mr. Daugherty makes the case for Joseph Heller as an important writer and does so by detailing his role in a remarkably literate generation of American writers. He argues that Joe Heller was ahead of his generation in that he took themes that had already been addressed and took them forward.
Catch 22, his most famous book demonstrates this hypothesis. It was written about World War II after the best World War II novels had been published. However this book is not really about World War II or even about war in general. This places this book at the front edge of those who would reject the company man image that was dominating the 50s and early 60s. The saying of the time was Catch 22 was written during the Korean War about World War II but in condemnation of what would become the war in Vietnam.
About his later works Mr. Daugherty makes a good case that his later books were increasingly personal books but also ones that spoke of trends that were not yet ripe in the American conscience.
The other strength of Daugherty's book is the time and effort taken to describe the American literary milieu during Joe Heller's generation. A remarkable number of writers came out of New York City with some combination of the Coney Island Jewish Catskills East Coast experience. Joe Heller would be a drinking and dining buddy with many of these people all of whom seem to respect his personal and literary merit.
As someone who first responded to Catch 22 in part because of the brilliant joyful play with language and only secondarily for its political and social commentary his later works take more work to appreciate. Having read Just One Catch, it is likely that I will go back and reread some of these later books now that I have a better appreciation of what Heller was attempting.
Mr. Daugherty makes the case for Joseph Heller as an important writer and does so by detailing his role in a remarkably literate generation of American writers. He argues that Joe Heller was ahead of his generation in that he took themes that had already been addressed and took them forward.
Catch 22, his most famous book demonstrates this hypothesis. It was written about World War II after the best World War II novels had been published. However this book is not really about World War II or even about war in general. This places this book at the front edge of those who would reject the company man image that was dominating the 50s and early 60s. The saying of the time was Catch 22 was written during the Korean War about World War II but in condemnation of what would become the war in Vietnam.
About his later works Mr. Daugherty makes a good case that his later books were increasingly personal books but also ones that spoke of trends that were not yet ripe in the American conscience.
The other strength of Daugherty's book is the time and effort taken to describe the American literary milieu during Joe Heller's generation. A remarkable number of writers came out of New York City with some combination of the Coney Island Jewish Catskills East Coast experience. Joe Heller would be a drinking and dining buddy with many of these people all of whom seem to respect his personal and literary merit.
As someone who first responded to Catch 22 in part because of the brilliant joyful play with language and only secondarily for its political and social commentary his later works take more work to appreciate. Having read Just One Catch, it is likely that I will go back and reread some of these later books now that I have a better appreciation of what Heller was attempting.
January 26, 2015
A lot of "and then" kind of narration, with no central thesis that gives the reason behind writing this biography. Some lacklustre writing. But lots of quotes and research, and interviews. If someone is looking for information on Heller, Daugherty provides it.
March 7, 2016
Joseph Heller will forever be known as the Author of Catch-22 and not for Closing Time (sequel to Catch 22), Good as Gold, Something Happened, God Knows, No Laughing Matter (in collaboration with his long-time acquaintance) etc. The uproariously funny, flippant and Kafkaesque Catch 22 transcends countries, wars and reality in order to talk about the sloth, inefficiency, venality in bureaucracies around the world. On a deeper level it is about man’s strong survival instinct – “He was going to live forever, or die in the attempt.”
The term catch-22 has entered our daily lexicon – in corporate headquarters and on military bases, college campuses – to describe any bureaucratic paradox. The American Heritage Dictionary has sanctioned it, defining catch-22 as a “difficult situation or problem whose seemingly alternative solutions are logically invalid.”
I loved the book, so why am I giving it four stars? The juicy gossipy bits about the more salacious aspects of Heller’s life were missing. His daughter Erica's Yossarian Slept Here: When Joseph Heller Was Dad, the Apthorp Was Home, and Life Was a Catch-22 has many more sordid details.
