Best Selling Books by Joseph Heller

A darkly comic and ambitious sequel to the American classic Catch-22. In Closing Time, Joseph Heller returns to the characters of Catch-22, now coming to the end of their lives and the century, as is the entire generation that fought in World War II: Yossarian and Milo Minderbinder, the chaplain, and such newcomers as little Sammy Singer and giant Lew, all linked, in an uneasy peace and old age, fighting not the Germans this time, but The End. Closing Time deftly satirizes the realities and the myths of America in the half century since WWII: the absurdity of our politics, the decline of our society and our great cities, the greed and hypocrisy of our business and culture -- with the same ferocious humor as Catch-22. Closing Time is outrageously funny and totally serious, and as brilliant and successful as Catch-22 itself, a fun-house mirror that captures, at once grotesquely and accurately, the truth about ourselves.

As the Biblical David lies on his death-bed he looks back on his own, crowded life and tells all.

An uproarious and frank memoir of illness and recovery, No Laughing Matter is a story of friendship and recuperation from the author of the classic Catch-22. It all began one typical day in the life of Joe Heller. He was jogging four miles at a clip these days, working on his novel God Knows, coping with the complications of an unpleasant divorce, and pigging out once or twice a week on Chinese food with cronies like Mel Brooks, Mario Puzo, and his buddy of more than twenty years, Speed Vogel. He was feeling perfectly fine that day—but within twenty-four hours he would be in intensive care at Manhattan''s Mount Sinai Hospital. He would remain hospitalized for nearly six months and leave in a wheelchair. Joseph Heller had Guillain-Barré syndrome, a debilitating, sometimes fatal condition that can leave its victims paralyzed from head to toe. The clan gathered immediately. Speed—sometime artist, sometime businessman, sometime herring taster, and now a coauthor—moved into Joe''s apartment as messenger, servant, and shaman. Mel Brooks, arch-hypochondriac of the Western world, knew as much about Heller''s condition as the doctors. Mario Puzo, author of the preeminent gangster novel of our time, proved to be the most reluctant man ever to be dragged along on a hospital visit. These and lots of others rallied around the sickbed in a show of loyalty and friendship that not only built a wild and spirited camaraderie but helped bring Joe Heller, writer and buddy extraordinaire, through his greatest crisis. This book is an inspiring, hilarious memoir of a calamitous illness and the rocky road to recuperation—as only the author of Catch-22 and the friend who helped him back to health could tell it. No Laughing Matter is as wacky, terrifying, and greathearted as any fiction Joseph Heller ever wrote.

"As Rembrandt is creating his famous painting of Aristotle contemplating the bust of Homer, Aristotle is soon able to see and hear. As the masterpiece makes its way through history, Aristotle''s complicated mind finds unanswerable dilemmas."--

Bob Slocum, an average, middle-aged man with a good job, slowly becomes more and more unhappy with the routine of his life.

Dr. Bruce Gold, a forty-eight-year-old Jewish professor of English, faces the possibilities of being appointed to a high State Department position and being disowned by his family.

In this memoir, Joseph Heller takes the reader on a journey back to his upbringing in a poor, predominantly Jewish neighbourhood in Coney Island, through his World War II experiences as a bombadier in the US Air Force in Italy, to his current life as an internationally acclaimed author.

Not many writers introduce a phrase - let alone a whole idea - into the language. In CATCH-22, Joseph Heller invented a motif for the modern world. For that book alone he is one of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century. But where did the author who was able to create that novel come from? And what happened to those remarkable characters? CATCH AS CATCH CAN for the first time collects early works, previously unpublished stories and lost chapters of CATCH-22 to chart the development of a genius. It also explores the consequences in the later stories of the unforgettable Yossarian, and Heller''s non-fiction pieces, in which the author reflects upon his childhood in Coney Island and the novel which shaped everything that was written after it.

Collections of interviews with notable modern writers

Imagine an author who has become a legend in his own lifetime - all because of the novel he wrote in the first flush of youth. Novelist Eugene Pota is a cultural icon of the twentieth century, struggling to write what will be the last novel of his career. But what to write about when, like so many noted authors before him, all of Pota''s output since that first, landmark novel has been scrutinized and dissected - and found wanting? PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST, AS AN OLD MAN follows Pota''s efforts to settle on a subject for his final work. In his search, Heller - through Pota - pays homage to his favourite authors and discusses the problems that have plagued so many writers whose later works failed to live up to the successes of their first: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, Jack London, Joseph Conrad, to name but a few. It is a rare and enthralling look into the artist''s search for creativity, a search that comes at a point in life when impotence - both sexual and spiritual - has become a frustrating fact. Joseph Heller must have known that this would be his final novel; it stands as a fitting testament to the life and works of a leading light in modern literature.

A guide to reading "Catch-22" with a critical and appreciative mind encouraging analysis of plot, style, form, and structure. Also includes background on the author''s life and times, sample test, term paper suggestions, and a reading list.

