Hace ya bastantes meses que terminé esta novela, y en todo este tiempo no he dejado de pensar y hablar sobre ella. Ahora que comienzo a olvidar detalles, y esa niebla que envuelve los sucesos concretos de las lecturas ha comenzado a hacer su efecto, será más sencillo escribir unas líneas. Definiría “Algo ha pasado” como una novela agresiva, rabiosa. El narrador, Bob Slocum, es agresivo, racista, cobarde, machista, homófobo, egoísta... Su discurso y manera de analizarse son agresivos, rozando la autolesión. Además, la forma repetitiva e insistente de la novela también es agresiva con el lector. Sin embargo, a pesar de todo, como lectora, Slocum me ha contagiado buena parte de su agresividad y rabia, y he llegado a la carcajada con su desesperación y pensamientos desquiciados.

Bob Slocum se enfrenta a muchos problemas en su vida diaria. Tiene un buen trabajo, pero se pregunta si es lo más que puede conseguir de su vida. También tiene una familia, pero siente que no puede hablar con ellos sobre las cosas que le importan. Además, su hija está infeliz, su hijo tiene dificultades y él y su esposa no pueden comunicarse realmente. Bob piensa mucho en el divorcio, incluso antes de casarse. Pero no sabe qué esperaba de su matrimonio.

Al final, Bob siente que no hay lugar para él en este mundo. Sabe que no llegó a ser lo que quería ser, aunque consiguió todas las cosas que quería. Me pregunto qué habría pasado si Bob hubiera tenido la oportunidad de cambiar algo en su vida. ¿Se habría sentido más feliz? ¿Habría sido un hombre diferente? Quizás nunca lo sabremos.

[1974] Slocum is a vivid portrayal of the fears of a truly scared man and how ironically that fear seems to turn him into a wounded but surviving beast. He is a cursed person, an American ruin, living a dog's life.

In the family where he lives, there are four people he fears. Three of those people also fear him, and each of these three, in turn, fears the other two. Only one member of the family has no fear of the others, and that member is an idiot.

This complex web of fears and relationships creates a tense and disturbing atmosphere. Slocum's constant state of fear not only affects his own well-being but also has a ripple effect on those around him. The description of him as a "cursed person" and an "American ruin" emphasizes the sense of hopelessness and decay that pervades his life.

The mention of the idiot in the family adds an interesting layer to the story. While everyone else is consumed by fear and猜疑, the idiot seems to exist in a different world, free from these emotions. This contrast highlights the destructive power of fear and the importance of finding ways to overcome it.

Overall, Slocum is a powerful and thought-provoking work that explores the themes of fear, relationships, and the human condition.

Este Joseph Heller, the very same who wrote "Catch-22", that extremely famous novel qualified by many as a modern classic. Well, "Something Happened" is better... or so I think, at least.

But don't look here for something like a "Catch-23". Here you will be faced with the tortuous and tortured mind of an office worker, a middle-class family man of middle age who will ultimately prove unbearable and even hateful to you.

Bob Slocum, that's the name of the owner of the mind you will have to visit and who, during my entire reading, usurped the body of William H. Macy in the unforgettable "Fargo". He is weak and cowardly (and therefore dangerous), lacking in his own nature, as he himself confesses, and with a deep sense of self-loathing. His world is divided into two categories: the weak and the strong (these are always men, women can at most aspire to be a prize and perhaps not one of the most important ones), where the former are despised and the latter are feared and admired.

I don't think anyone will be surprised at this point if I say that Bob Slocum lives in terror: he fears his family, his colleagues at work, his subordinates, his bosses, he fears life. And his decision is precisely that of not living, of letting himself float on existence and feeling as little as possible. But ceasing to feel is a thankless and unattainable task.

The narration is repetitive, the form adapting to the content. And at the heart of the novel is an obsessive being to the point of exaggeration. Just like the one who can't go out on the street without closing the door 20 times, the narration seems unable to continue if it doesn't relate a thousand and one times each of Bob Slocum's phobias, his memories, his fears, his weaknesses, his despises, his many meannesses.

