Rating: 
Summary: Time To Close _Closing Time_
Review: Please tell me that this book wasn't seriously called "The Sequel to Catch-22." It was? WHY?
Something should have clued me into the fact that this wasn't
quite up to the standards, elusive as they were, of the original dark comedy masterpiece. Maybe I should have recognized the marketing strategies: make the cover look like Catch-22, and people
will think the content is like Catch-22; and put Joe Heller's piture on the
back cover, people might recognize him. Perhaps it's age, perhaps it's the passage of time,
perhaps it's just the 90's -- but Closing Time just didn't have that magical spark:
Yossarian and several other characters from Catch-22, as well
as several new additions, have survived WWII, the hippie 60's,
the disco 70's, and the punk/yuppie 80's (none of these decades were mentioned in
much detail, if at all) to become the aging, soon-to-be-retirees of the 90's. No, let me rephrase: they didn't
just survive, they prospered. Yossarian is rich for what appears
to be no good reason, and Milo and his son own half the world. Conceivable? Maybe. And maybe that's the problem: it's *just* believable, and not quite absurd enough to be life.
Now, I know this is supposed to be yet another reflection on
today's society and values, but somehow, it just isn't quite as
compelling as when Yossarian and his buddies were at war with war. The fact that it's also poorly written doesn't help any, either:
characters that might have been forgotten since the last time you read Catch-22 are mentioned with a
few helper hints, i.e.: Kid Sampson, the poor guy who was
sliced in half... That's all good and fine, but mention the same thing
using the exact same wording three times over the course of two chapters, and one is reminded of
senile seniors reminding themselves of events and people that
only they themselves have forgotten -- and Yossarian is nowhere
near that old or that senile. And we readers are nowhere near that forgetful. Perhaps it's just that I'm living in the
same era that Heller is describing in Closing Time -- I have no
comfortable distance from which to judge things. But as a whole,
this book came off as an odd jumble of nostalgic remeniscences about boyhood and teenage days,
bitter gripes and grumblings about the state of the world today (particularly
New York City and the US Presidency -- more pointedly, the Vice Presidency), refractions and reflections of
death (so much that the poignancy is lost), and ineffectual attempts at
humor, usually at the expense of some female character or other.
Catch-22 needed no sequel, and I hope I can go back and read it again someday without feeling somehow tainted. Perhaps if Orr hadn't disappeared...
Rating: 
Summary: Please, if you loved "Catch 22", skip this one...
Review: Absolutely horrible. Heller doesn't hold a single coherent thought, and tries (very unsuccessfully) to mimic Vonnegut. The result is an utter mess. If you loved Catch 22, re-read it. Don't come away as disappointed as I was with this one.
Rating: 
Summary: still good
Review: An excellent farewell to indestructible characters who represent different versions of Everyman. A moving and exquisite look at society today and ageing and death.
Rating:
Summary: Indispensible for anyone who enjoyed Catch-22.
Review: As much as I loved the characters in Catch-22, there was no doubt I was going to read this book. It is unfair to measure the merits of this book by comparing it to Catch-22. To expect Heller to repeat the once-in-a-lifetime quality of Catch-22 is just unfair. That said, this book is indispensible to anyone who enjoyed Catch-22. It is a different kind of book, written from an older, wiser Yossarian's perspective. Still funny, but ruefully so. You'll love seeing what's become of the surviving characters since WWII !
Rating:
Summary: There is still the next step?
Review: Beeing of age 30+ and born in middle Europe I have never found Catch 22 to be really appealing novel. I would be probably never born unless U.S. troups entered the World War II. Catch 22 is perhaps good intellectual excersise but dealing only around the edge of final unavoidable causalties when one finds it difficult to sacrifice himself. Understandable and having strange side ethic impacts. Closing time is different story coming from my World and my time. It is serious satire warning which forecasts what could perhaps happen and why and also how the western civilization twisted in recent decades. My mind values such a work written with brilliant and unique technique much more then the emotional postevent cries. While Catch 22 was of little practical usage for life of all of us, Closing time digs deeply to the fuzzy beginnings of the causes using the author's 22 like paradox tool which could be sorted as dialectic, unmodern and difficult to accept by too serious readers. If we only pay attention. To much extent I agree with the writer's critical points while the book more then often laughs me on. If there is any weak point this is that similar causes proliferate around the entire World in huge variety and sometimes even quite new clothes. Both Catch 22 and Closing time show the outside undescribed world as unknown and/or unbeliavable. Catch 22 uses the scope of small army unit, Closing time is enlarged to that of U.S. society. But the other World simply is here evolving and behaving its own ways, interacting with any subject's common world. Btw. seems Amazon should reconsider the 5 stars indicator as "average" result simply can not reflect the love/hate rate distribution of this and other really good works.
Rating: 
Summary: Yossarian still on a yoyo
Review: Catch 22 catches the Coaster at Coney Island; only problem is that Coney Island is now buried under the Port Authority in NY City. Milo Mindbender now blackmarkets the world. And most of the platoon has survived their ever increasing missions. What's it like for a World War II bomber pilot in his 70s? How about arranging a socialite's weeding to be held in the Bus Terminal with every wino, crack head, pan handler, and pimp as part of the reception? Catch USA.
Rating:
Summary: Should have left great alone
Review: Catch 22 was a stand alone great. It is unfortunate that Heller followed up with such a rickety tale. Hard to follow both the story and the logic (or lack there of he is so well known for). I was looking forward to a whiley novel in the vain of the original, and what I feel I got was a book written much like a reunion tour of a band whose best days were well past.
Rating: 
Summary: Correction
Review: Catch-22 has been a favorite book of mine since I first read it 25 years ago. I have not read Closing Time (and based on the comments of other Catch-22 lovers, I'll avoid it). I do feel the need to comment on a mistake made in earlier reviews. The Chaplain's name in Catch-22 is Albert Taylor Tappman (see page 280). The name appears most memorably in Yossarian's notation "I yearn for you tragically. A. T. Tappman, Chaplain, U.S. Army." In the 1970 movie Anthony Perkins plays the Chaplain and there he is called Shipman. I don't know why.
Rating:
Summary: It's a sequel, but it's not the same
Review: Catch-22 is a classic was satire, one of the best books ever written. Closing Time feels like a lame attempt to roll on Catch-22's success. Some of the old characters are back, but the style just isn't the same. If this book were released seperately from Catch-22, with all new characters, I might have given it three or maybe even four stars. Instead, the book has a "kludged" feel, almost as if it were written before deciding to make it a sequel to Catch-22. And unlike Catch-22, Closing Time incorporates fantasy elements which might break the suspension of disbelief if you're expecting the style of Catch-22.
Rating:
Summary: It's a sequel, but it's not the same
Review: Catch-22 is a classic was satire, one of the best books ever written. Closing Time feels like a lame attempt to roll on Catch-22's success. Some of the old characters are back, but the style just isn't the same. If this book were released seperately from Catch-22, with all new characters, I might have given it three or maybe even four stars. Instead, the book has a "kludged" feel, almost as if it were written before deciding to make it a sequel to Catch-22. And unlike Catch-22, Closing Time incorporates fantasy elements which might break the suspension of disbelief if you're expecting the style of Catch-22.
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