Get by - G

Author: Joseph Heller
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: When flipping through this book that compiles Heller's other works, we can discover a Heller who is both the same and different from the one in Catch-22. The similarity lies in the literary form of Catch-22—that black, absurd, self-mocking yet tragic atmosphere, that deeply despairing portrayal of a horrifyingly comical objective world through a sense of absurdity. In Heller's works, the world is ugly, irrational, unpredictable, and difficult to comprehend, a world that traditional Balzacian realism could no longer depict. To such a world, Heller uses mocking, irrational language to outline, portraying a society filled with countless insurmountable obstacles. The difference is that in these short stories and related works, the Heller who originally fought against the hypocritical reality with free will seems to have become colder. "Indifference" becomes the dominant style of these novels. From the first page to the last page, we keep wondering: Is this excessive indifference a form of pain or a form of joy, or perhaps a kind of surrender after reaching an extreme? Whether it's the ups and downs of love, the hardships of life, the struggles of work, the changes in family, or the absurdity of life, all joys and sorrows seem to be shrouded in an extreme indifference, devoid of cruel tyranny and frantic manipulation. Indifference eventually becomes a kind of desolate winter landscape. And this might be Heller's further interpretation of life under the helplessness of "black humor."