"last night my Lord returned from the wars and pleasured me thrice with his boots on." - Duchess of Marlborough.

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Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man

by Joseph Heller

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eugene pota is a despot writer in his waning years.

his perennial dream is to write a final book worthy of literary praise.

he also toys with divorce. his wife, a succulent lady of considerable age is timid and frail. she does have an endless supply of sensitive intuition, however.

his ideas revolve around Tom Sawyer and his Aunt Polly, Sawyer on an endless search for a way to prosper. God and his wife, and his many sheep. Hera and Zeus, Aphrodite (the cunt, so writes Pota) constantly vying for sex and influence. Gene, the mean one who feeds on spleen, and finally, Gregg, a newly-transformed city cockroach in an office.

he does settle down with an idea eventually...

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on the sleeve of the book is printed:

'A novelist of a kind that dos not occur more than once in a generation'. - THE TIMES

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meaning could be twofold...