Review: Something Happened
Editorial Review - Kirkus ReviewsComing up with a judgment on Something Happened (you'll wait a while for that something to happen -- nothing does until the shattering clincher) should be the hottest game of Russian roulette in town this fall. There's probably more riding on this book than any other in terms of author anticipation and publisher expectation. It runs close to 600 pages and is full of repetition which can be one of those suicidal assets (""call the repetition perseveration"" -- that's Heller) in what amounts to a story without a story sans the pseudo of those now dated anti-novels. Heller's novel, Heller's tour de verbal force, Heller's stomp then, is a representation of the underachieved contemporary man boobytrapped all the way from his harassment at home to the office where he's making his way up over someone else's body. Perhaps he's closest to one of Roth's middle-aged, self-made victims, full of lapsed hopes and more guilts than any man should have to assume. Ecce homo -- Bob Slocum, always on the verge of something ominously imminent -- prostate, suicide, failure, death -- while only having experienced a string of little satisfactions, ""jobs, love affairs and fornications."" Slocum figures negatively as husband of a wife who now drinks too much even if she has become more amatory in the process, father of a daughter who challenges, provokes and undermines him, also of a son who is diffident and withdrawn whom he loves best of all, and non-father of Derek whom they prefer not to think about at all. He's retarded and ""looks like lockjaw"" when he talks. Hardly a new type, Bob Slocum, on the cramped plateau of middle-age, ""tense, poor, bleak, listless, depressed,"" and rightly feeling that ""there is no place for me to go."" He's infinitely vulnerable. And undecided. Should they put Derek away? Should he get a divorce? ""l have acrimony. . .I have more pain than acrimony."" Obviously there is none of the rogue absurdism or imaginative verve of Catch-22; only a circular sameness which one may justify (even if it is monotonous) with the Teacup observation of a much more serene man, Oliver Wendell Holmes: ""What if one does say the same things -- of course in a little different form each time -- over and over. If he has anything to say worth saying, that is just what he ought to do."" It is worth saying (or reiterating -- however you want to look at it) to the degree that Slocum is symptomatic of this age -- beleaguered all the way from his bad teeth to his rotten conscience. We know him only too well and it is the recognition factor which counts, along with the book's bravura, expertise and cumulative hook. . . . Whatever, wherever, Heller's Kvetch-570 will be read and read and read.
Review: Something Happened
User Review - Del Herman - GoodreadsJoseph Heller's second novel (after his masterpiece "Catch-22") is a thoroughly engaging read, an insightful satire to American business and personal life in the sixties and seventies, and a portrait ... Read full review
Review: Something Happened
User Review - Rick Bowen - GoodreadsWas convinced when I first read it that this was the most important literary work of Heller's generation (the generation BTW 30 years before mine). Ostensibly a performance piece a la Portnoy's ... Read full review
Review: Something Happened
User Review - James - Goodreads"A slow mundane piss into the wind". Read full review
Review: Something Happened
User Review - Brian D. - GoodreadsMany have lived a life similar to that of Heller's main character, Bob Slocum. I also have a daughter and a son close to the ages of the characters within, and have found it astounding the way he'd ... Read full review
Review: Something Happened
User Review - Smcleish - GoodreadsOriginally published on my blog here in August 2003. It took a decade for Heller to produce his second novel, and it is one on which critical reception has been divided. It is the story of Bob Slocum ... Read full review
Review: Something Happened
User Review - Karl ST - GoodreadsIn my opinion, this is Joseph Heller's best novel, bar none. Something Happened is Mr. Heller's second novel, published in 1974 and is thirteen years after his great first novel, Catch-22. The ... Read full review
Review: Something Happened
User Review - [P] - GoodreadsYou know how The Tunnel by William H Gass is the great hulking tome of pure hate that all the cool kids like? [And it is brilliant, don't get me wrong; I'm cool too]. Well, this, in my view, is ... Read full review
Review: Something Happened
User Review - ERNIE KOTSOS - GoodreadsFour stars, due to the Godless profanity and thought process. It is very intellectually honest but reflects a dead spiritual condition. Unfortunately, I have to say that I developed a morbid ... Read full review
Review: Something Happened
User Review - Pat Anderson - GoodreadsI was quite disppointed with this book. After reading Catch-22 I just had to read Heller's other works. The misery heaped on the poor protagonist is painful to bear. There is some humour in the book ... Read full review
