A Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man

Author: Joseph Heller

Edition: Scribner

Difficulty: see third paragraph below.

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From the author of Catch-22 (which admittedly, I never finished) comes a book of quite different stock.

The story takes us through the problems of an elderly acclaimed author named Eugene Pota (whose life mirrors Heller's), particularly his newfound and nearly debilitating case of writer's block, and his struggle to retain respect and relevancy in a modern world. While there are some interesting aspects of his situation to consider, they're not much fun to read about. The telling signs of weariness in the author lend a depressing air to the narration - even the title itself, a play on James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, seems a little cheap.

While I'm not very familiar with Heller's writing style, I'm not impressed from this example alone. Laden with a superfluous amount of adjectives, most of which are unnecessary and require the average reader to look up for comprehension, it's clumsy to wade through and I found my attention wandering often. Clearly the author is intelligent and has a large vocabulary, but too much of this at once is tedious for both the eyes and the brain; in the end it feels like how a stew with too many flavorful ingredients might taste.

Perhaps Portrait appeals to an older demographic than myself. Perhaps it's also more engaging specifically to writers interested in the progression of their work. (I suppose if one likes realist fiction, they could argue that the author is a compelling writer - no doubt what he details is legitimate.) But it comes off to me as an empty story that only makes the reader as tired and uninspired as its protagonist.

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DO READ IF: you're a fan of Catch-22..... (I guess...)

DO NOT READ IF: you have anything better to do.