Get Access Portrait Of An Artist, As An Old Man Developed By Joseph Heller Available As Hardcover
liked this book quite a bit more than I expected to, Its a nontraditional style, written from an authors perspective inrd person, with the author chiming Im from time to time inst person, Interesting. I would recommend to those who have an interest in exploring various writing styles and techniques, Novelist Eugene Pota is a cultural icon of theth century, struggling to write what will be the last novel of his career, But what to write about when, like so many noted authors before him, all of Pota's output since that first, landmark novel has been scrutinized, dissected and found wanting Very interesting novel and the perfect length to read slowly but not take forever to finish.
There were a lot of interesting short stories as a part of the novel, but the part I liked the best was the narrators brief lecture on the literature of despair.
This was an incredible chapter that discussed many of the personal problems and bad endings so many of our literary heroes experienced toward the end of their careers.
As Mr. Heller, an author of extraordinary repute himself, reached the end of his life, he too had much to reflect on and decide whether or not he was going to produce one more masterpiece, and it makes sense, since novels don't exist in a vacuum, it is good to reflect that a real person with their own hopes and dreams made what we can enjoy, but there is also a struggle with one's own success and fame that we often never know about.
Three and a half, Some parts were great, other parts not so great, This book completes its purpose, presuming the purpose is to amuse with some degree of introspection and thoughtfulness, I enjoyed the cynical history lesson: writers are doomed! Don't become one! and the ongoing "A sexual biography of my wife" novel which is so promising yet empty of real plot points.
However I did skip over the religious passages the retelling of the Bible in that way was incredibly boring, To learn that this novel was published posthumously gives me a new perspective on it, especially considering it deals with thematic such as legacy and accepting decay.
That questionable comma aside, Hellers last and posthumous novel is a winnera bitterly candid portrait of an overthehill, clappedout and confused senior novelist struggling to settle on one idea for his farewell feature.
Hellers Pota is a cranky soul who swoops down on various ideas, most of them retreads of Greek myths, biblical stories, Mark Twain homages, and Kafka reworkings, and wrestles with his dwindling powers.
His intention of writing A Sexual Biography of My Wife creates marital conflict, and the novels finest sections are when Pota is ruminating on his relationship not in most uxorious terms, and sparring with his unimpressed editor.
It is safe to assume that Heller had started the various snippets we read throughout the novel, and devised a clever way of stringing them together by including snarky commentary on them.
The result is a fairly fragmentary, unapologetically chatty, and extremely amusing novel where Heller truly has the last laugh at his own expense, Романзавещание Не знаю. Уловкаэто да. Но не портрет. Даже Вообрази себе картину и то было намного лучше. Может быть, сам Хеллер был не такой интересный в жизни, какие были его книги судя по книжке, в которой он пишет про самого себя Кстати, практически к такому же выводу я пришла и в случае с Сью Таунсенд. Видимо так. Очень жаль
Очень понравилась фраза Геры я ревнива, потому что сама добродетельна. Логично
А еще понравилось про Тома Соейра и как он ездил по разным писателям, пытаясь разузнать, как заработать писательством.
N. B. Оценку ставлю исключительно из уважения к автору. Если бы не он, поставила бы оценку ниже
This chap wrote a book that was so good that its title ended up in everyday English usage as a more polite term for a shit sandwich.
It was quite a book, probably one of the best books written in theth century, It was so good the Netflix series has George Clooney in it, It was also his first book but he wrote other books that were good but didn't sell as well,
I mean to say that if anyone else had written these books they would probably wouldn't do too badly from them, but they wouldn't have had the career the bloke who wrote Catchhad.
This was Joseph Heller's last book,
He asks, can a writer whose most famous work was his first achieve those heady heights with his last What if he has a number of bloody good ideas but they're just false starts Why did so many famous writers die in penury, in misery or by suicide Is it related to why he can't he think of an idea for his last book that is just as good as his first Why, fuck it, why
This was an insight and anyone who has made a million false starts and filled their waste paper basket to overflowing can empathise.
