Something Happened

American author Joseph Heller’s controversial novel, Something Happened (1974), centers on a character who has everything but happiness. Set in 1960s Manhattan, the story is a satire of the so-called “American Dream.”

Protagonist Bob Slocum is a mid-level marketing executive at a corporate advertising firm. He has a fancy house in Connecticut, an attractive wife, and three children. To outsiders looking in, Bob has a perfect life; nevertheless, Bob is chronically unhappy.

Although Bob loved his wife once, he despises her now. He cheats on her all over Manhattan and he drinks heavily. He can’t bring himself to ask for a divorce because he doesn’t want to hurt her, and he doesn’t want to lose the air of respectability that he believes marriage brings. As if this weren’t enough, Bob hates his job, too. He finds advertising boring and pointless, but again, he refuses to walk away. Surrounded by all these outward signs of financial and relationship success, Bob is, in fact, miserable and alone.



When Bob isn’t fretting over his job or his wife, he is worrying about something else. He has a long list of fear and phobias ranging from closed doors to public speaking. Bob knows his fears aren’t rational, but he doesn’t know why he has so many. He doesn’t want to know, either, because to get over his fears means confronting them. He is quite happy to avoid his problems forever. Bob’s entire life is defined by his failure to confront what is really going on around him.

One day, Bob receives a promotion at work. He feels bad because he is not excited about it, and he is putting someone else out of a job. When he tells his family about it, they don’t seem too thrilled, either. His wife thinks he works too much as it is. This promotion means he will be working even longer hours. When Bob sits alone that night, he reflects on how his life reached this miserable place.

When Bob was 17, he got his first job as a filing clerk at an auto insurance firm. Here, he met his first crush, the 21-year-old Virginia. He never had a chance to tell Virginia how he felt because she killed herself. Having never recovered from that, Bob is convinced Virginia was his one true love.



Later, Bob went after his wife’s sister, who rebuffed his advances. When he met his soon-to-be wife, he decided he fancied her instead. They married and everything went well for a time. However, their first son, Derek, had a severe mental disability. Not knowing how to look after him, Bob considered giving Derek up for adoption, but his wife wouldn’t let him. Soon after, Bob’s second son and a daughter came along.

In the present day, Bob still wants to give up Derek for adoption. He doesn’t like Derek’s nurse because he thinks she is spying on the family. He decides that he will tell his wife to find a new nurse when he goes away on a business trip in a few days. If she refuses, then Derek will have to go, because he is ruining Bob’s life.

Meanwhile, Bob’s relationship with his other two children is strained at best. His 15-year-old daughter tells him all the time how unhappy she is, and how she wishes she could move out. He tells her that, since she is a juvenile, she can’t live on her own. If she moves out, she will have other adults telling her what to do all the time. Bob secretly wishes she would run away so he would not have to deal with her temper tantrums anymore. His son isn’t much better. He simply does not speak. Bob cannot bring himself to ask why.



As Bob reflects on his life, he recognizes that he is traumatized. He has a secret he cannot face. If he confronts this secret, he can move on with his life—or at least go back to avoiding everything. He goes over everything he has done recently, unable to figure it out—until he remembers the car accident.

Before Bob’s company offered him a promotion, he witnessed a car accident. His silent son was caught up in the collision. Assuming his son was dying, Bob smothered him to put him out of his misery. When the doctors examined his body, they found that he died from suffocation. Knowing he accidentally killed his own son, Bob decides that he can’t tell anyone, but he will look after Derek better to make up for it.

Nominated for the 1975 National Book Award, many critics feel it is Heller’s most underrated work. Heller was a bestselling author known for his blackly comic writing style. His most famous work is the novel Catch-22, which satirizes war and gave rise to the colloquial phrase, “catch-22.” Before writing, Heller served in the US Army Air Corps and studied at Columbia University.