And yet, Heller manages to make one come to pity the character. It's not easy to face oneself with the sincerity of Slocum (the gossips say that Slocum and Heller have more than one point in common), it's not simple to live so uncomfortably with oneself, to be so unhappy and to be present in the daily life of his son, whom he feels as if he were an extension of himself and who seems to multiply to infinity all his fears and weaknesses.

In the end, yes, something happens and, of course, nothing good. But in the end I think it would have been the same if nothing had happened; Bob Slocum has no shortage of reasons for this long, chaotic, self-flagellating, cruel, unpleasant, disturbing, hopeless, disordered, depressing, obscene and ultra-super-sincere confession.

Beware, it's a book that makes you uncomfortable, that can face you with your own hells that are never easy to assume. But what better objective can art have than to stir us from within. This book achieves it and in a splendid and terrible way.

Hey, where'd my review go?? I think it's on a different edition. Oh well.

I've just finished reading this book for the third time! This time, I read every single word. I found myself stopping frequently to jot down notes for the thing I'm writing. It's quite remarkable how this book has such an impact on me. While I can breeze through countless other books without feeling the slightest bit inspired, this one always manages to draw me in and get my creative juices flowing. It's as if my subconscious knows that this is the book that will help me write in an authentic way.

The premise and execution of this book are relatively simple, but each time I revisit it, I gain a new perspective. I think it would be a truly therapeutic reading experience for anyone living in the social media age. The first time I read it, I thought Slocum was one of the most repulsive characters in literature. However, after reading it for the third time, it's become harder to maintain that level of disgust. In fact, I would wager that everyone has had at least one of the thoughts that Slocum expresses in this book. It's a book that is filled with dark, often-dismissed thoughts. What's truly surprising is how many of these thoughts there are. Reading it this time, I found myself thinking, "I've had that thought, I've had that thought." It's a reminder that we're not alone in our darker moments.

Comedian Maria Bamford had persistent negative thoughts and underwent a therapeutic process known as flooding. I think reading this book is a bit like that. It forces you to confront all of your daily fears and insecurities. While it can be a challenging read, I believe it's ultimately a cathartic experience.

I know my own taste well, and I've paired this reading experience with a rereading of Alain de Botton's The Course of Love. Together, they provide a fascinating exploration of love, marriage, and the human condition.

Looking around my life today, I realize how fortunate I am. I have a job that I enjoy, hobbies that fulfill me, and a husband who loves me. While life isn't always perfect, I know that I have a lot to be grateful for. This book has reminded me of that.

I should point out that I doubt this was the main reason for this book being written. It's a sweeping post-war statement about a certain type of man. However, the reasons I return to it are personal. For me, it's a contender for the Great American Novel.

Egoísta, bipolar, machista, chovinista, cínico, presuntuoso, inseguro, paranoico y para remate hipócrita. Estos son algunos de los numerosos calificativos que podrían aplicarse a aquel tremendo personaje literario creado por J. Heller, a quien bautizó como Bob Slocum.

Es un tipo odioso, semejante al Portnoy de Phillip Roth, y en muchos momentos me recordó a aquel otro protagonista. Aquí, el protagonista es perfectamente consciente de sus deficiencias y utiliza el humor negro como sello de identidad y esa ironía como recurso defensivo. Se trata de una gran combinación del escéptico incurable y lúcido, con el cínico de manual. Su pauta de conducta está determinada por el miedo: el miedo en sus relaciones laborales, el temor en su entorno familiar, el miedo que provoca en ellos y que también recibe de todos.

Slocum es la encarnación del capitalismo más agresivo y la novela es el campo de batalla sobre este tema y las complejidades de la vida social y familiar americana, basada en el dinero como eje central: conseguir dinero a cualquier precio, falta de escrúpulos, prosperar a costa de cualquier sacrificio, ofreciendo a cambio a la familia el tiempo libre con partidos de golf, etc.

Su campo de acción no es demasiado extenso, pero sin embargo es muy rico: familia, trabajo, relaciones familiares, obsesión sexual. Sobre todo, la obsesión sexual.

Lo mejor, sin duda, son los brotes y arranques de ironía (sobre cualquier tema que trate) que ya he dicho que utiliza con mucha frecuencia. Ese paréntesis, seguido de dos sonoros "Ja, ja", que se puede imaginar perfectamente en un tipo de mediana edad con una doble moral absolutamente abyecta y admirable. Ese pequeño recurso literario (además de novedoso) me ha parecido fantástico.

