I really liked it. I read Something Happened a number of years ago and loved it. It's much slower than Catch-22, but it drew me in. The way Heller deals with death in his books is something that I really appreciate. Many authors force meaning into a character's death, but for Heller it's "sometimes people just die." A somewhat futilistic (if that's even a word) view, but it makes his books stand out for me. My book for this month is Venus in Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. There's also a production of Venus in Fur by David Ives being performed in Seattle that I hope to see this weekend or next.
I have very mixed feelings about Something Happened. I read it. It might as well be titled Nothing Happened. Heller's style is amazing and some of his bits of insight are off the charts, but for a relatively long novel to lack a plot was a bit dull for my taste. After a while I just got bored.
I definitely understand. The reason I like Something Happened so much is because of how in-depth it is into Bob Slocum's life. It's an everyday tragedy of a common man; unhappy, unfulfilled, with all of his best years behind him. Like I said before, Heller is incredible when writing about futility. Having the climax two pages before the end of the novel made the novel for me. The novel ends where Bob's life ends (in a figurative sense).