No Laughing Matter - Hardcover

Joseph Heller; Speed Vogel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0399130861 ISBN 13: 9780399130861

Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1986

Synopsis

Imbued with wit and biting humor, this memoir by the author of "Catch-22" recounts Heller's battle against Guillain-Barre syndrome, a sometimes fatal condition that can leave its victims paralyzed, and the camaraderie of friends who rallied to his support

About this title

About the Author:

Joseph Heller was born in Brooklyn in 1923. In 1961, he published Catch-22, which became a bestseller and, in 1970, a film. He went on to write such novels as Good as Gold, God Knows, Picture This, Closing Time, and Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man. Heller died in 1999.

From Publishers Weekly:

In alternating chapters, Heller and Vogel recount Heller's bout with Guillain-Barre syndrome, a paralyzing affliction that struck him in 1981, from which he has now recovered. The two voices blend magnificentlythe authors have been friends for 25 yearsand together they engagingly draw readers into Heller's hospital room and into both their lives. The physical and emotional ramifications of Heller's condition, for himself and his circle of friends (Mario Puzo, Dustin Hoffman, Mel Brooks), are honestly detailed; and Heller, in his first nonfiction work, movingly and unsentimentally describes the experiences of paralysis, illness and rehabilitation. Stories of disease are unlikely to be as lively and fun as thisthere is even a love interest as Heller falls in love with his nurseand for anyone interested in Heller and his work, the book is a treasure trove of biographical information. Repetition slows the bookthe derivation of the name Kinky Friedman (he makes a cameo appearance in Good as Gold is offered several times; Joseph Stein is more than once identified as the author of Fiddler on the Roofand the authors seem to name-drop when they describe the social scene at Mt. Sinai, but as one friend of Heller's remarked to Vogel after a visit to the hospital: "It was not like visiting any other patient. It was sheer entertainment." First serial to the New York Times Magazine.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons
• Publication date: 1986
• ISBN 10: 0399130861
• ISBN 13: 9780399130861
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 335