Closing Time

Zacznę od tego, że naprawdę uwielbiam pierwszą część tej “serii”. Kiedy sięgnęłam po tę książkę, miałam dość duże wymagania. Jednak, niestety, lekko się zawiodłam.

Już po pierwszych rozdziałach pojawiła się w mojej głowie myśl - czy ta książka jest naprawdę komukolwiek potrzebna? Nie wnosi nic odkrywczego i, niestety, jest dość powtarzalna. Ciężko mi było przeczytać kolejne akapity. Fabuła, jeśli można ją tak nazwać, bo nadal nie jestem pewna, o czym ta powieść jest, nie była porywająca ani nawet zaskakująca.

Czego też mi bardzo brakowało to ta charakterystyczna dla Hellera groteska. W poprzednim tomie każda scena była prześmiewcza. Czasem czułam się aż niezręcznie, śmiejąc się na książce o II Wojnie Światowej, ale to w jakiś sposób grało. Tu natomiast niektóre sceny są satyryczne, a inne tak poważne, że cała koncepcja trochę mi się rozjeżdżała. Jakbym czytał rozdział jednej książki, a następny z kompletnie innej beczki. Rozumiem, że temat jest poważny, bo życie weteranów to ciężka sprawa, ale wielu już pokazało, że o rzeczach ważnych można pisać z humorem.

Wiem, że dużo nawiązuje do “Paragrafu 22”, ale sprzedaje się to jako całość, więc tak też powinno funkcjonować. A tu klops. Z jednej strony fani oryginalnej powieści poczują się zawiedzeni, a z drugiej - bez jej znajomości nie warto czytać kontynuacji, bo nie będzie miała sensu.

Wydaje mi się, że Heller po wielu średnio odebranych książkach postanowił wrócić do tego, co przyniosło mu sławę. Ta teoria tłumaczy również wtrącanie do “P22-bis” postaci z innych swoich powieści - taka subtelna autopromocja.

Nie jest to jednak książka zła. Mnie po prostu zawiodła, przez co skierowało moją uwagę na to, co mi nie pasowało. Jednak niektóre rozdziały czytało mi się naprawdę świetnie. Po prostu całość wypada dość mizernie, zwłaszcza świeżo po skończeniu poprzedniej części, która była dla mnie subiektywnie lepsza.

This was an extremely difficult piece to get through.

The plot was completely nonsensical, constantly flip-flopping and changing direction without any rhyme or reason.

The narrative voice was equally erratic, switching to first person seemingly on a whim, which made it even more confusing for the reader.

The book reached a point where it felt like a fever-dream chapter of nonsense, with most of the characters all speaking at the same time without any pause.

It read less like a legitimate literary work and more like the ramblings of an old man who was desperately trying to recapture the success of a book he had written over 30 years ago.

What was especially annoying was the inclusion of one of the characters winding up alongside Kurt Vonnegut as a POW in Dresden, blatantly stealing elements from Slaughterhouse-Five.

This felt like a cheap and desperate grab for relevance, rather than a creative and original addition to the story.

Overall, this was a disappointing read that failed to deliver on any level.

I read Catch-22 a long time ago (didn't we all?). When I saw this on a used book stand at the market, I naturally picked it up. What a disappointment! I would love to give this book even two stars based on Heller's reputation. I loved "Something Happened" even more than "Catch-22". But in all honesty, I simply can't. This book is soooo long, so meandering, and so boring that it gets only one star.

The book was written in the late 80's and really shows its age. There are long scenes of attempted satire about the government in Washington and the military. They depict the people in charge as total idiots with no redeeming features. They posture, evade, play games with billions of dollars, and have no goal other than self-preservation.

Other major sections of the novel are about the private lives of Yossarian and some of his mates from Catch-22, as well as a few new characters. Yossarian seems to be playing at being paranoid, even though deep down he may know it's a game. He is in his late 60's, approaching old age, but in good health. Nevertheless, he constantly checks himself into hospitals with imagined ailments. All the characters are rich and have none of the concerns of "normal" people. For some reason, he thinks people (Belgians?) are spying on him, but no one is willing to give him a slap and say "Snap out of it." This is especially true of his son, who is financially dependent on his father and spinelessly humors him for most of the novel.

