Joseph Heller

In an age of almost pathological fixation with youth and imitations of youth -- their music, habits, fashion, sports -- it is cheering to note that a towering handful of the most distinguished American craftsmen of fiction, all far advanced in both careers and lives, have in the last year turned out powerful and important work. This season's freshest novels: Philip Roth's "The Human Stain," Saul Bellow's "Ravelstein," E. L. Doctorow's "City of God" and John Updike's "Gertrude and Claudius."

SEATTLE -- For years, all the intelligence agencies have been tussling with the American Civil Liberties Union over documents about the innovative Bush administration policy of locking people up in foreign countries where they can be tortured without the inconvenience of anyone knowing about it or bringing up, you know, like, the Constitution. It is not yet clear - though there is little reason for optimism - about whether the courts will let them get away with it, but the official position of the executive branch under President Bush is that the U.S. government can lock you up anywhere in the world, torture you and tell no one about it. And if someone does find out and starts talking trash like "habeas corpus" or "Fourth Amendment," too bad: It's all OK under the president's inherent powers as commander in chief.

Except for William Shakespeare, who did it wholesale, precious few people have fashioned concepts that have left language and awareness forever changed. Joseph Heller did, with "Catch-22" - a phrase, an idea, a book that affirmed our essential insanity. And now, 36 years later, he has fashioned a memoir. It convincingly celebrates something like sanity: That life offers a central promise, which is that it can be lived decently, voraciously and finally happily.The book is called "Now and Then: From Coney Island to Here."

Catch as Catch Can: The Collected Stories and Other Writings of Joseph Heller, edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli and Park Bucker. Simon and Schuster, 333 pages, $25. Much of the fine writing by Heller, who died at 76 in 1999, has been obscured by his work of genius: Catch 22, published in 1961. Others of his novels have received serious attention, of course. But he was writing for publication as early as 1945, and produced a substantial legacy of provocative short stories, essays and drama that has been little noted.

Joseph Heller, who helped make coherent the innate insanity of the human condition, is dead at 76. A heart attack, suffered at his home in East Hampton, N.Y., Sunday night, ended the career of an intensely professional man. Joseph Heller, the writer, is immortal.By fashioning the title and the concept of the 1961 novel "Catch-22," he became one of a handful of writers to change indelibly the language, and the manner of thinking, of his civilization.He turned the random tyrannies of organization, governments and war into an easily comprehended irony -- a truly great joke.

East Hampton, N.Y. -- Say it ain't so, Joe.Surely that was the instinctive reaction of many fans of Joseph Heller's "Catch-22" when it was announced last year that he was writing a sequel to his beloved first novel. With more than 10 million copies in print since it was published in 1961, "Catch-22" for many readers redefined how they viewed war novels. Their feelings about his mordant, wildly satirical novel have always been passionate.Did Hemingway write "The Sun Also Sets?" Did Melville break down and give us "Free Moby Dick"?

Catch as Catch Can: The Collected Stories and Other Writings of Joseph Heller, edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli and Park Bucker. Simon and Schuster, 333 pages, $25. Much of the fine writing by Heller, who died at 76 in 1999, has been obscured by his work of genius: Catch 22, published in 1961. Others of his novels have received serious attention, of course. But he was writing for publication as early as 1945, and produced a substantial legacy of provocative short stories, essays and drama that has been little noted.

JOSEPH Heller is dead. Everybody dies. Catch-23.Mr. Heller put Catch-22 into our lexicon of ironies. Life, he told us, was crazy and would always get you. "Catch-22," Mr. Heller's great novel, made enormous sense to the Vietnam generation. It would make somewhat less sense to the generation about which it was written, World War II.There is an episode in "Catch- 22" in which the Germans and Americans hire each other to bomb themselves in the name of some greater efficiency. Funny stuff. I hate to be a spoilsport, but I never thought World War II was much of a joke -- Holocaust and all that, I guess.

When Milton Eisenhower was president of Johns Hopkins he spoke at the University of Pittsburgh. Introduced as president of ''John'' Hopkins, he began by saying how happy he was to be speaking in ''Pittburgh.''* Burial Inscription: ''Here I lie between two of the best women in the world, my wives. But I requested my relatives to tip me a little toward Tillie.''* Notice on the front page of the New York Times: ''You obviously prefer to be eternally pursued. I'll be enjoying a chilled martini and the warm company of another.

"Wry Martinis," by Christopher Buckley. Random House. 291 pages. $22.As Christopher Buckley acknowledges up front, this is mostly a collection of his magazine pieces, many of them for the New Yorker, where he is a frequent (and frequently hilarious) contributor to the "Shouts and Murmurs" column.Traditionally, publishers feel that emblazoning the word "collection" on a humor book's dust jacket is tantamount to announcing: "This product was made from the skin of baby seals." But if any potential buyers are put off by the dreaded C-word, it would be a pity, since this is an enormously funny and entertaining compilation.

