God Knows Summary
Joseph Heller

Everything you need to understand or teach God Knows by Joseph Heller.

God Knows Summary & Study Guide

God Knows Summary

Two social concerns predominate in God Knows, both of which Joseph Heller has addressed in earlier novels.

One is the breakdown of the family, which Heller first fully treated in Something Happened (1974; see separate entry).

In God Knows we witness incredible violence, antipathy, and back stabbing within the family unit, made all the more complicated by the fact that David's offspring are from different wives. The other concern is...

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God Knows Short Guide

Characters

Social Concerns/Themes

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Key Questions

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Joseph Heller Biographies (5)

Joseph Heller

9,017 words, approx. 31 pages

Joseph Heller (1923-1999) was a popular and respected writer whose first and best-known novel, Catch-22 (1961), is considered a classic of the post-World War II era. Presenting human existence as absu... Read more

Joseph Heller

5,394 words, approx. 18 pages

When Joseph Heller learned that the New York Times Book Review's response to his first novel was negative, he and his family were terribly depressed. "Waiting for that review to come out," he later to... Read more

Joseph Heller

3,058 words, approx. 11 pages

Jospeh Heller was born 1 May 1923 in Brooklyn, New York. His father died in 1927. After graduating from Abraham Lincoln High School in 1941, Heller joined the Twelfth Air Force. He was stationed in Co... Read more

Joseph Heller

3,265 words, approx. 11 pages

Despite his relatively small output, Joseph Heller is considered a major contemporary author. His reputation rests principally on his first book, the experimental antiwar novel Catch-22, one of the mo... Read more

Joseph Heller

12,613 words, approx. 43 pages

Joseph Heller has established himself as a major satirist in the field of contemporary American fiction. A new phrase was added to the American lexicon from the title of his first novel Catch-22 (1961... Read more

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God Knows SummaryJoseph Heller