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A review by stewreads
Good As Gold by Joseph Heller
4.0
I've seen some people complain that this book is too similar to Catch-22, but I've seen those same people complain that Something Happened isn't anything like Catch-22. So, according to his detractors, Heller can't write a great novel unless he writes a bitter, bureaucratic satire, but he can't write a bitter, bureaucratic satire because he already did, and it was his one great novel.
That sounds an awful lot like a catch-22.
Good as Gold is often classified as Heller's take on Washington, and politics. In a lot of ways it is, but what feels more important to me is that it's Heller's take on the Jewish experience in America. This is clear from the very first page, as the novel begins with PART 1: THE JEWISH EXPERIENCE, and works its way through INVITE A JEW TO THE WHITE HOUSE (AND YOU MAKE HIM YOUR SLAVE, occasionally veering into politics as it works its way towards a surprisingly hopeful conclusion.
Plot here is minimal, which is to be expected from Heller, and what little plot there is, is hilarious. I don't often laugh out loud when I'm reading, but when it's Heller, I do, and often. He has a knack for the absurd, and his dialogue is just about as entertaining as it possibly could be. What keeps this book from reaching masterpiece status is the fact that it's essentially pointless. It's too ridiculous to be taken seriously as satire and it doesn't say much more between the lines than it does in the chapter headings. But that doesn't mean that it isn't an extremely fun read from one of the most underrated satirists of all time, and it definitely doesn't mean that you shouldn't check it out.
That sounds an awful lot like a catch-22.
Good as Gold is often classified as Heller's take on Washington, and politics. In a lot of ways it is, but what feels more important to me is that it's Heller's take on the Jewish experience in America. This is clear from the very first page, as the novel begins with PART 1: THE JEWISH EXPERIENCE, and works its way through INVITE A JEW TO THE WHITE HOUSE (AND YOU MAKE HIM YOUR SLAVE, occasionally veering into politics as it works its way towards a surprisingly hopeful conclusion.
Plot here is minimal, which is to be expected from Heller, and what little plot there is, is hilarious. I don't often laugh out loud when I'm reading, but when it's Heller, I do, and often. He has a knack for the absurd, and his dialogue is just about as entertaining as it possibly could be. What keeps this book from reaching masterpiece status is the fact that it's essentially pointless. It's too ridiculous to be taken seriously as satire and it doesn't say much more between the lines than it does in the chapter headings. But that doesn't mean that it isn't an extremely fun read from one of the most underrated satirists of all time, and it definitely doesn't mean that you shouldn't check it out.