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Title: GOOD AS GOLD by Joseph Heller ISBN: 0-684-83974-1 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 12 November, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.29 (14 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Crude.
Comment: Catch-22, my first Joseph Heller novel, sometimes made me giggle until my sides hurt, and then took me into devastatingly truthful chapters where I cried. The wit, the humor, the catches, and the longing for more hasn't been surpassed. The novel was amazing, and certainly remains one of my favorite books of all time. But this? It's crude, it's vulgar, and it wasn't worth my time. I kept waiting for it to pick up, and it never did. I was disappointed in Heller's satire -- yes, the White House does have its problems, but Heller just sounded unintelligent when all he could talk about was sex. The book is directionalless, (though it does mimik Gold's life). There was a bit of humor ... three stars go to the moments I chuckled. But I have to say, I grew sick of the book.
The moral? Read Catch-22 ... you'll love it forever. After that, don't pick up another Joseph Heller book ... you'll be disappointed.
Rating: 3
Summary: good, but not gold
Comment: i once read an interview of joseph heller in which he stated he came up with the idea for novels by coming up with an opening sentence. assuming that to be true here, this is a novel about the jewish experience. when we view this book from that perspective, we have a better appreciation of it. we have gold, who is out trying to write a book about the jewish experience, continually rejecting his jewish heritage. it is not until the end when he finally embraces it.
the political humor is exaggerated and doesn't work as well as it did in catch 22 where the setting of war makes the absurd normal. his family life is archie bunker/michael like except for the very touching lunch between gold and his older brother sid. this conversation brought the family into focus.
other characters like liebowicz and his fiancee's father border on the ridiculous and don't add a lot to the story.
this is not vintage heller. suggest your reread catch 22 instead.
Rating: 5
Summary: Good as gold, indeed.
Comment: Good As Gold is Joseph Heller's third masterpiece. Heller, who sadly left us in 1999, was notorious for taking an eternity between books (13 years between his first two.) And, although this may be true, one thing is certain: when Joe Heller delivers a book, it's a guaranteed masterpiece. Every new Heller release is an event. Good As Gold is as good as the best of them. By turns screamingly funny and heart-piercingly true, this is one of the few books that can make you laugh and cry at the same time. The book works simultaneously on multiple levels. It is a fable of "The Jewish Experience" in America; it is a satiric and highly biting look at the hypocrisy and incompetence at work in everyday government affairs; it is a funny and all-too-sad peek into the lives of the typical American extended family (you could also see the entire thing as an attack on Henry Kissinger - indeed, the only complaint I have about the book is that Heller sometimes follows this tangent too far.) The book, as always with Heller, is very cleverly written. There are no numbered chapters: instead, the book is split into a number of different sections, all with a certain title, which also happen to be titles of works being written by the protagonist (who is, among other things, a writer) - in this way, the book plays out the very story and experience it is purporting to have the main character write himself. An essential read from the greatest American author of the second half of the 20th century.
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Title: GOD KNOWS by Joseph Heller ISBN: 0684841258 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 12 November, 1997 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: SOMETHING HAPPENED by Joseph Heller ISBN: 0684841215 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 12 November, 1997 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: CLOSING TIME : THE SEQUEL TO CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller ISBN: 0684804506 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 15 September, 1995 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Picture This by Joseph Heller ISBN: B00007CWQR Publisher: Putnam Pub Group Pub. Date: September, 1988 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Now and Then : From Coney Island to Here by Joseph Heller ISBN: 0375700552 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 26 January, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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