Product Description

The previously uncollected writings of Joseph Heller, including hitherto unpublished stories, lost chapters from CATCH-22 and further tales from that novel's unforgettable 'hero', Yossarian. Not many writers introduce a phrase - let alone a whole idea - into the language. In CATCH-22, Joseph Heller invented a motif for the modern world. For that book alone he is one of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century. But where did the author who was able to create that novel come from? And what happened to those remarkable characters? CATCH AS CATCH CAN for the first time collects early works, previously unpublished stories and lost chapters of CATCH-22 to chart the development of a genius. It also explores the consequences in the later stories of the unforgettable Yossarian, and Heller's non-fiction pieces, in which the author reflects upon his childhood in Coney Island and the novel which shaped everything that was written after it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #932270 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
With his first book, the seminal anti-war novel Catch-22, Joseph Heller became one of American literature's most important 20th-century writers. The posthumous collection, Catch As Catch Can: The Collected Stories and Other Writings, shows Heller's early development as a writer, but in essence provides the "outtakes", "B-sides" and sketches related to Catch-22 and several non-fiction pieces regarding it, mixed with juvenilia. A more appropriate title might have been The Making of Catch-22.

This collection contains a great many works that revolve around or contain characters from Catch-22, including two chapters cut from the novel published here as independent stories: "Love, Dad" and "Yossarian Survives". Not surprisingly, these are the strongest works in the book. "Love, Dad" provides the first introduction to Edward J Nately III, who "was often lonely and nagged by vague, incipient longings. He contemplated his sophomore year at Harvard without enthusiasm, without joy. Fortunately, the War broke out in time to save him". Joseph Heller will be known forever for his great novel, Catch-22, and Catch As Catch Can serves to back up this notion. --Michael Ferch, Amazon.com

Review
'If my memory is correct,' writes Joseph Heller in his introduction to one of the short stories in this glowing and readable collection, 'no episodes or characters were deleted when the first typed manuscript of Catch-22 was reduced in the editing.' But then he reveals that two researchers reminded him that he had removed an 'entire small chapter' from the book and never reinstated it: 'My memory is not correct,' he concedes. 'I had forgotten I had written it.' Heller died just before the millennium, but his memory lives on in these previously uncollected writings, published to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the writer's birth in Brooklyn in 1923. One of his least forgettable heroes, Yossarian, is resurrected in two stories written more than 25 years after the publication of his masterpiece Catch-22. This collection also includes Heller's own reflections on the book, written over a 30-year time span. Here, too, are stories published in periodicals such as GQ and Atlantic Monthly in the 1940s and '50s as Heller was learning his trade. The heartbreaking 'Castle of Snow', first published in 1948, shows his evolving mastery of the form: it is the story of a family's struggle to maintain hope during the Depression. 'MacAdam's Log', published some ten years later, is a sensitive and convincing evocation of an older's man search for his own kingdom. This book also contains a play and several 'buried' stories dating from before the publication of Catch-22, which have been rescued from a collection of manuscripts that Heller gave to Brandeis University. If you have never read Heller, this book is the perfect place to start; for existing fans, a necessary acquisition. (Kirkus UK)

About the Author
Joseph Heller was born in Brooklyn in 1923. He began his career with short stories but won immediate acclaim with CATCH-22 in 1961. He went on to write SOMETHING HAPPENED, GOOD AS GOLD, GOD KNOWS, PICTURE THIS, CLOSING TIME (the sequel to CATCH-22) and PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST AS AN OLD MAN. Heller died in December 1999.

Customer Reviews

A cache of gems
Few novels impart the sense of the 1960s as did Heller's "Catch-22". It might be considered the guidebook for the movement to end the fallacy of the United States' involvement in Viet Nam. So abrupt was Heller's rise to prominence with that novel that his previous work was nearly lost to view. This collection restores somewhat our sense of how Heller developed as a writer. From the time of his discharge from the Air Force to "Catch-22" eight short stories were published. That they faded from perception can best be attributed to the blazing popularity of the novel and the social upheaval occuring during the ensuing years.

The editors have gleaned this collection from among Heller's published and unpublished works ranging from 1945 to 1990. This anthology is a mix of fiction and social essays, giving us a good insight into Heller's experiences, thinking and writing skills. The latter are particularly demonstrated in their growth from his early stories through his descriptions of "Catch-22" in its writing and filming. The stories and essays are grouped into those published and those left unseen. There is also the one-act play derived from a character in "Catch-22", "Clevinger's Trial". The play is highly derivative of Heller's view of military procedures and "justice" in assessing its own. Given that, however, little of the novel's spirited style is exhibited here. Excellent narrative style, but little of the incisive wit is displayed. Those who have read "Catch-22" might be led to believe this is not the same writer.

