Imagine becoming a legend in your own lifetime, all because of a novel you wrote in the first flush of your career. Eugene Pota is that modern-day cultural icon, struggling to write what will undoubtedly be his final novel. But what to write about when all of his output since that first, landmark book has been scrutinized and dissected and found wanting?

In his own life, Heller's subsequent work never achieved the critical acclaim to match that which he garnered with Catch-22. Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man is a poignant exploration of the pain and frustration that this caused. It is also his final novel, finished just before his death in 1999, and a fitting testament to the life of a leading light in modern literature.