in 1994 (Pinsker 379). Although not as well received as Catch-22, Closing Time serves as a sequel to Catch-22 in which the heroes are described forty years after the original novel (Kaupunginkirjasta online). Sadly on December 3, 1999, Joseph Heller died of a heart attack at his home in Long Island, New York (Kaupunginkirjasta online). Heller's career and personality was best described by Brustein when he said "He has Mailer's combustible radicalism without his passion for violence and self-glorification; he has Bellow's gusto with his compulsion to affirm the unaffirmable; and he has Salinger's wit without his coquettish self-consciousness (Brustein 228)."Catch-22 was Heller's first real success as an author. It has been received with both excessively positive and odiously negative critiques and comments. In addition, some critics only provided statements that were commentary, rather than commendations or denunciations.A few critics only supplied a general interpretation of Catch-22 that includes brief commentary about the work. One such comment was made by Raymond Olderman in which he says, "Joseph Heller's Catch-22 deals with more that the lusty evils of battle, it is a book written for a decade of readers who have been warned about the dangers of the military-industrial complex" (Olderman 229). Another comment was made by Robert Brustein, who said, "[Catch-22] speaks solidly to those who are disaffected, discontented, and disaffiliated, and yet those who want to react to life positively" (Burstein 135).Those who support it have often said that Joseph Heller's work of Catch-22 truly demonstrates his extraordinary talents (Brustein 228). Bryant went as far as to say, "Better than almost any other single war novel, Catch-22 illustrates the main issues of the 'open decisions [decisions made by one's self],' laying out clearly the factors which inhabit its highest good and suggesting ways in which those factors can be overcome" (Bryant ...
