Customer Reviews

Picture This

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Would it be some kind of sacrilige to say that this is a better piece of writing than Catch-22 ? Catch-22 is a superior emotional and autobiographical work, for sure; it is his "best" because of how closely it pulls readers through the dark comedy of warfare, which Heller experienced firsthand. But Heller's particular brand of wit comes through in a different way here, and proves his mettle as a writer, and not just as someone who came back from WWII with a "story to tell." The soul of this book is a political one, but the generosity Heller shows his characters -- who just happen to be Rembrandt and Aristotle -- is wonderful. Catch-22 is immersed in the "present" in that wartime is all about surviving hour-by-hour; what's neat about Picture This is how it looks at democracy and capitalism as they have existed for centuries: Socrates was put to death for "corrupting the youth" long before the NSA turned the U.S. into a police state; likewise the Dutch found out what a mess capitalism was hundreds of years before Wall Street. The genius of this book is in that Heller never really explicitly points a finger at modern states, but just points at the trail of dead they've left over thousands of years. Heller pulls art and history through the lens of capitalism & corruption, and he's deadpan-funny while he does it. Also helping the cause: the last few lines of this book are my favorite ending to any novel, ever.

Joe Heller had a hell of a job matching Catch 22. The reviews of its ostensible sequel Closing Time (many of them unfairly negative) prove this. Several of his works in the 70's and early 80's tried to live up and, although decent novels, fell well short of the mark. Ultimately in 1988 he struck gold (no pun intended) again. Picture this is a tour de force of all of Heller's best dialogue writing, irony and subtle political commentary and does all of the things right that Catch 22 did, although at a somewhat lesser volume. It has always been a mystery to me why the book wasn't better received critically and financially, apart from the possible fact that it came close on the heels of Heller's frightening episode of Guillan Barre syndrome and his nonfiction work on that experience. Anyone who has enjoyed his best work and been slightly disapponted by his also-rans ought to pick this one up for a light but thoughtful and entirely pleasant read.

"picture this" is a masterpiece of writing. it is an enchanting work, about often tragic subjects, showing humanity both at it's greatest and it's lowest points, which often occur at the same times. cynnical, informative, wonderfuly funny, complex and sad sometimes, it is one of the best books I have read

PICTURE THIS is an enormous and sprawling work. I do not mean large in the word-count (though it's no slouch in this category) but in the scope. The back cover summary promises a "jaunt through 2,500 years of Western civilization" and it certainly delivers that. Unfortunately the result is a mixture of good and bad. At its best, it can be spellbinding, but at its worst it comes across as a fairly boring history lesson.

The book is vaguely centered around a piece of artwork that a Sicilian nobleman named Don Antonio Ruffo paid five hundred guilders for Rembrandt to produce. The painting is that of the Greek philosopher Aristotle contemplating a bust of the Greek poet and storyteller Homer. Using this foundation as a springboard, Joseph Heller jumps back and forth in time giving different perceptions on a number of different concepts. Money, power and art are just a few of the topics that Heller touches on and for the most part, as the expression goes, the more things change the more they stay the same. There are some memorable insights into the role that war, commerce, etc. have played in society.

On the other hand, PICTURE THIS does tend to get weighed down underneath its grandiose pretensions. While much of the book discusses the relation that history has to the concepts it contains, there are far too many passages that are just dry rehashes of historical documents. This is most apparent in the sections concerning the Greek philosophers where, at worst, the book spends several pages just rephrasing the events and philosophies that Plato described in APOLOGY, CRITO and THE REPUBLIC. Although these sections can be interesting (probably even more so to any readers who aren't already familiar with them) they are not always related to the rest of the story. For some of these sections, one would be better off reading the actual texts rather than just the summary of them included here.

The main sections of the book are split between long discussions about the wars of the ancient Greek world and numerous lectures upon the role of money/commerce in the Dutch society of Rembrandt's era. Some of it is extremely interesting. Some of it is stunningly dull. There are some very clever themes that run throughout the book such as the portrait of Aristotle being sentient and able to give a commentary on how different and similar life is in Rembrandt's time to that of his own. As readers in the beginning of the 21st Century, we can are also able reflect upon how their life is similar to ours. Heller is aware of this and lets the narrative play around with this idea, and while it isn't totally successful in every case, it's effective enough to be very powerful.

This book definitely has some gems contained within it. Just be warned that there is a lot of padding in between. While it's ultimately a rewarding experience, there are portions of it that are just tedious to read.

