Something Happened

Please pardon my lack of recent updates. I've been busy reading this 570-page tome for more or less the entire month of October. It's a book I've had for several years now, purchased in the aftermath of my fascination with Heller's classic, Catch-22, my favorite book of all time. I tried rushing headstrong into this book back in high school, perhaps even as early as freshman year. But I couldn't get into it. About 100 pages in, I gave up completely, only to try again some many years later (now, the present). Having finally conquered Something Happened, I can't blame my adolescent self for quitting on it. It's a slow read and it's a long read. But I'd be remiss to say it was anything less than a good read. The book is nine chapters long, but the first chapter and final two come in at 27 pages combined. That makes for six middle chapters whose length approaches (and in two cases, exceeds) 100 pages. Again, it's a long and slow read. Bob Slocum, the narrator, is living the 20th Century American Dream. He's got an upper-middle management job, a wife, and three children. But he's not happy, at all. In a sense, the book is kind of like American Beauty, only it's not pretentious and shitty. At times, it also reminded me of the TV show Mad Men. A big criticism (really, the only criticism) of this book is that nothing at all really happens. And that's true. The title can only really be described as a summary of the final five pages. Yes, something does happen - something big - but after 560 pages of build-up, the "something" in question doesn't feel big enough. Nor does the falling action feel detailed enough. I mean, after this something does indeed happen - and it's a big something, again - there's a final five-page chapter that felt way too short. And when a book is 570 pages long, do you really want any part of it - especially the ending - to feel too short? This said, I liked Something Happened, and not just because I felt like I should. I genuinely appreciated the long-running stream-of-consciousness monologues and the quick, all too realistic conversations the narrator has with his family and co-workers. When Heller's humor was on, it was on. But it wasn't on even one tenth as much as it was on in Catch-22. In comparing the books, I'd say that Catch-22 oozed with comedic irony and witticisms juxtaposed (toward the end of the book) with very dark and solemn subject matter. In Something Happened, the tone is solemn and cynical from the get-go, and the infrequent puns and deprecating observations made by the narrator seem more like comic relief than the type of brilliant irony found in Catch-22. Bit in a way, this is like comparing apples and oranges. One book is a frantic-paced masterpiece, teeming with memorable characters and moments, that is both hilarious and iconic. The other is a deep and drawn-out series of repetitive internal monologues that never really earned much recognition or praise outside of Kurt Vonnegut. If you've got a lot of time on your hands and enjoyed Catch-22, give this one a shot. If you didn't enjoy Catch-22, it's because you didn't read it. Please, do yourself a favor and go do so. You really need to. I wouldn't steer you wrong, would I? Just do it.