There are also huge sections about the planning of a wedding in Grand Central Station and the discovery of a secret government facility below it. This gives Heller a chance to decry the assortment of low life characters who hang around the station permanently. But instead of discussing why this is necessary for some people in the social fabric of America at the time, they are just dismissed as less than human by the uniformly well-off main characters.

So, yes, you may want to read it for old time's sake, to see what became of the characters from the original. But believe me, it's not worth it. Let them stay hallowed and rosy in your memory. Reading this diminishes the greatness of the entire saga of Catch-22.

I managed to reach a hundred pages, but I simply wasn't enjoying the process. There are some issues with the visual imagery, and the writing comes across as a bit clumsy. It gives the impression of being more of a chatty or unstructured piece.

If you belong to the older and more conservative group, perhaps this might suit you better. However, for those who prefer a more polished and engaging style, it may not be as satisfying.

The lack of smoothness in the writing and the somewhat unclear visual depictions make it a bit of a struggle to fully immerse oneself in the text.

Nonetheless, it's important to note that different people have different tastes, and what may not work for one might be exactly what another is looking for.

Maybe with some further refinement and attention to detail, this could be transformed into a more enjoyable and impactful piece of work.

The low score doesn't signify any disappointment I have towards "Closing Time" not measuring up to its renowned predecessor, "Catch-22", which I still hold dear as one of my favorite books. Instead, it truly boils down to this being a bit of a puzzler. It's a real hodgepodge of different storylines that don't neatly come together in the end.

It has many redeeming qualities. The sections featuring 'new' characters Sammy Singer and Lew, for instance, while not in the trademark witty Heller-style of the prequel (though there's plenty of it in other sections), had a great deal of heart and melancholy. And although it's humorous, unfortunately, the Yossarian storyline never really takes off properly. To be honest, he's not really developed well this time around, more like an extra in his own story. The chaplain ends up in a really strange subplot that's hilarious at first but ultimately feels underdeveloped and underutilized. Meanwhile, the satire on politics, rich people, and the military-industrial complex is all a bit heavy-handed.

There's also a surprising amount of reminiscing. Not just of the craziness of Pianosa 40 years earlier, but there are quite a number of memorable moments told from one character's perspective that later return from the perspective of others. Unfortunately, very often this occurs in a kind of lazy, lackluster manner without really changing much about its context or meaning. It's more in an "oh yeah, that also happened" way, as if checking off items on a shopping list for that character. This adds to a strange sense of redundancy in the writing that isn't as sharp as in Heller's previous works.

As for the underground/afterlife(?) plot, I've read through dozens of reviews on this site to understand the allegory, but either no one knows or no one cares. A few people noted that it may be related to the operas that feature prominently, but they didn't know the specifics either. It确实 feels like I'm missing an important part of where Heller was headed, missing clues as I go along. Whether it was an attempt to link Dante's Inferno to a Dr. Strangelove-style apocalypse, I don't know. But as of now, it mostly leaves me confused.

It's possible that at some point in the future, I'll come across the missing piece of the puzzle and may have to rethink both this book and my rating.

Attempting to produce a ‘sequel’ to Catch-22 was always likely to be a significant challenge. Heller’s 1961 novel is not only my favourite satire but also one of my top novels of any genre. In this kaleidoscopic work, which is nearly 600 pages long, Heller throws in everything, including the kitchen sink.

As soon as a character named Strangelove (later Dr Strangelove) is mentioned and the song We’ll Meet Again is brought up, the destination of Heller’s characters becomes evident. Meanwhile, we have Yossarian and the pairing of Sammy Singer (a character from Yossarian’s bomber 33 years earlier) and Lew Rabinowitz sharing parallel stories of their deteriorating health in very moving terms. Mortality thus plays a crucial role here, along with a sharp critique of the decline of western society, as exemplified by Heller’s descriptions of the ‘down-and-outs’ in central New York City, and a parody of politics and capitalism, brilliantly illustrated in the detailed account of a ‘high society wedding’ in the local bus terminal and the latest money-making scheme pursued by Milo Minderbinder.

Heller’s prose is wonderfully dense, freely mixing parody and absurdism, with little regard for logic or chronology. Cultural references are abundant, often seemingly without rhyme or reason, but they include the appearance of a character called Vonnegut and a beautiful closing passage围绕 Mahler’s 5th Symphony. It’s crazy, but essential for all fans of the original Catch-22 novel.