"(…) como mi mujer, cuya infancia fue en realidad un desierto de cenizas sofocante, hasta que yo aparecí en la escena y me la llevé de su infelicidad a su vida actual de dicha ininterrumpida. ¡Ja, ja!"

¿Se puede ser más golfo? (o hijo de puta, a elegir). Muchas veces, después de un párrafo o una reflexión seria y profunda, viene una salida de tono semejante, lo cual es absolutamente genial.

El segundo capítulo es para mí el comienzo verdadero de la novela, donde se engancha: La gran decepción de la edad madura. Se ha descubierto el fraude que escondía la vida. El tiempo pasa inexorablemente y ya no nos resistimos a ello, ni se buscan cambios. La tediosidad del mundo laboral al cabo de los años. Orfebrería pura de Heller.

Solo le encontré un pequeño "pero": hay alguna conversación con los hijos que resulta un poco forzada, aunque sean muy inteligentes y precoces los hijos, parecen corresponderse las conversaciones con hijos de mayor edad. Esa pequeña licencia literaria se la consentimos y pasamos por alto sin ningún problema dado el buen trabajo de Heller.

I read this book almost four years ago, and it has truly stayed with me ever since.

You don't really want to identify with the main character because his life is such a sordid and pathetic mess. However, it somehow creeps onto you anyway. By the end, you feel sort of used, old, and sad. Or maybe that was just me?

There were moments of humor in the book as well, but what I remember most vividly is the plethora of parentheticals, the theory on the whammy, and the overwhelming sense of despair.

If you're expecting something like Catch-22, this is not quite it. It's more like American Beauty, but with less of an uplifting tone.

The story seems to delve deep into the darker aspects of human nature and the disappointments and frustrations that come with life. It makes you think about the choices we make and the consequences that follow.

Overall, it's a thought-provoking read that leaves a lasting impression.

I firmly believe that this is an incredibly prescient book. In fact, I have a greater preference for it over Catch 22. While Catch 22 extrapolates the blatant absurdity of war, Something Happened delves into the not so blatant, yet far more common absurdities of everyday life.

The main character, Bob, is terrified of nearly everything and is repulsed by who he is (or perhaps more accurately, who he isn't). Bob is completely unaware of the difference, and I would contend that nearly all of us are just as confused. His deepest fear is that people will catch even the slightest hint of the internal paranoia that plagues his every thought and behavior. He is listless, constantly in a state of neurasthenia. He has damned his future self by the things he has done, or from his perspective, the things that have been done to him.

The book attempts to account for what these 'happenings' are through a dialectical series of reflections that are so candidly crafted by Heller that it has apparently scared many of his readers. This book is a distillation of our most narcissistic endowments, held up just an inch from our eyes, and they seem so exaggerated as to be a parody. However, I can attest that this is not the case. Day after day, we fabricate our narratives with schmaltzy, ego-baiting embellishments to hide our true carnal selves. The alternative would obviously be much scarier. Fortunately for us, Bob Slocum's brain (or mind?) outlines what the/his/our alternative looks like. I truly enjoyed this book very much.

My actual rating for Joseph Heller’s follow-up to Catch-22 would be 3/12 stars.

This is because some parts of this book were prone to ramble, with repetition and excessive sugar in certain sections.

However, after reading this book, one feels that something essential is being said about modern life.

The feelings and emotions, sometimes masked as demons, are conveyed in a way that either currently reside within us or will grow as we are more exposed to our relationships, life at home, and interactions in the workplace.

So at times, the rating veered to 4 stars.

For example, who hasn't, at some point, looked at the person they are with, the one they've grown accustomed to, especially if they weren't fortunate enough to escape life's grind and the all-permeating monotony and pall of indifference it casts over all of us, and said:

‘What happened to us? Something did. I was a boy once, and she was a girl, and we were both new. Now we are man and woman, and nothing feels new any longer; everything feels old. I think we liked each other once. I think we used to have fun; at least it seems that way now, although we were always struggling about one thing or another. I was always struggling to get her clothes off, and she was always struggling to keep them on. I remember things like that’.

