ERICA HELLER

John Yossarian es el protagonista de la novela Catch-22 (Trampa-22): una sátira teñida de humor negro que desde su aparición en 1961 ha vendido diez millones de ejemplares. Inspirándose en su propia experiencia durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, su autor, Joseph Heller, escribio una despiadada critica a la milicia estadounidense, que describia como un cumulo de sinsentidos. En 1961 su hija Erica tenia nueve años, y la alusion a la obra mas famosa de su padre en el titulo de estas memorias no es gratuita. Si hoy dia en ingles la expresion "a catch-22 situation" equivale a un callejon sin salida, mucho de ello hay en este artefacto literario que es un repaso a la existencia de Erica Heller. Una vida familiar llena de acontecimientos, rodeada de amigos y que se desarrolla en el Nueva York mas cosmopolita... pero que puede resultar tan absurda y dolorosa como la guerra que se reflejaba en Trampa-22. El cabeza de familia es el alter ego de Yossarian; un hombre excentrico y complejo, lleno de contradicciones, a quien su hija evoca sin concesiones al sentimentalismo pero transmitiendo, a la vez, una honda y sutil ternura. Agridulce y plagado de chispa, Yossarian durmio aqui es un incisivo retrato de grupo capaz de hacer aflorar una sonrisa en los instantes menos esperados.

THROUGHOUT ERICA HELLERS LIFE, when people learned that Joseph Heller was her father, they often remarked, How terrific! But was there a catch? Like his most famous work, her father 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. Being raised by such a larger than- life personality could be claustrophobic, even at the sprawling Upper West Side apartments of the Apthorp, which the Hellers called homein one way or anotherfor forty-five years. Yossarian Slept Here is Erica Hellers wickedly funny but also poignant and incisive memoir about growing up in a familyher iconic father; her wry, beautiful mother, Shirley; her younger brother, Ted; her relentlessly inventive grandmother Dottiethat could be by turns caring, infuriating, and exasperating, though anything but dull. From the forbidden pleasures of ordering shrimp cocktail when it was beyond the familys budget to spending a summer, as her fathers fame grew, at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Erica details the Hellers charmedand charmingly turbulent trajectory. She offers a rare glimpse of meetings with the Gourmet Club, where her father would dine weekly with Mel Brooks, Zero Mostel, and Mario Puzo, among others (and from which all wives and children were strictly verboten). She introduces us to many extraordinary residents of the Apthorp, some famousGeorge Balanchine, Sidney Poitier, and Lena Horne, to name a fewand some not famous, but all quite memorable. Yet she also manages to limn the complex bonds of loyalty and guilt, hurt and healing, that define every family. Erica was among those present at her fathers bedside as he struggled to recover from Guillain-Barre syndrome and then cared for her mother when Shirley was diagnosed with terminal cancer after the thirty-eight-year marriage and intensely passionate partnership with Joe had ended. Witty and perceptive, and displaying the descriptive gifts of a born storyteller, this authentic and colorful portrait of life in the Heller household unfolds alongside the saga of the familys moves into four distinctive apartments within the Apthorp, each representing a different phase of their lives togetherand 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.