Joseph Heller was definitely a monumental, pathbreaking, historical one-hit wonder

Horribly hypnotic, real and really repetitive, engrossing and banal; life and a cracking second novel.

I hated this book. I persevered for nearly 200 pages before I gave up. I can't stand Bob Slocum and I no longer care what happens at the end.

I can't stop thinking about this book. This dude just can't shut up, and everything he says is a train wreck you just can't look away from.

The guy has everything he wants and still manages to be miserable. He has a job that pays him handsomely and he still gets to get drunk and bang prostitutes on his 2-hour lunch break. His wife is still pretty hot, although she's taken to drinking too much and flirting. He also has a sullen teenage daughter, a young son he dotes on, and a retarded baby that he hates.

Blah, blah, blah. Read this book and you'll explore every thought that Bob Slocum has about this and not much more. But it's not an exercise in stamina to read it. Oh, no. You can pick it up and start reading any page and be sucked in for hours.

I've already read this twice and now I want to read it again.

Put on the Could-Not-Finish shelf.

I know this is one of the great novels. And I can see that, for its time, it would have been quite revolutionary, to say all these things "out loud" regarding race, drugs, the sexual revolution, depression/substance abuse amongst housewives. But it just droned on for me (which, really, is the point of the book).

Take the TV Show Mad Men, remove humor and most of the sensuality, and you have this book. This is the book that Tyler Durden/Narrator of [b:Fight Club|36236124|Fight Club|Chuck Palahniuk|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1523531525s/36236124.jpg|68729] would have written if he had not "met" Tyler Durden, and instead gone on to marry and have kids. Like Peter Pan without the belief of children, Narrator/Durden would have gotten to middle age and had no one to save him from this life.

This book is (and is supposed to be) depressing. Not comically depressing, just depressing. You will probably laugh at the protagonist at times, but it will be the same laugh you reserve for the sad sack in his 40s at a dance club, or the dentist who buys a $25k Harley so he can go to the local biker bar and do a jell-o shot.

I think I rated this book so low, and was unable to finish it, because I have little sympathy for those who allow a quest for success in one area to cause ruin in the rest. People who are meek because of past experience are relateable. People who have no spine as a matter of course are of no use.

The "protagonist" of this book has been done many times in books and movies (especially the latter), and I can find nothing in common with him or her. Ben Stiller's character in "Meet the Parents" is one example, and any number of henpecked / middle-management / everyday-schmuck-with-no-drive protagonists are others.

There *will* be things the protagonist says that will hit home with any married person with kids. There will be some "ah, no, of course that's not reflective of me, no way" moments that will lead to some introspection. But eventually, you have to grow a spine and some nerve and make stuff happen. People who float through life without expressing an opinion or themselves contribute very little to the larger world.

Nothing happened. Despite having written the enthralling and intriguing Catch-22, this does not even come close to the same level. The main character describes his pathetic life in minute details but does nothing to change the relationships he despises. There is no plot, no real character development, and no climax that's meaningful. The 'something' that happened, did so in the last three pages but since you couldn't relate to the main character, Bob Slocum, you couldn't feel for him at the end. The attempt at climax and resolution so near the end lacked the brilliance of Steinback in its ability to hold you captive until the end. The story lacked the style and skill that a writter like Heller should display.