In a passionate tribute to her father’s work, Erica Heller criticized Sarah Palin and Samuel Joseph “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher for shopping books.
Dreaming about a simpler time for publishing in the Huffington Post, she described how Joseph Heller wrote Catch-22 over eight years–balancing a family and a full-time job at the same time. Her essay took a dig at spiraling advances as well, a popular topic around these parts.
“[T]heir books [are] certain to be ghosted by some unsung schnooks, manuscripts that will be comprised mostly, I’m betting, of little more than bragging, lying and recycling some very stale air. For their efforts, they will be awarded gargantuan advances, piles of money that could feed several Third World nations for some time. Or OUR nation, since there are still so many hungry, weary, homeless and wanting.”