The Back of the Book

Bruce Gold seems to have carved quite a comfortable niche for himself. On paper. In the flesh, he is not so impressive. His octogenarian father thinks he is a nitwit. His own children don't notice him at all. Gold's wife doesn't even realise that he is no longer living with her.

He has moved out - sort of - so that he can climb the ladder of power and prestige in Washington, where his friend Ralph assures him he is about to get a Government appointment, but never actually says what it is. He is told he has already been promoted twice, and is encouraged by such advice as 'You'll figure it out on your own once it's been explained to you.'

BookRing:

Amanida - UK - Intl
laura0141 - UK - ENDS

PMed Amanida for addy

On way to Amanida

Received safely, thanks. To be started soon.

Received safely, thanks. To be started soon.

It has taken me rather a long time to get through this, probably because I found it a bit monotonous and slow moving. Having said that, it is very witty & clever and contains some great stuff about family life. Especially Jewish family life in America, about which, I assume, it is pretty accurate.
The bits about Henry Kissinger didn't really interest me and I probably didn't fully appreciate them.
I haven't read Catch 22, which I'll now be on the look out for.

Received today. Thanks to all who made this ring a success.

Mt TBR B4

RELEASE NOTES:

Donated to BB Jumble Sale to be held on 10th June 2006.

Not released. Availables Box 3

Reserved for ResQgeek

PMed ResQgeek for addy

On way to resqgeek

Arrived in the mailbox on Friday, but I didn't get a chance to make a journal entry over the weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing if I enjoy this as much as I enjoyed Catch-22.

This book was a bit of a mixed bag for me. It is strongest in those parts where it most resembles Catch-22. Heller is extremely good at emphasizing the absurdity of bureaucracy, in any form. In this book he manages to take on politicians, higher education and big money, high society, all to great effect. The dialog in these portions of the book is a roller coaster of parody and cynicsm that "boggles the mind", to borrow a catch phrase from the book. This is Heller at his best.

However, the portions of the book that deal with Gold's family and personal life left me disappointed. While Heller seems to be trying to take aim as family dysfunction, I just couldn't bring myself to care enough for these characters to really connect with any of the family strife. While there were moments of dialog that showed spark, most of the portions delving into Gold's personal life simply felt flat and monontonous, and slowed the entire pace of the book down.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

I'm making this available at today's BC in DC get together.

On Friday I was just wishing I had a book to release with the word 'gold' in the title to do a themed release. So I picked this up at the end of the meetup yesterday. Since this book has been all over, I feel a bit bad just wild releasing it. I'll put it on Mt. TBR and give it a go before releasing it.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Taking this to a BookCrossing meetup. I really wanted to read it but it's been sitting on Mount To Be Read for Too Long. It's time it moved on to a new home. If I read a copy in the future, I'll add my thoughts in here.