Joseph Heller tells the story of the complex and often conflicting political calculations that led directly to the founding of the independent Jewish state of Israel in the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust. Examining the positions of many competing parties, he explains how and why the charismatic David Ben-Gurion prevailed: by shrewdly manoeuvering between radical extremes on the left and on the right, he says, Ben-Gurion managed to steer a successful middle-of-the-road policy in favour of partition.

L''espressione "Comma 22", è diventata, grazie a questo libro, emblema dell''assurdità e della demenza militare. Protagonista è l''antieroico bombardiere americano Yossarian, ossessionato dall''idea che migliaia di persone sconosciute, alle quali lui personalmente non ha fatto nulla, tentino continuamente di porre fine ai suoi giorni. La storia è popolata di personaggi stravaganti e irreparabilmente maniaci, che nella zelante applicazione della disciplina marziale mettono in ridicolo la ferrea e folle logica del Comma 22. Pubblicato per la prima volta nel 1963, questo romanzo è stato universalmente riconosciuto come il capolavoro della letteratura antimilitarista di tutti i tempi, per la rappresentazione grottesca della retorica militare della morte. Molti dei pacifisti che manifestavano davanti alla Casa Bianca ai tempi del Vietnam portavano appunto una spilla con lo slogan "Yossarian vive". Da questo romanzo la serie Sky Original CATCH-22 diretta, prodotta e interpretata da George Clooney.

La acción se desarrolla durante los últimos meses de la Segunda Guerra Mundial y se centra en una escuadrilla de bombarderos estadounidense. El coronel Cathcart, jefe de la escuadrilla, quiere ser ascendido a general. Y no encuentra mejor manera que enviar a sus hombres a realizar las misiones más peligrosas. Con una lógica siniestra, Yossarian, un piloto subordinado de Cathcart que intenta ser eximido del servicio alegando enfermedad mental, recibe por respuesta que sólo los locos aceptan misiones aéreas y que su disgusto demuestra que está sano y que, por tanto, es apto para volar. La evolución psicológica de Yossarian refleja la aguda crítica que hace Joseph Heller de un patriotismo mal entendido, el cual exige sacrificios inadmisibles. Trampa 22, que se convirtió en el libro de cabecera del movimiento pacifista de los años sesenta, constituye un modelo de humor negro y absurdo en la literatura estadounidense.--Desde la descripción de la editorial.

An unheroic, undemonic history the extremist underground Zionist movement founded by Abraham Stern, which has previously only been portrayed by its adherents and adversaries. Traces how the movement originated in the radical right of European politics, spurned British help to seek alliance with the Axis powers, shifted to leftist ideas and sought alignment with the Soviet Union, and splintered once it became legal within the State of Israel. Paper edition (4106-5) $25.00. Distributed by ISBS. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

First Published in 2004. Throughout the half-century between the Crimean War and the outbreak of the First World War, few countries confronted successive British governments with the complexity of problems posed by the Ottoman Empire. This study attempts to attain three main objectives. The first is an analysis of the growth and development of British policy at two levels: the Embassy and the Foreign Office. The second is an assessment of the influence of various embassies on decision-making in the Foreign Office. The third is an estimate of the influence of European and Imperial considerations upon the formulation of Britain''s policy towards the Ottoman Empire.

In the books first essay, The Ben-Gurion Magnes Debate, Jewish State or Binational State, Professor Heller juxtaposes David Ben-Gurion and Judah L. Magnes as pivotal adversaries speaking to the primary problems of Zionist ideology and identity. Heller''s companion essay, Israel''s Borders in Historical Perspective: The Security-Demography Dilemma, provides a vivid running historical account and analysis of Israel''s infra-structure, its borders and non-borders, its population densities and non-densities, its defenses and non-defenses in the face of continual besiegement.

Table of contents: Fair stood the wind for France / H.E. Bates -- How Brigadier Gerard won his medal / Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -- The Invaders (from The Last enemy) / Richard Hillary -- The War of the worlds / H.G. Wells -- All quiet on the western front / Erich Maria Remarque -- The Battle of Borodino (from War and peace) / Leo Tolstoy -- Catch 22 / Joseph Heller -- Buller''s guns / Richard Hough -- Arctic convoy (from H.M.S. Ulysses) / Alistair MacLean -- The Red badge of courage / Stephen Crane -- Escape from Colditz (from They have their exits) / Airey Neave -- Goodbye to all that / Robert Graves -- The Moon''s a balloon / David Niven -- The Warrior''s soul / Joseph Conrad. (cont) -- Fly for your life / Larry Forrester -- The Naked and the dead / Norman Mailer -- The Reason why / Cecil Woodham Smith -- The Affair at Coulter''s Notch / Ambrose Bierce -- The Fort at Zinderneuf (from Beau Geste) / P.C. Wren -- The Cruel sea / Nicholas Monsarrat -- Waterloo (from Vanity fair / W.M. Thackeray -- Enemy coast ahead / Guy Gibson V.C. -- Into battle (from Her privates we) / Frederic Manning -- Acknowledgements.

This is a satirical indictment of military madness and stupidity, and the desire of the ordinary man to survive it. It is the tale of the dangerously sane Captain Yossarian, who spends his time in Italy plotting to survive.