Yossarian Slept Here: When Joseph Heller Was Dad, the Apthorp Was Home, and Life Was a Catch-22

Summary

Like his most famous work, Joseph Heller was a study in contradictions: eccentric, brilliant, and voracious, but also mercurial, competitive, and stubborn, with a love of mischief that sometimes cut too close to the bone.

Yossarian Slept Here is a daughter's mordantly funny, poignant, and incisive memoir about growing up Heller—from her colorful family members and her parents' passionate and tumultuous 38-year marriage, to her father's celebrity friends and the family's eccentric neighbors in New York City's historic Apthorp apartment building. Mel Brooks, Zero Mostel, and Mario Puzo were close confidantes of Joe; George Balanchine, Sidney Poitier, and Lena Horne shared the elevator. This authentic and vibrant portrait of life in the Heller household unfolds alongside the saga of the family's move into four distinctive apartments within the Apthorp, each representing a different phase of their lives together—and apart. It is a story about achieving a dream, about fame and its aftermath, about lasting love, squandered opportunities and how to have the best meal in Chinatown.