Joseph Heller has been compared to Mark Twain and rightfully so. Like Twain, Heller has a sharp sense of humor and can easily point out the foibles of mankind. If you are looking for a modern novel with well developed characters and a plot- look elswhere. If you think you know anything at all about Rembrandt or life in the 17th century, then try this one on for size.
Heller's paints a picture of Rembrandt (and Aristotle) that makes them so human you can laugh out loud at them, and you will.

Readers contemplating Heller writing Rembrandt painting Aristotle contemplating a bust of Homer should themselves be considered amongst Heller's most refined audience. Having stripped away the superficial trappings of plot, Heller tells a marvelous tale. Having brushed aside continuity, Heller is able to put history in its inevitably tragic context, for which the only defense is unrelenting laughter. Readers of Catch-22 will be pleased to find that the Master of noir comedy has since greatly improved his skills, leaving the now classic, more-than-just-an-anti-war-novel as a comparative table-scraps. Read it twice, savioring the incomperably involuted prose. Then go back and read it again for the story itself.

From the first completely confusing page to the final full stop Joe Heller uses history from two entirly different era's with no connection whatsoever (except a particular painting) To show the failings of history itself. He highlights many different obsurdities and shows modern life for what it is; a fragile construction on foundations of sand. An absolute must of a read. Personal ranking of all the books I'v read 1 Duncan M Shields duncans@thenet.co.u

This is a stunning read, its that good I put off a day fishing to read it.

We have a biography of Socrates, from his trial until his execution by drinking hemlock.

We have a biography of Rembrandt from when he first becomes famous until his bankruptcy and death.

We have a brief biography of Aristotle as well as his views on life from inside the painting being created by Rembrandt, true.

We have the provenance of the painting "Aristotle Contemplating a Bust of Homer" which is not a painting of Aristotle, from its inception until it was purchased by the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

As well we have Heller's trade mark cynicism and humorous asides. All this in one book ,its fantastic.

The main thread is that we humans do not learn from our mistakes and are destined to forever repeat them. We have the parallels from ancient Greece until the 20th century. It is actually quite scary when you see them laid out on paper.

Heller concludes that we don't learn from history (and in fact so much of history may be nonfactual that learning may be impossible)." (Wiki)
My personal favourite paragraph from the book is :

" Aristotle knew what Plato did not, that politics and good intentions do not mix"

followed closely by:

" Politics and knowledge did not mix either".

Also did you know "that the people living in the year 4 B.C had no idea that they were."

This is great, I haven't enjoyed a book as much as this for years.

'Picture This' is nothing like the many enjoyable novels I've read by the author. This time Heller crafts blended quasi-historical fiction where we learn all about Rembrandt and his painting of Aristotle, who somehow comes alive and we learn all about Aristotle's (and Plato's and Socrates's) life as well. For the first hundred pages I found this set up to be clever and interesting. But then it all gets very repetitive and dull. Yeah, Rembrandt was a talented jerk who went bankrupt. Yeah, ancient Athens was a total mess also. I really didn't want to know about all of Rembrandt's misdeeds or about all the wars and the inept government of ancient Athens. True, the author explains all this with great passion and humor. But for me even Heller couldn't make this book work for me.

Bottom line: Joseph Heller has written much, much better. Not recommended.

Picture This is much more than just "a jaunt through 2,500 years of Western Civilization." From the first chapter on, and every subsequent mention of Socrates, we are told that he is the unsung hero of Western Civilization.

While Socrates has been criticized for saying much and telling us nothing, he tells us himself what he taught, both by word and example: what he taught was that virtue, honor, wisdom, justice, and the search for truth were the paths to lasting happiness, and in order to become enlightened, we must use reasoning to discover our misconceptions of reality. (If this sounds like Jesus' message it is not a coincidence; they shared the same beliefs and the same fate.)

Since all of the reviews of this book that I have read barely mention Socrates, it seems Heller was wasting his time trying to get his point across. Paradoxically he was "dead-pan funny" and dead serious at the same time.

Hearing the truth is not what we want to hear--it is so repulsive to us that we kill the messenger. If our history books were ever to be written objectively, they would be like Heller's book-- history that we would learn from. As it is now, what we learn from history is to repeat our mistakes.

Joan Morrone (Author of a coming book "Resurrecting the Lost Art of Reasoning.)