I was initially inclined to rate this book 3 stars.

It wasn't until the final chapter that I began to understand what was truly happening. However, upon further reflection, I realized that the entire novel is masterfully written.

I believe it was Heller's intention to keep the reader in the dark for a significant portion of the story. The book has minimal exposition and jumps between multiple characters, each with their own unique narrative style.

Returning from Catch-22 is Yossarian, now in his late-60s and working for the despised Milo Minderbinder. Milo has continued his unethical corporate endeavors for the past five decades.

Also featuring in Yossarian's arc are Wintergreen, who has developed an extremely vulgar vocabulary (one of the book's few comedic elements), and Chaplain Tappman, who may possess a crucial resource for Milo's capitalistic ventures with the military.

Alongside Yossarian's storyline are two of the book's most captivating characters, Sammy Singer and Lew Rabinowitz. These two fellow WWII vets are witnessing the world they fought to save being consumed by international conflict, disease, and faceless capitalism.

The days of Coney Island and its glittering amusements are long gone, replaced by a world moving at a breakneck pace and hurtling towards oblivion.

These chapters carry the weight of the novel's message, with both men suffering from the effects of cancer. Sammy lost his wife to ovarian cancer, while Lew is battling Hodgkin's Disease.

Their sections are presented as long monologues, as if they were addressing a veteran's support group or a therapist. These chapters are deeply poignant and tragic, filled with memories of the past.

From the Steeplechase in turn-of-the-century Coney Island to the War and their subsequent accomplishments and successes, each man seems to represent different personas in anti-war literature.

Singer appears to be a stand-in for Heller himself, having achieved similar feats in life. Although Heller is named in the novel, the meta-PoMo of Closing Time adds an interesting layer for the reader to discover.

Rabinowitz, on the other hand, closely resembles Kurt Vonnegut. While Singer made a brief appearance in Catch-22, Rabinowitz is a completely new character with his own stories and flashbacks from his time in the War as a foot soldier in Europe.

He was captured and imprisoned in Dresden, where he, like Vonnegut, survived the devastating bombing of the city by Allied forces. These two life-altering events shape the characters and present a fatalism that contrasts sharply with the chaos of Yossarian's story.

The book also makes references to Dr. Strangelove, an iconic antiwar story, as well as works of classical literature and opera. It all seems to lead nowhere until the main plot point is finally revealed.

Based on the numerous negative reviews I've seen, I must say that Closing Time is not the comedic masterpiece that Catch-22 is. It belongs to a different time and era.

The 1960s and its radical protests are long gone. Thirty years have passed between the publication of the two books, and the world has changed dramatically.

In the interim, there was the Vietnam War, several recessions, global capitalism, the Persian Gulf War, the Reagan Administration, and the arrival of the Democratic Clinton Administration.

All of these events seem to have been viewed with complete cynicism by Heller and the men of his generation. Every chapter is filled with a biting vitriol, and the outlook is bleak.

Closing Time is undoubtedly sadder than Catch-22, and if you're seeking a lighthearted, page-turning read, this may not be the book for you. Instead, Heller takes the apocalyptic chapter from Catch-22 and expands it into an entire novel, exploring the feelings of emptiness and hopelessness.

Despite the novel's lack of exposition (which I believe was deliberate), it is still effective and kept me engaged throughout. I love Catch-22, and I also loved this book.

While there's no question that Catch-22 is the more beloved of the two, I think they complement each other and are essential to understanding the full scope of Heller's vision. Together, they march towards Armageddon, hand in hand.

It certainly did not live up to Catch-22. However, it was still an interesting read.

I really liked the parallel between Yossarian and Lew. It was quite fascinating to see the similarities and differences between the two characters.

I did feel that this book might appeal more to me in about 50 years. The reason being that the story mainly revolves around old age and death. At my current age, I may not fully understand or appreciate all the nuances and emotions related to these themes.

Frighteningly, I found the president, called The Little Prick, vaguely resemble our dear Trump. Although I hope that even he is more competent than the little prick. It was a bit disturbing to see such a resemblance, but it also made me think about the state of our society and the kind of leaders we have.

Overall, this book had its moments of interest and made me reflect on various aspects of life, but it also had its shortcomings.