Joseph
Heller:
"I think one difference between the two books is that Catch-22
is concerned with physical survival against exterior forces or institutions
that want to destroy life or moral self. Something Happened is concerned
very much with interior, psychological survival in which the areas of combat
are things like the wishes a person has, whether they are fulfilled or not, the
close, intimate situations we have with our children when they’re small and as
they grow older, the memories we have of our relationship with parents as they
grow older—these are some of the areas of disturbance in Something Happened.
Of course, these areas are much more difficult to deal with than those in Catch-22.
Given an Adolf Hitler, or inefficient or corrupt people, or people without
sensibilities, we know what the dangers are, and we know what we must try to
do. There’s a line in Something Happened: “It was after the war that
the struggle began.”"
Artist: Gary Dexter