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Loading... Picture This (original 1988; edition 1988)by Joseph Heller
Work InformationPicture This by Joseph Heller (1988)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Joseph Heller hardly ever wrote a fairly good book; he wrote mediocre ones and excellent ones. This one is of the latter sort. A cynical, acerbic, and hilarious, look on art (and art criticism), classical Greece, wars, empire-building, democracy and more ... incuding human nature itself. ( ) Joseph Heller is the author of my favourite book, Catch 22. But his other novels are of variable quality. None, with the exception of Closing Time, have come even close to matching the brilliance of Catch 22. Using Rembrandt's painting Aristotle Contemplating a Bust of Homer as its thread, in Picture This, Heller recites details from the lives of the Dutch painter, Aristotle, Plato and Socrates and uses them to highlight flaws in democratic theory and human nature. But this novel, though ambitious in scope and objective, fails to satisfy as a book. The considerable research that must have gone into it, and the occasional flashes of Heller's sardonic wit, unfortunately aren't enough to overcome the fact this book is poorly structured and lacks a coherent storyline. Ultimately, it feels more like a series of essays than a novel. no reviews | add a review
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. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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