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Old Joe Heller
by Corey Mesler Old Joe Heller. in the last month of the last century expired, after having written novels which delineated the century’s zeitgeist. Let’s imagine on his death bed he was visited by the angel David, come to carry him home. Let’s imagine David says, well, Joe we got ourselves a real Catch-22 here, you’re not quite ready for Heaven but Hell is not for you. And Joe could only moan his last moan, hearing for the final time, an abuse of the phrase for which he will be forever remembered. “Just let me die,” we imagine Joe saying. “Without any jokes. This century was funny enough without me or you or even Phil Roth making caustic with the language.” And he passed on. David lingered behind a while, rifling through Joe Heller’s papers, seeing if there was another novel there, or a final joke beyond the obvious one. |
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