Heller's second novel, Something Happened (1974), was initially panned but earned increasing critical respect over time. Novelist Kurt Vonnegut was among the first to notice this critical trend. He wrote, "There will be a molasses-like cautiousness about accepting this book as an important one. It took more than a year for Catch-22 to gather a band of enthusiasts" (The New York Times Book Review, October 6, 1974). The novel deals with the struggles of Bob Slocum, a white-collar mid-level manager in corporate America, a man who seems to have lost all hope. He is world-weary and, as the title implies, he wonders what has happened to his life.
Good as Gold (1979), Heller's third novel, caused a stir initially because of its controversial treatment of what the book calls "the Jewish Experience in America," a topic familiar to the Jewish Heller; again, the work grew in its reputation — as an outrageously comic novel. Jack Beatty found it "exuberantly funny" and recognized the central character, Bruce Gold, as an individual rather than a representative of all American Jews (New Republic, March 10, 1979). Gold exploits his Jewishness at the same time that he betrays it. He seeks fame, power, and wealth in Washington, where he hopes to be the first Jewish secretary of state, having dismissed Henry Kissinger as not really Jewish because he supported the Vietnam War and prayed with Richard Nixon. Initially condemned as anti-Semitic, the novel was soon recognized as a brilliant satire.
God Knows (1984) was less popular but has received increasing critical acclaim. An ambitious novel that many appreciate for its wildly comic premise, its narrator is the Old Testament David (of Goliath fame) whose tone has been compared to that of a stand-up comic as he rants about his idiotic son, the biblically wise Solomon. Stuart Evans of the London Times called it "a very funny, very serious, very good novel." Picture This (1987), an ambitious novel concerning Rembrandt's Holland and Aristotle's Athens, received less critical acclaim.