More than the life story of Heller, I found the genesis of Catch 22 absorbing. Here is an insight into his childhood. “Heller was bright enough as a child to absorb the knowledge that he inhabited a wildly contradictory world; the way to negotiate its seams was to split himself - on the one hand, acting boldly, and on the other, withdrawing to replenish and nourish his imagination.”
Heller’s percipience about money, “‘Few pleasures are so thoroughly reinforcing to the spirit as the arrival of unexpected money,’ he decided…… ‘I associate money with life, and an absence of money with death. I can’t help it.’”
The reason for Heller not going with his friends to visit a brothel: “Joey ever considered going with them, figuring the experience would be disappointing, and then he’d feel wretched about wasting his pay. An even more frightening prospect was that the visit would turn out to be glorious, and he’d never be able to resist returning, losing his money again and again.” This was the kind of dilemma Catch 22 characters grappled with throughout the book.
How did the name Yossarian come into existence? Yossarian's first name is given as John late in the book, as Colonel Korn casually remarks cryptically: "Call me Blackie, John. We're pals now." This empahsizes Yossarian’s tenebrous character.
Heller chose the bizarre sounding Yossarian" was chosen by Heller to underscore his protagonist's detachment from the mainstream military culture. Yossarian's name is described as being "an odious, alien, distasteful name, that just did not inspire confidence." It was "...not at all like such clean, crisp, honest, American names as Cathcart, Peckem and Dreedle."
According to Heller, Yossarian was derived from the name of one of his Air Force buddies, Francis Yohannan – an Assyrian – but that the character of Yossarian himself was 'the incarnation of a wish'. “‘I didn’t want to give him a Jewish name, Joe explained, ‘I didn’t want to give him an Irish name, I didn’t want to symbolize the white Protestant … I wanted to get … somebody who could not be identified … geographically, or culturally, or sociologically – somebody as a person who has a capability of ultimately divorcing himself completely from all emotional and psychological ties.’”
Many other notable characters from Catch 22 like the Chaplain, Nately, Hungry Joe, McWatt, Orr, Milo Minderbinder, Mudd etc. are based on real military persons Heller encountered during his stint in the Air Force. The chaplain’s name had to be changed from R.O. Shipman to A.T. Tappman (in American editions) when the real person complained.
Heller’s prescience in Catch 22 is remarkable: “Heller’s vision was tragically in synch with the highly privatized way the US military was prosecuting its war in Afghanistan – that is, paying its enemies to run convoys delivering food and supplies to the US troops. ‘Milo Minderbinder’ is alive in Afghanistan’”. According to the New Statesman “Milo swa BP’s massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. ‘Even when it is fouling its own nest and screwing everything in sight, Milo’s syndicate – in which everyone has a share, making it too good to fail – is good for the country’.
There was an abortive collaboration attempt Heller had with The Beatles to write the script for The Yellow Submarine. Heller observed a ‘connection between his Yossarian and Lennon’; ‘They share a dislike for bureaucratic institutions.’
Heller’s take on satire: ‘It is not the function of satire to present all sides of a question… I’m not sure, even, that it is the function, of satire to convey information, but, instead, to convey an attitude about information.’
Besides his messy divorce, philandering and unstable finances, the book details Heller’s struggles with Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Only the creator of self-preserving Yossarian (various diseases quote….) could have come through this ordeal relatively unscathed. It is ironical that Heller mentions most diseases but I incapacitated by one that he left unnamed. “There were lymph glands that might do him in. There were kidneys, nerve sheaths and corpuscles. There were tumors of the brain. There was Hodgkin’s disease, leukemia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. There were fertile meadows of epithelial tissue to catch and coddle a cancer cell. There were diseases of the bone, diseased of the lung, diseases of the stomach, diseases of the heart, blood and arteries. There were diseases of the heart, blood and arteries. There were diseases of the head, diseases of the neck, diseases of the chest, diseases of the intestine, diseases of the crotch. There even were disease of the feet. There were billions of conscientious body cells oxidating away day and night like dumb animals at their complicated job of keeping him alive and healthy, and everyone was a potential traitor and foe. There were so many diseases that it took a truly diseased mind to even think about them…”
His friend Mario Puzo’s response on learning of his illness, “When they name a disease after two guys, it’s got to be terrible.”
