Joseph Heller

[Carl Remick]

I just learned that the great Joseph Heller, author of Catch-22, has died at 
the age of 76.  Five years ago Heller wrote a sequel to Catch-22, Closing 
Time, that contained one of the best send-ups of plutocratic excess I've 
ever read -- the wedding of uber-entrepreneur Milo Minderbinder's daughter, 
set at a lavishly redecorated Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City.

The following is an excerpt from the AP story reporting Heller's death:

"Set in present-day New York, 'Closing Time' was Heller's mellowest work, 
and his bleakest. It contrasted the optimism of Yossarian, now wealthy and 
involved with a nurse, with a world that seemed unlikely to outlive him very 
long.

"'I tend to see my people as living in a vacuum, not anarchy, but living in 
a void of meaning -- even my King David, who despairs because God doesn't 
talk to anyone,' Heller said.

"'It used to shock me and alarm me and discourage me that there was a 
general decline of everything of value. But it doesn't surprise me anymore. 
It seems inevitable and natural and there's no way to resist it.'"

Carl

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