Something Happened

<b>Joseph Heller</b> was born in 1923 in Brooklyn New York. He served as a bombardier in the Second World War and then attended New York University and Columbia University and then Oxford the last on a Fullbright scholarship. He then taught for two years at Pennsylvania State University before returning to New York where he began a successful career in the advertising departments of <i>Time Look</i> and <i>McCall's</i> magazines. It was during this time that he had the idea for <i>Catch-22</i>. Working on the novel in spare moments and evenings at home it took him eight years to complete and was first published in 1961. His second novel <i>Something Happened</i> was published in 1974 <i>Good As Gold</i> in 1979 and <i>Closing Time</i> in 1994. He is also the author of the play <i>We Bombed in New Haven</i>. <p><b>FROM THE AUTHOR OF <i>CATCH-22</i> SOON TO BE A TV SERIES ON CHANNEL 4 </b><br><b><br>Joseph Heller's <i>other</i> masterpiece - a darkly comic sometimes tragic satire that does for the American Dream what <i>Catch-22</i> did for the madness of war</b><br><br><b>'Joseph Heller's finest achievement' Jonathan Coe<br><br></b>Bob Slocum was a promising executive. He had an attractive wife three children a nice house and as many mistresses as he desired. His life was settled and ordered; he had conformed and society demanded he be happy - or at least pretend to be. But the pretence was becoming more and more difficult as Slocum's discontent grew into an overwhelming sense of desolation frustration and fear. <br><br>And then something happened. . .<br><br><b>'One of the most pleasurable engrossing and in retrospect moving American novels ever written… The most criminally overlooked great novel of the past half century is a book called <i>Something Happened</i>' <i>LA Review of Books</i></b></p> One of the most pleasurable engrossing and in retrospect moving American novels ever written… <b>The most criminally overlooked great novel of the past half century is a book called <i>Something Happened</i></b> <b>It is splendidly put together and hypnotic to read. It is as clear and hard-edged as a cut diamond.</b> Mr. Heller's concentration and patience are so evident on every page that one can only say that Something Happened is at all points precisely what he hoped it would be I used to think <i>Catch-22</i> was my best novel until I read Kurt Vonnegut's review of <i>Something Happened.</i> Now I think <i>Something Happened</i> is <b>A supremely controlled and meticulous masterpiece</b> grounded in the horror of daily living <p><b>FROM THE AUTHOR OF <i>CATCH-22</i> SOON TO BE A TV SERIES ON CHANNEL 4 </b><br><b><br>Joseph Heller's <i>other</i> masterpiece - a darkly comic sometimes tragic satire that does for the American Dream what <i>Catch-22</i> did for the madness of war</b><br><br><b>'Joseph Heller's finest achievement' Jonathan Coe<br><br></b>Bob Slocum was a promising executive. He had an attractive wife three children a nice house and as many mistresses as he desired. His life was settled and ordered; he had conformed and society demanded he be happy - or at least pretend to be. But the pretence was becoming more and more difficult as Slocum's discontent grew into an overwhelming sense of desolation frustration and fear. <br><br>And then something happened. . .<br><br><b>'One of the most pleasurable engrossing and in retrospect moving American novels ever written… The most criminally overlooked great novel of the past half century is a book called <i>Something Happened</i>' <i>LA Review of Books</i></b></p>