Now and Then: From Coney Island to Here [Paperback]

From the author of two of our most legendary novels, Catch-22 and Something
Happened, comes a slyly funny, vastly revelatory memoir that is at once a loving
evocation of a lost America and an exploration of the frontier where life turns
into literature.

Now and Then follows Joseph Heller from his fatherless childhood on the
boardwalks of Depression-era Coney Island, where he grew up amid the rumble of
the Cyclone and the tantalizing aroma of Mrs. Shatzkin's knishes. It offers a
dizzying bombardier's-eye view of the sky over wartime Italy, where Heller
encountered the characters and incidents he would later translate into Catch-22.
It depicts a writer coming to terms with both rejection and celebrity. Here, in
short, is a life filled with incident and insight, recollected with  subversive
humor, exquisite timing, and a fine appreciation for the absurd."Lovely, the best writing Heller has done since the book that made him famous.... A joy." --Washington Post Book World

"Mouthwatering, elegantly written, lovingly detailed." --The New York Times Book Review
  
"A lovely, moving, affirming, celebratory work of courage, clarity, insight and joy."--The Sun [Baltimore]Joseph Heller lives in East Hampton, New York.From Chapter One
The Gold Ring

The gold ring on the carousels was made of brass. Even as kids in Coney Island we didn't believe it was the real thing. By the time we'd grown old enough to ride the outside horses and lunge out sideways to grasp the metal rings that swung toward us for the final few rotations, the carousel was no longer enchanting and we had no deep desire for the free ride that the last, lucky golc‡