In a front-page obituary, a newpaper described Joseph Heller as "the darkly surreal novelist who spoke to a generation." Heller, whose famous bestseller Catch-22 brought him universal acclaim as a literary icon, finished his final novel just before his death in 1999. Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man is a poignant and fascinating foray into the mind of an artist as he examines his life, seeking a source of inspiration for his last book. Imagine an author -- primarily a novelist -- who has become a legend...no, more than that -- an icon! In his own lifetime, all because of the first novel he wrote, many years before. Imagine that the novelist -- his name here is Eugene Pota -- realizes that the days are dwindling and he needs to come up with one more novel. But what should he write about? There's a kind of futility to his .........