Despite writing one of the greatest books of all time (and then penning several critically acclaimed and popular books throughout his career – Something Happened was the template for the TV series ‘Mad Men’), Heller paradoxically felt very insecure as an author. This is what he had to say: “Some of the factors that might cause or contribute to these predilections toward unhappiness….. There could be something in the nature of the work, the uncertainty of success, the greater uncertainty of maintaining a peak of success and income over a working lifetime. After all, a write can be discovered only one, and after that, the scrutiny of critics grows more exacting. Or there could be something in the nature of the individual and the early family setting that influenced the person toward fantasizing, fictionalizing – a tendency towards daydreaming extravagant scenarios of accomplishment. These imply a wish to excel an, with those who turn to writing fiction, plays or poems, an ambition to excel as a writer…. The Freudian discovery that the conflicts, feelings of loneliness, and disappointments we possessed that at the beginning led us toward fictionalizing are not entirely satisfied by the success but instead remain. There has been no miraculous transformation, and in many ways the sensitive parts of us remain exactly the same …… feelings of failure are almost certain to enter into the life of he published author, even with works that appear to be triumphs…. Instead of rejoicing, the writer is likely to be enraged by those literary critics who find the work deficient in quality.”
Spoiler Alert!
The book was originally called Catch 18 but required to be changed as Mila-18 by Leon Uris had been released. The book was very nearly called Catch 14 till the number was finally changed to 22 on the whimsical notion of 22 October being Heller’s literary agent’s birthday. There is a controversy here as the Editor claims that the number came to him as a revelation – a dream induced revelation.
The term catch-22 has entered our daily lexicon – in corporate headquarters and on military bases, college campuses – to describe any bureaucratic paradox. The American Heritage Dictionary has sanctioned it, defining catch-22 as a “difficult situation or problem whose seemingly alternative solutions are logically invalid.”
I loved the book, so why am I giving it four stars? The juicy gossipy bits about the more salacious aspects of Heller’s life were missing. His daughter Erica's Yossarian Slept Here: When Joseph Heller Was Dad, the Apthorp Was Home, and Life Was a Catch-22 has many more sordid details.
More than the life story of Heller, I found the genesis of Catch 22 absorbing. Here is an insight into his childhood. “Heller was bright enough as a child to absorb the knowledge that he inhabited a wildly contradictory world; the way to negotiate its seams was to split himself - on the one hand, acting boldly, and on the other, withdrawing to replenish and nourish his imagination.”
Heller’s percipience about money, “‘Few pleasures are so thoroughly reinforcing to the spirit as the arrival of unexpected money,’ he decided…… ‘I associate money with life, and an absence of money with death. I can’t help it.’”
The reason for Heller not going with his friends to visit a brothel: “Joey ever considered going with them, figuring the experience would be disappointing, and then he’d feel wretched about wasting his pay. An even more frightening prospect was that the visit would turn out to be glorious, and he’d never be able to resist returning, losing his money again and again.” This was the kind of dilemma Catch 22 characters grappled with throughout the book.
How did the name Yossarian come into existence? Yossarian's first name is given as John late in the book, as Colonel Korn casually remarks cryptically: "Call me Blackie, John. We're pals now." This empahsizes Yossarian’s tenebrous character.
Heller chose the bizarre sounding Yossarian" was chosen by Heller to underscore his protagonist's detachment from the mainstream military culture. Yossarian's name is described as being "an odious, alien, distasteful name, that just did not inspire confidence." It was "...not at all like such clean, crisp, honest, American names as Cathcart, Peckem and Dreedle."