The editors open with excerpts from "Now and Then" in which Heller credits writings of the "urban school" of William Saroyan, Irwin Shaw and Studs Lonigan. There is little doubt, however, that Heller was his "own man" when he wrote, as this collection verifies. From the opening story of a returning soldier's homecoming, through a sequence of tales about New York characters, Heller transmits his ability to record human foibles. The stories are intense and compelling, not the least of which is the life of an addict. In "A Man Named Flute", Heller acknowledges the concern of parents during the post-war years when the drug trade entered an expansionary phase. Among my favourite pieces is the imaginary resignation of George Bush from the Presidency - and that's the first one!

Yossarian, that incomparable survivor from "Catch-22" returns to these pages still struggling to stave off the inevitable. Also inevitable is to compare Yossarian with Heller. Heller's penetrating eye and scathing pen are vividly present in "Yossarian Survives" as well as in the play. He also turns his gaze on the site of his former Corsican airfield in "Catch-22 Revisited" and in depicting the making of the film. He also recapitulates his career as a bombardier in the Mediterranean.

This is a fine collection from a leading American author. Those enamoured of the short story format will be amply rewarded by adding this anthology to their collection. Heller is lamentably gone, and his replacement has yet to appear. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Occasionally brilliant, but not vintage Heller
'Catch as Catch Can' is the sort of collection that often appears immediately after an author's death. It is a collection of his early writings, some 'outtakes' from 'Catch-22' and a few essays related to his seminal work. I am a huge fan of Heller, and this collection helped me to understand him a little better, as well as gave some fascinating insights into his evolution as a writer.
The first pieces are short stories published prior to 'Catch-22' and show, which largely appeared in men's magazines such as Esquire and Playboy. They are not, on the whole, sexual in content, but attempt to tackle gritty urban themes such as drug abuse and gambling. However, this is not Joseph Heller territory, and he confesses as much in his notes. The stories were neccessary to bring the money in, but he had yet to find his own style and was imitating the themes and styles of his favourite authors. This makes the stories interesting, but not particularly special.
The 'Catch-22' outtakes are almost as good as the real thing. I could see why Nateley's letters to his Dad had been omitted, but the episode of the gym instructor is brilliant, and Heller comments that he couldn't remember why he left it out. I suspect though, that only people who liked the original would appreciate this.
The same goes for the essays in which Heller discusses the making of the film or a trip revisiting his base in Italy, or extracts which would form the sequel 'Closing Time'. I am a devotee of Heller, and love both these books, but I suspect that someone not familiar with him or them would not find 'Catch as Catch Can' particularly interesting.
In summary, the book is useful for understanding Heller and 'Catch-22' a little better, and gets 4 stars from me because I want to do both these things. However, it is not necessarily particularly good as a stand-alone work, so if you haven't already read him, don't start here.

Heller from first to last
Despite over 50 years as a published author Joseph Heller's reputation is dominated by one book, Catch 22, to an unusual extent. Not that his later fictions are unsatisfactory (Something Happened, in particular, is a powerful and moving novel), but the myth of Catch 22 is so potent that, in the end, Heller gave way to it by re-cycling the characters in his late novel, Closing Time. So it is with this collection - from the title onwards. Catch 22 appears in discarded chapters, a dramatisation (the hilarious illogic of Clevinger's Trial), dummy runs for Closing Time (none too convincing), commentary on the film, even a travel piece about Heller's return to the places where he spent the war. Interesting to find that, in his war-time career as in Yossarian's, Avignon was the deadly mission that he never forgot, but the original of Snowden survived. As the previous reviewer observed, it's easier to enjoy this if you know and love Catch 22 - but, then, doesn't everybody? The early short stories are a mixed bag, suggesting that Catch 22 came out of left field - there is no hint of its manic surrealism in any of them. Some hard-boiled tales work well enough, but to me the most effective are those which follow in the great American tradition of exploring characters in a crisis of (in)decision, with no explanation of what's gone before and mere hints of what will follow, full of irony and bruised morality: Girl from Greenwich, for instance, or Nothing to be Done, or even the previously unpublished From Dawn to Dusk.