There is a duality in all of us, well captured in this passage:

‘There is this crawling animal flourishing somewhere inside me that I try to keep hidden and that strives to get out, and I don’t know what it is or whom it wishes to destroy. I know it is covered with warts. It might be me; it might also be me that it wishes to destroy’.

Life is merciless, but – like the protagonist – we seek victories somehow, no matter how hollow they might ring; promotions at work, an indiscretion on the side, and hanging onto fading memories.

Something rather strange happened to Heller. I found myself completely unable to understand him. It was as if he was speaking in a foreign language or using words and phrases that I had never encountered before. His actions were also rather puzzling. He seemed to be doing things without any clear purpose or intention. I tried to ask him what was going on, but he just gave me a blank stare. It was very frustrating. I wondered if he was having some sort of mental breakdown or if there was something else wrong with him. I decided to keep a close eye on him and see if I could figure out what was happening.

It was love at first sight (pun intended), and my affection for Catch-22 has endured for over a decade. Strangely, I never considered reading another of Joseph Heller's works until a close friend bought "Something Happened" for me. I would have abandoned this book within the first 20 pages if it weren't for that kind soul who gave it to me and the lingering memories of Catch-22. In hindsight, I should have moved on.

You find yourself on a crowded bus. The journey is tedious, and you have no idea how long it will take to reach your destination. There's no proper place to stand, and there's sweat, irritation, and all kinds of bad smells. You could get off at the next stop and forego the journey, but you don't. You don't even know what compels you to endure this ordeal. At every other stop, you get a brief breeze as people shuffle around. After three-fourths of the journey, you no longer care about anything. All you want is to get it over with.

Bob Slocum is a mid-level manager in an American company. At first glance, he seems to be living the American dream.

There are comic troubles In the office in which he works. His wife is unhappy. His daughter is unhappy. His little boy is having difficulties. There is no getting away from it. Oh, and these aren't just the plot points; they're also chapter titles.

569 pages of first-person narration (à la 150,000+ words of self ejaculation), seriously? The same things are repeated over and over in the name of stream of consciousness. And it's not even a first-rate stream of consciousness. He keeps talking about his urge to kick his daughter at her ankles. By the seventh time, I was fed up and wanted to shout, "If you wanna kick the shit out of her, please go ahead and get it over with, just don't talk about it again." Imagine 10,000 Dilbert comic strips stacked up continuously, without the sketches. Juxtapose them with a mediocre soap opera. That's what this novel is like.

I don't recommend this book, even if you're interested in a satire about 'American Middle Class Consumerism'. You're better off watching Sam Mendes' 2-hour film "American Beauty".

Hateful, brutal, wretched... These words make a much better case for the banality of evil than Hannah Arendt ever did. However, they still fall short of denoting evil's true essence.

This book is like a fairytale. The reason is that I simply cannot truly believe that bad people hate themselves to the extent that Bob Slocum does.

I don't think people who are as bad as him are really that unhappy. It would be nice if that were the case. But in reality, evil often seems to exist in a more complex and mysterious way. Maybe there are hidden motives and forces at play that we don't fully understand.

We tend to think of evil in black and white terms, but perhaps it is more nuanced. This book challenges our assumptions and makes us question what we really know about evil. It forces us to look beyond the surface and consider the deeper implications.

Overall, it is a thought-provoking read that leaves us with more questions than answers. But that is the beauty of exploring the concept of evil. It makes us think and reflect on the nature of humanity.

A truly outstanding novel penned by the author of Catch 22. Written in the same satirical vein, this novel delves into the rather dull life of Bob Slocum. He is an office worker with a penchant for office politics and a distaste for three-quarters of his immediate family.

For the majority of this 600-page novel, not much occurs, and we are simply privy to Slocum's monologue about his life. He is not designed to be likable, although I did find his dry humor amusing in certain parts. He is a verbose middle-aged man who has a tendency to ramble and repeat himself.

Sexism is prevalent, and casual racism abounds. The book is, in part, a product of its time, but most of the characters are simply terrible people. I spent a significant portion of the book anticipating something to happen, wrongly assuming it would be Bob's new job. How mistaken I was. I won't disclose any more, but the ending truly took me by surprise.

Overall, while the novel has its flaws, it is still a thought-provoking read that offers a unique perspective on the human condition.