Closing Time

I tried, I really tried to like this book but I found myself struggling to get through it. I loved Catch-22 when I read it a few years ago because of its ridiculousness and that I actually felt interested in Yossarian, the Chaplain, and the rest of the bunch. Now it takes place years later and I just feel like I happen to be watching a TV show about them and it's not as good as the book.

The pacing was where I had the hardest time with this book. We get introduced to newer characters (Sammy, Glenda, Mr. Gaffney, etc.) and we get to hear their entire life story up to modern day, which go on and on and on. These were also characters who were mentioned a little bit in Catch-22 but didn't seem to have an impact there, so I didn't find myself very interested in them. Even so, these chapters came along right after there had been an action so it was like “Okay, time to slog through another pause so we can hear more of someone's life story even though we only encounter them once or twice in the book.” Did I really need to read 50 pages of Sammy's childhood on Coney Island before the war? Eh, no. He has one conversation with Yossarian later on and then goes off to live out a dream he has had before it's too late.

Gaffney felt out of place in this book. He felt like it was a self-insertion of Heller as the one who moves the plot along as he follows Yossarian and knows everything that is going to happen. Mr. Tilyou and his representation on what appears to be Purgatory also felt unnecessary, or maybe that was because we were left with this loose end of what happens to his world. That's most of the ending of this book, lots of loose ends that weren't really tied up. At least we had an excuse at the end of Catch-22 in that the war was still going on, but here it just feels rough and unfinished. It's like Heller just wanted to get it done and over with.