In an age of almost pathological fixation with youth and imitations of youth -- their music, habits, fashion, sports -- it is cheering to note that a towering handful of the most distinguished American craftsmen of fiction, all far advanced in both careers and lives, have in the last year turned out powerful and important work. This season's freshest novels: Philip Roth's "The Human Stain," Saul Bellow's "Ravelstein," E. L. Doctorow's "City of God" and John Updike's "Gertrude and Claudius."

JOSEPH Heller is dead. Everybody dies. Catch-23.Mr. Heller put Catch-22 into our lexicon of ironies. Life, he told us, was crazy and would always get you. "Catch-22," Mr. Heller's great novel, made enormous sense to the Vietnam generation. It would make somewhat less sense to the generation about which it was written, World War II.There is an episode in "Catch- 22" in which the Germans and Americans hire each other to bomb themselves in the name of some greater efficiency. Funny stuff. I hate to be a spoilsport, but I never thought World War II was much of a joke -- Holocaust and all that, I guess.

Joseph Heller, who helped make coherent the innate insanity of the human condition, is dead at 76. A heart attack, suffered at his home in East Hampton, N.Y., Sunday night, ended the career of an intensely professional man. Joseph Heller, the writer, is immortal.By fashioning the title and the concept of the 1961 novel "Catch-22," he became one of a handful of writers to change indelibly the language, and the manner of thinking, of his civilization.He turned the random tyrannies of organization, governments and war into an easily comprehended irony -- a truly great joke.

Except for William Shakespeare, who did it wholesale, precious few people have fashioned concepts that have left language and awareness forever changed. Joseph Heller did, with "Catch-22" - a phrase, an idea, a book that affirmed our essential insanity. And now, 36 years later, he has fashioned a memoir. It convincingly celebrates something like sanity: That life offers a central promise, which is that it can be lived decently, voraciously and finally happily.The book is called "Now and Then: From Coney Island to Here."

"Wry Martinis," by Christopher Buckley. Random House. 291 pages. $22.As Christopher Buckley acknowledges up front, this is mostly a collection of his magazine pieces, many of them for the New Yorker, where he is a frequent (and frequently hilarious) contributor to the "Shouts and Murmurs" column.Traditionally, publishers feel that emblazoning the word "collection" on a humor book's dust jacket is tantamount to announcing: "This product was made from the skin of baby seals." But if any potential buyers are put off by the dreaded C-word, it would be a pity, since this is an enormously funny and entertaining compilation.

When Milton Eisenhower was president of Johns Hopkins he spoke at the University of Pittsburgh. Introduced as president of ''John'' Hopkins, he began by saying how happy he was to be speaking in ''Pittburgh.''* Burial Inscription: ''Here I lie between two of the best women in the world, my wives. But I requested my relatives to tip me a little toward Tillie.''* Notice on the front page of the New York Times: ''You obviously prefer to be eternally pursued. I'll be enjoying a chilled martini and the warm company of another.

Next year, the American Booksellers Association convention will set up in Chicago, which is supposed to become the permanent home of the annual Memorial Day gathering after years of bouncing from Washington to New York to Las Vegas to Miami. The Second City will have to do some work, though, to be as flamboyant a host as Los Angeles was this year.The surreal setting of Los Angeles proved the perfect backdrop for the latest ABA gathering, which ended Tuesday. In recent years, the convention has become more circus than business get-together, more hype than fostering good books; less about reading and more about show business.

SEATTLE -- For years, all the intelligence agencies have been tussling with the American Civil Liberties Union over documents about the innovative Bush administration policy of locking people up in foreign countries where they can be tortured without the inconvenience of anyone knowing about it or bringing up, you know, like, the Constitution. It is not yet clear - though there is little reason for optimism - about whether the courts will let them get away with it, but the official position of the executive branch under President Bush is that the U.S. government can lock you up anywhere in the world, torture you and tell no one about it. And if someone does find out and starts talking trash like "habeas corpus" or "Fourth Amendment," too bad: It's all OK under the president's inherent powers as commander in chief.

East Hampton, N.Y. -- Say it ain't so, Joe.Surely that was the instinctive reaction of many fans of Joseph Heller's "Catch-22" when it was announced last year that he was writing a sequel to his beloved first novel. With more than 10 million copies in print since it was published in 1961, "Catch-22" for many readers redefined how they viewed war novels. Their feelings about his mordant, wildly satirical novel have always been passionate.Did Hemingway write "The Sun Also Sets?" Did Melville break down and give us "Free Moby Dick"?

Next year, the American Booksellers Association convention will set up in Chicago, which is supposed to become the permanent home of the annual Memorial Day gathering after years of bouncing from Washington to New York to Las Vegas to Miami. The Second City will have to do some work, though, to be as flamboyant a host as Los Angeles was this year.The surreal setting of Los Angeles proved the perfect backdrop for the latest ABA gathering, which ended Tuesday. In recent years, the convention has become more circus than business get-together, more hype than fostering good books; less about reading and more about show business.