According to Heller, Yossarian was derived from the name of one of his Air Force buddies, Francis Yohannan – an Assyrian – but that the character of Yossarian himself was 'the incarnation of a wish'. “‘I didn’t want to give him a Jewish name, Joe explained, ‘I didn’t want to give him an Irish name, I didn’t want to symbolize the white Protestant … I wanted to get … somebody who could not be identified … geographically, or culturally, or sociologically – somebody as a person who has a capability of ultimately divorcing himself completely from all emotional and psychological ties.’”
Many other notable characters from Catch 22 like the Chaplain, Nately, Hungry Joe, McWatt, Orr, Milo Minderbinder, Mudd etc. are based on real military persons Heller encountered during his stint in the Air Force. The chaplain’s name had to be changed from R.O. Shipman to A.T. Tappman (in American editions) when the real person complained.
Heller’s prescience in Catch 22 is remarkable: “Heller’s vision was tragically in synch with the highly privatized way the US military was prosecuting its war in Afghanistan – that is, paying its enemies to run convoys delivering food and supplies to the US troops. ‘Milo Minderbinder’ is alive in Afghanistan’”. According to the New Statesman “Milo swa BP’s massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. ‘Even when it is fouling its own nest and screwing everything in sight, Milo’s syndicate – in which everyone has a share, making it too good to fail – is good for the country’.
There was an abortive collaboration attempt Heller had with The Beatles to write the script for The Yellow Submarine. Heller observed a ‘connection between his Yossarian and Lennon’; ‘They share a dislike for bureaucratic institutions.’
Heller’s take on satire: ‘It is not the function of satire to present all sides of a question… I’m not sure, even, that it is the function, of satire to convey information, but, instead, to convey an attitude about information.’
Besides his messy divorce, philandering and unstable finances, the book details Heller’s struggles with Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Only the creator of self-preserving Yossarian (various diseases quote….) could have come through this ordeal relatively unscathed. It is ironical that Heller mentions most diseases but I incapacitated by one that he left unnamed. “There were lymph glands that might do him in. There were kidneys, nerve sheaths and corpuscles. There were tumors of the brain. There was Hodgkin’s disease, leukemia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. There were fertile meadows of epithelial tissue to catch and coddle a cancer cell. There were diseases of the bone, diseased of the lung, diseases of the stomach, diseases of the heart, blood and arteries. There were diseases of the heart, blood and arteries. There were diseases of the head, diseases of the neck, diseases of the chest, diseases of the intestine, diseases of the crotch. There even were disease of the feet. There were billions of conscientious body cells oxidating away day and night like dumb animals at their complicated job of keeping him alive and healthy, and everyone was a potential traitor and foe. There were so many diseases that it took a truly diseased mind to even think about them…”
His friend Mario Puzo’s response on learning of his illness, “When they name a disease after two guys, it’s got to be terrible.”
Despite writing one of the greatest books of all time (and then penning several critically acclaimed and popular books throughout his career – Something Happened was the template for the TV series ‘Mad Men’), Heller paradoxically felt very insecure as an author. This is what he had to say: “Some of the factors that might cause or contribute to these predilections toward unhappiness….. There could be something in the nature of the work, the uncertainty of success, the greater uncertainty of maintaining a peak of success and income over a working lifetime. After all, a write can be discovered only one, and after that, the scrutiny of critics grows more exacting. Or there could be something in the nature of the individual and the early family setting that influenced the person toward fantasizing, fictionalizing – a tendency towards daydreaming extravagant scenarios of accomplishment. These imply a wish to excel an, with those who turn to writing fiction, plays or poems, an ambition to excel as a writer…. The Freudian discovery that the conflicts, feelings of loneliness, and disappointments we possessed that at the beginning led us toward fictionalizing are not entirely satisfied by the success but instead remain. There has been no miraculous transformation, and in many ways the sensitive parts of us remain exactly the same …… feelings of failure are almost certain to enter into the life of he published author, even with works that appear to be triumphs…. Instead of rejoicing, the writer is likely to be enraged by those literary critics who find the work deficient in quality.”