I, however, have no sympathy because I will never write anything as good as Catch, Probably 'nor will anyone else,
Suck it up you rich, successful, dead prick, Maybe not the best intro to Joseph Heller, but it's bright, trenchant, and worth it for the wonderful Ton Sawyer sections, It's nice to read a late career book by a giant that's not steeped in pure bile, I wish the women were a bit more drawn in, but they weren't fetisihized and had inner lives beyond the Pota character, I'd totally go back and read the rest of his output, A maioria de nós esmorece com a idade, e também com a experiência, O trabalho não se torna mais fácil com a prática e, quando paramos, desaba subitamente sobre o nós o peso esmagador de todo o tempo livre que temos pela frente e que não estamos aptos a enfrentar.
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Publicado postumamente em, O último livro de Joseph Heller, consagrado escritor norte americano, acabou não fazendo muito barulho em sua data de lançamento, Em comparação com o estrondoso CatchArdilseu primeiro romance foi praticamente ofuscado das livrarias e da boca do público,
Claro, ambos possuem dois objetivos completamente distintos, Mas este aqui pede uma atenção diferenciada, principalmente se você pretende ter a arte como ofício,
Aqui o autor se transmuta em Eugene Pota, um escritor já consagrado por seus antigos trabalhos que está a procura de uma ideia para seu novo romance.
Porém, sua idade avançada e suas complicações com a autoconfiança acabam sabotando o escritor em diversos momentos da história, fazendoo trocar de ideia diversas vezes e acabar dependendo muito da opinião dos amigos e de sua equipe editorial.
O livro acabou dividindo a minha experiência, Por um lado, eu não curti muito o estilo da escrita e nem das situações que somos apresentados, Chega um momento que até o processo de criação das histórias se tornam monótonas e repetitivas, o que sinceramente não agrega para leitura no todo.
Em contrapartida, a mensagem do livro é clara: não devemos perder tempo,
Quando falei no início sobre seguir o ofício das artes é por conta da clara comparação com o próprio título.
Se chama Retrato do ARTISTA Quando Velho, não Retrato de Eugene Pota Quando Velho, Aqui é descrito uma lição, É a demonstração do arrependimento e da tentativa de concluir os sonhos no momento de celebrar as conquistas,
Dificilmente recomendo este livro para você se inspirar, Mas, é altamente necessário para lembrar que o seu tempo, artista, está acabando,
ed in
Joseph Heller reportedly finished writing Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man just before his death last December at the age of.
The novel has been posthumously published with little fanfare, One can only surmise that Simon and Schuster knew the book wasnt much of a capstone to Hellers celebrated literary career, The stark blackandwhite cover is so unappealing that it seems intended to dissuade readers from even bothering to look inside, Regrettably, there is ample cause to be forewarned, While there are passages as caustic and funny as anything Heller wrote in his lifetime, the narrative is disjointed and gives the unfortunate impression of being an incomplete draft rather than a polished work.
At first, this inchoate quality almost works to the books advantage, since it is literally the story of an aging author, Eugene Pota, who has run out of ideas for his next novel.
Were presented with Potas discarded plot outlines and excerpts from abandoned stories, along with his dyspeptic rants about writing, growing old, marriage, sex, and adultery.
Heller fails in weaving these elements into a larger overarching coherence, Conversely, if his intent was to write a postmodern antinovel, Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man isnt unconventional enough to warrant its ragged formlessness.
There are listless stabs at a kind of metafictional playfulness and experimentation, but the results are unfocused, The curious revelation that “Pota” is an acronym its no brain teaser is more likely to be greeted with a baffled shrug than an appreciative smile.
The best satirical piece in the book is prime Heller: a mordantpage story titled “Tom Sawyer, Novelist, ” The fictional Sawyer steps out from the pages of Mark Twain and declares that he, too, wishes to be a writer, But Sawyers creator is unable to offer advice or inspiration, Twain is deeply depressed over mounting debts, a failed publishing company, the death of a son and daughter, and a fickle public that isnt much interested in his cynical late works like Puddnhead Wilson.
