Closing Time (novel)

Closing Time, first published in 1994, is Joseph Heller's sequel to the popular Catch-22. It takes place in New York City in the 1990s, and revisits some characters of the original -- Yossarian, Milo Minderbinder and Chaplain Tappman.

Related Topics:
1994 - Joseph Heller - Catch-22 - New York City - 1990s - Yossarian - Milo Minderbinder - Chaplain Tappman

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Just like the original Catch-22, this sequel opens with Yossarian in a hospital bed, flirting with the nurses. Now in his seventies, Yossarian is depressed by his perfect health: things can only get worse. He lives alone in a Manhattan apartment not far from most of his old war buddies, including Milo Minderbinder, a defense contractor straight out of Dr. Strangelove. Yossarian and company mourn the decline of New York City and American culture in general and look back longingly to the golden age of prewar Coney Island. The symbolic center of the book is a surreal wedding extravaganza held at the Port Authority Bus Terminal and hosted by Minderbinder, who recruits highly paid actors to portray derelicts and prostitutes. This work attempts the same sort of giddy black humor that made its predecessor a classic, but the underlying mood is somber, almost elegiac.

Related Topics:
Manhattan - Dr. Strangelove - New York City - Coney Island

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