No. It didn't. ( )

Joseph Heller may be one of the great writers of the past century, but I wouldn't swear to it after reading Something Happened.

I will admit to tempering my own opinion of this book based on the opinions of two people I respect very much: K and Kurt Vonnegut, both of whom rank this among their favorites. In fact, it was a deal with K which led me to finally reading this one, after years of her urgings. (She read Calamity Physics as her part of the deal and wasn't blown away by that one, either... not that you should compare the two books at all.) So let me start off by saying that I wanted to like this one. I wanted to like it very much. This, perhaps, led to some unrealistic expectations on my part.

But let me blame the author for setting those expectations too high. I mean, seriously, if you're going to name the book Something Happened, you damn well expect something to bloody happen. And I do mean before page 561 (out of 569). No, don't skip ahead to the end to see what finally happens. That will ruin it for you. Something does happen, eventually, but in a story this long and depressing, you know it's not going to be good.

Heller is a great writer, no doubt about it. He can lay down one great sentence after another. His voice is well crafted, which is important for a first-person narrative. He knows who his main character, Bob Slocum, is. He understands him inside and out. He understands Bob's family and co-workers, who are the focal points of the various chapters. Heller has great characters. Multi-layered and flawed, just like real people tend to be.

Here's my gripe. He doesn't craft a good tale. But maybe I was expecting too much. This isn't a plot-driven story. This is a character driven story. There are scenes upon scenes, told in rambling tangents, one after another, to show what kind of person Bob is and what kind of world he lives in, where (contrary to your expectations) nothing much happens except that you begin to understand for yourself that Bob and most people around him are extremely unhappy, to the point where you, also, become unhappy, and you read furiously trying to find something to be happy about, and then something happens (finally, at the end) and...

And I won't tell you. But you're left at the end of the book wondering, literally – and I think even the most prudish would echo these sentiments verbatim – what the fuck did I just read, before you come to your senses, put down the hose and air out the garage.

Which is probably the brilliance of the book. It's a finely crafted story about depressing people weighted evenly on every single page as if Heller himself doled out the misery measured precisely for every word. Oh, yes, I loved the writing and the characters. I just hated reading it.

And dammit if I don't think I'm going to have to read it again some day.

Invisible Lizard's Unusual Oranges ( )

In the same way that the structure of catch-22 mirrors the insane logic of warmongering, 'Something Happened', by going over the same tiny things over and over and over in ever increasing detail, manages to reflect and really bring out how people get sucked in to the neuroses of modern life.

It's not as good a read as Catch-22 (but then again, what is?), but it does have ideas, it is cleverly written and it is affecting. Definitely worth reading. ( )

Sheeesh....I'd hate to call Heller a one book man, but this novel (as well as a couple of others) are a pretty good argument for that proposition. I read this book many years ago and I'll certainly never read it again....a very average read and an unfortunate title. ( )

Droll America narrated drolly. ( )