Spoiler Alert!
The book was originally called Catch 18 but required to be changed as Mila-18 by Leon Uris had been released. The book was very nearly called Catch 14 till the number was finally changed to 22 on the whimsical notion of 22 October being Heller’s literary agent’s birthday. There is a controversy here as the Editor claims that the number came to him as a revelation – a dream induced revelation.
August 20, 2011
I don't think I've ever learned more about a writer's work from reading a biography as I have from
Tracy Daugherty's "Just One Catch," the first lengthy account of Joseph Heller's life (other than his own guarded memoir) we have. As I write this, another book about Heller by his daughter Erica is about to be published, and that inside look at growing up in the Heller family is likely to supplement this more academic study. But Daugherty is especially good at relating events of Heller's life to the permutations of those events in his fiction. This connection is significant because we don't usually think of Heller as a "realistic" writer. In fact, his major work, "Catch-22" is generally viewed as an absurdist, highly imaginative alternative to the realistic war novels of James Jones and Norman Mailer. As Daugherty points out, Heller wanted to deal with military life in an altogether different way than Jones and Mailer did in "From Here to Eternity" and "The Naked and the Dead." Throughout his career, he was always pushing the envelope, highly successfully in his first two novels, somewhat less so in the remainder of his work.
Nonetheless, the achievement of "Catch-22" and "Something Happened," assures him a place as one of the most important American writers of the 20th Century because both spawned a host of imitators and deeply influenced the language and shape of American culture. Films and TV sitcoms like "Mash" and "The Office" and "Mad Men" are clearly indebted to Heller's work and his darkly comic style influenced a host of writers like John Irving, Jonathan Franzen, and Tim O'Brian, to name just a few.
I never knew, though, that the central event in "Catch-22," the death of the bombadier, Snowden, in Yossarian's arms, was a densely imagined version of an actual experience of Heller's during World War II. But, as Daugherty shows us, Heller changed the emphasis in his fiction from the actual story to the way the story is told. Hence we get glimpses of Snowden's horrific death throughout "Catch-22" but the full event doesn't come into focus until the last telling of it when Snowden's guts, replete with bits of stewed tomatoes he had for lunch, come spilling out and reveal the dark secret at the heart of "Catch-22": "Man was matter...Drop him out a window and he'll fall. Set fire to him and he'll burn. Bury him and he'll rot like other kinds of garbage. The spirit gone, man is garbage. That was Snowden's secret."
In "Something Happened" Heller skewers corporate beauracracy similarly to the way he lampoons military bureaurcracy in his first novel, but after that he had trouble holding on to his audience. "Good as Gold," his third book dealing primarily with his Jewish heritage got lukewarm reviews and most of the books after that were received with downright hostility. In a generally favorable review of "Good as Gold," the NY Times critic Mordecai Richler pinpointed Heller's problem. He recognizes Heller's intent to start out afresh with each novel and avoid doing a "Catch-23" or "Something Else Happened," but points out as well the perils of this approach: "If you are going to hit .400, don't be so reckless as to do it in your rookie season."
Daugherty's book is strongest when he takes us through each of Heller's books, reviving interest in works that have largely been forgotten: "God Knows," "Picture This," "Closing Time," "Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man," and "No Laughing Matter," the book he co-authored with his friend Speed Vogel about his long struggle with Gullain-Barre syndrome, an auto-immune disease that left him incapcitated for several years. He also chronicles Heller's bitter late-in -life divorce and his rat-pack-like antics with friends like Mel Brooks, Mario Puzo, Bruce Friedman. The book is copiously annotated and thoroughly researched. This is academic scholarship as it should be: engaging, well-written, insightful, and simply a pleasure to read.
