Heller reputedly said:
"When I read something saying I've not done anything as good as Catch-22 I'm tempted to reply, 'Who has?'"
I can't find an attribution for that so I thought I'd verify it by reading this one, stolen from mrak's bookshelf. It is, unfortunately, about as good as one would expect from the quote rather than would hope from Catch-22. There are some cute ideas and turns-of-phrase but these are the window-dressing of a shop where everything has been purloined.
Actually, some of the best comedy comes from the reviews on the back:
- "I have little hesitation in hailing it as a masterpiece" — Auberon Waugh.
- "Such is the dreadful power of Good as Gold that it requires us to revise our own imaginations." — New York Times.
and I did also like this, from p133, as Gold gets it on with his society girl:
Again, he was at a loss as to how to proceed with a girl like her. He moved his lips about her ears and neck as though in thirsting search of an erogenous zone. A waste of time, he knew from experience. Erogenous zones were either everywhere or nowhere, and he meant to write about that too, when neither Belle nor his daughter would be scandalized by his knowledge. With a guilty start he realized his mind had been wandering...