Undaunted, Tom Sawyer sets off across America in search of a mentor, What he finds instead is a litany of awfulness: the alcoholic Jack London is dead at forty Joseph Conrad is subject to nervous breakdowns Herman Melville is toiling in obscurity Stephen Crane succumbs to tuberculosis at twentyeight.
To Sawyers dismay, the American literary scene is nothing but a “mortuary of a museum, ” At the end of his travels, his resolve is clear: “Tom Sawyer would no sooner think of a career writing fiction for a living than placing himself in front of an oncoming locomotive or diving headlong from the highest cliff he could find into the Mississippi River.
”
Hellers subjects have varied over the years, but his trademark blend of fatalism and absurdity has remained a constant since Catch, his seminal World War II satire published in.
His style proved remarkably adaptable, whether skewering middleclass marriage and the corporate workplace in Something Happened, Washington politics in Good as Gold, or the Old Testament in God Knows.
Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man, however, never locates much of a target for Hellers gifts, Eugene Pota, like Heller, is a successful writer with a comfortable lifestyle, As we read his cornball sketchesslangy scatological updates of Greek myths, Biblical pastiches, a modern slapstick retelling of Kafkas “The Metamorphosis”were left puzzled as to the point of it all.
Its hard not to suspect that Heller pulled most of this hitandmiss material from his own reject files, Nothing appears to be at stake, either artistically or psychologically, The novels many selfreferential asides are less ironic than merely banal: “This is a book about a wellknown, aging author trying to close out his career with a crowning achievement, with a laudable bang that would embellish his reputation rather than with a fainthearted whimper that would bring him only condescension and insult.
” In the case of Joseph Hellers final work, the lions share of “condescension and insult” deserves to be directed at Simon and Schuster, Its inconceivable that Heller meant the book to be published as it stands,
But even if this is the book he wanted us to see, it clearly hasnt received the attention of a copy editor, Theres a clever moment when were told that one of the characters is facing a Catch, but when the identical thing is said about another character ten pages later its a pretty good bet that Helleror a decent editorwould have preferred to excise one or the other of these injoke references.
The first one makes us laugh, and the second one makes us sorry we laughed the first time, There are inexcusable typos, such as the misspelling of writer Jerzy Kosinskis name, Several of the later chapters seem inexplicably underwritten and dashedoff, suggesting Heller didnt have the opportunity to sharpen or rewrite portions of the book before he died.
In his best work, Hellers punch lines are like vaudeville spotlights illuminating our crushing fears and petty behaviors, If not in the same league as Samuel Beckett, he certainly shares a similar bananapeel nihilism, At one point, Eugene Pota quotes the famous line “I cant go on, Ill go on” from Becketts The Unnamable, Although Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man has the jokes and the despair, they seem to cancel one another out instead of combusting into a sublime portrait of human futility.
The multiple story lines immerse us in wretchedness without exploring its heartbreak, and the oneliners dissipate our empathy,
There are a few brief moments in which we glimpse the plaintive eloquence that too often eludes Heller throughout the novel, Pota visits two of his former lovers, both of whom suffer from crippling ailments, one woman has severe burns from a boating accident, and the other has contracted Lou Gehrigs disease.
Amid jokes about blow jobs and the fervent sexuality of
years long gone, Potas sorrow finds its core of emotional truth, Adele, the exlover with ALS, asks Pota to sit beside her:
He rose stiffly and crossed the room to join her on the sofa.
She extended an outstretched arm to steady him as he turned to seat himself, and he came to rest with his hand inside her thigh.
He squeezed gently, rubbing a bit, and left it there, She stared down at his hand for a moment, Then, turning in toward him, she reached her arms around his shoulders, and as they settled together against the backrest, she began weeping noiselessly, making not one sound, spilling tears against his neck that felt ice cold.
“Its just what I would have done,” Pota tells her, “if you hadnt done it first, ” Hes not the only one, Disheartened readers of Joseph Hellers sad final literary gasp may feel like shedding a few tears, too, .