Tracy Daugherty's "Just One Catch," the first lengthy account of Joseph Heller's life (other than his own guarded memoir) we have. As I write this, another book about Heller by his daughter Erica is about to be published, and that inside look at growing up in the Heller family is likely to supplement this more academic study. But Daugherty is especially good at relating events of Heller's life to the permutations of those events in his fiction. This connection is significant because we don't usually think of Heller as a "realistic" writer. In fact, his major work, "Catch-22" is generally viewed as an absurdist, highly imaginative alternative to the realistic war novels of James Jones and Norman Mailer. As Daugherty points out, Heller wanted to deal with military life in an altogether different way than Jones and Mailer did in "From Here to Eternity" and "The Naked and the Dead." Throughout his career, he was always pushing the envelope, highly successfully in his first two novels, somewhat less so in the remainder of his work.
Nonetheless, the achievement of "Catch-22" and "Something Happened," assures him a place as one of the most important American writers of the 20th Century because both spawned a host of imitators and deeply influenced the language and shape of American culture. Films and TV sitcoms like "Mash" and "The Office" and "Mad Men" are clearly indebted to Heller's work and his darkly comic style influenced a host of writers like John Irving, Jonathan Franzen, and Tim O'Brian, to name just a few.
I never knew, though, that the central event in "Catch-22," the death of the bombadier, Snowden, in Yossarian's arms, was a densely imagined version of an actual experience of Heller's during World War II. But, as Daugherty shows us, Heller changed the emphasis in his fiction from the actual story to the way the story is told. Hence we get glimpses of Snowden's horrific death throughout "Catch-22" but the full event doesn't come into focus until the last telling of it when Snowden's guts, replete with bits of stewed tomatoes he had for lunch, come spilling out and reveal the dark secret at the heart of "Catch-22": "Man was matter...Drop him out a window and he'll fall. Set fire to him and he'll burn. Bury him and he'll rot like other kinds of garbage. The spirit gone, man is garbage. That was Snowden's secret."
In "Something Happened" Heller skewers corporate beauracracy similarly to the way he lampoons military bureaurcracy in his first novel, but after that he had trouble holding on to his audience. "Good as Gold," his third book dealing primarily with his Jewish heritage got lukewarm reviews and most of the books after that were received with downright hostility. In a generally favorable review of "Good as Gold," the NY Times critic Mordecai Richler pinpointed Heller's problem. He recognizes Heller's intent to start out afresh with each novel and avoid doing a "Catch-23" or "Something Else Happened," but points out as well the perils of this approach: "If you are going to hit .400, don't be so reckless as to do it in your rookie season."
Daugherty's book is strongest when he takes us through each of Heller's books, reviving interest in works that have largely been forgotten: "God Knows," "Picture This," "Closing Time," "Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man," and "No Laughing Matter," the book he co-authored with his friend Speed Vogel about his long struggle with Gullain-Barre syndrome, an auto-immune disease that left him incapcitated for several years. He also chronicles Heller's bitter late-in -life divorce and his rat-pack-like antics with friends like Mel Brooks, Mario Puzo, Bruce Friedman. The book is copiously annotated and thoroughly researched. This is academic scholarship as it should be: engaging, well-written, insightful, and simply a pleasure to read.
July 11, 2016
Once I began reading this biography, I realized that I had read it before, or much of it--excerpted in a magazine some years ago. It made a strong impression on me then--how revelatory it was of Heller's personality in the heyday of his fame in the 60s and beyond after writing 'Catch-22', and how fascinating and horrifying the story of his 1980s illness (Guillain Barre Syndrome) was, with its strange happy-ish ending of mostly-recovered health and weird final marriage to his nurse.
Now reading the "rest" of the story of his life before and after these two pivotal events (writing a best-seller classic and falling very ill) I find myself skimming the boring parts, the depressing parts, the philandering and general mistreatment of his first wife, the egotistic posturing, the whole-hearted efforts to follow up 'Catch-22', the increasing mistreatment starting again with his second wife.... It's peculiar how good a short magazine article some of this carefully-chosen, edited-down material was, and how difficult a book it becomes when the whole story is opened up in all its detail. In the end I couldn't finish it--too sad, not a likeable-enough protagonist.
Now reading the "rest" of the story of his life before and after these two pivotal events (writing a best-seller classic and falling very ill) I find myself skimming the boring parts, the depressing parts, the philandering and general mistreatment of his first wife, the egotistic posturing, the whole-hearted efforts to follow up 'Catch-22', the increasing mistreatment starting again with his second wife.... It's peculiar how good a short magazine article some of this carefully-chosen, edited-down material was, and how difficult a book it becomes when the whole story is opened up in all its detail. In the end I couldn't finish it--too sad, not a likeable-enough protagonist.
November 7, 2011
An excellent biography, very well researched and insightful that gives the reader enough information to make her own judgements about its subject. It does a good job of treating its subject in an evenhanded manner, making him come alive, and giving the reader sympathy for him despite his embodying so many of the worst characteristics of self-centered, chauvinistic Jewish men of his generation.
Those of us who write novels and whose idea of a "modest advance" is not the $750,000 that Heller received for one of his later, minor works, can only marvel at just how lucky he was to write what he wrote at the time that he did and have everything fall into place so that he could, basically, do whatever he wanted for the rest of his life and get generously overpaid for it. Writers will never have it that good again. But despite the celebrity, the parade of willing babes, Heller did stay committed to writing and to writing things that mattered. You have to love that about him.
Now I'll have to go back and read Catch-22 which I last read when I was in high school...
Those of us who write novels and whose idea of a "modest advance" is not the $750,000 that Heller received for one of his later, minor works, can only marvel at just how lucky he was to write what he wrote at the time that he did and have everything fall into place so that he could, basically, do whatever he wanted for the rest of his life and get generously overpaid for it. Writers will never have it that good again. But despite the celebrity, the parade of willing babes, Heller did stay committed to writing and to writing things that mattered. You have to love that about him.
Now I'll have to go back and read Catch-22 which I last read when I was in high school...
January 3, 2015
Heller's masterpiece is one of the armful of the best books I ever read. When I read "Catch-22" when I read it in high in the mid-sixties, I had no way of knowing it would prepare me for Vietnam. I will always remember of the young woman who slipped the blue covered paperback fondly.
This "literary biography" gave me some insight of the life experience that molded the genius that wrote a book that shaped me so much.
This "literary biography" gave me some insight of the life experience that molded the genius that wrote a book that shaped me so much.
May 19, 2015
Pretty fascinating biography. That makes two in a row, with Ted Williams first, now Joe Heller. Lots of parallels between them; success early in their respective careers, and then never able to replicate or top it. Both had estranged children and were serial womanizers. I now feel compelled to read Catch-22. I recall reading it when I was a teen, so here we are 40 years later and I will re-read it, with some new knowledge of the author.
August 12, 2011
Very good overview of Heller's life and work with a minimum of psychological mumbo-jumbo and most of the emphasis on the work and critical response to it...decent,unpretentious Basic Biography...and it is sending me back to re-read the post-"Catch-22" novels which I may have undervalued on first reading...
December 25, 2011
A well researched and interesting biography. Daugherty gives readers a close up look at Heller's life, covering both his genius and his flaws. I'd envisioned Heller based only on Catch-22, not thinking of his life as an older man. I did not realize he had written a number of other books that explore completely different topics and other life stages.
September 29, 2015
A very enjoyable biography. Having just finished Catch 22 I wanted to know more about Heller. The book is intelligent, witty, detailed and exciting. It also never shies away from revealing Heller's warts. Heck other authors could learn a thing or to from this biography as it gets the most out of the material it is presented with.
September 28, 2012
Rather than write a brief blurb here, I'll post a link to my review of the book on an external website, if anyone is interested:
http://logosjournal.com/2012/spring-s...
January 15, 2013
A good biography of Heller. He was a complicated person, whose best work was probably Catch-22.
November 10, 2014
Well written bio that will lead to more books. Great look at Heller and his place in time.
January 10, 2023
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