Author: HELLER, JOSEPH
Title: Now and Then: A Memoir - From Coney Island to Here
Description: Scribner, UK, 2004. First Edition, Softcover. Very Good Condition. 9780743240086 288 pages. Available Now. Book Description: Joseph Heller takes us on a fascinating journey back to his upbringing in a poor Jewish neighbourhood in Coney Island, through his World War II experiences as a bombardier in the American Air Force, to his life as an internationally acclaimed author. He tells of his tough upbringing during the Depression, and of the affection he retained for the kitsch, ragged, down market Coney Island of his youth. He describes, in intimate detail, his first love Luciana, and writes about the people and events, both tragic and hilarious, he was to translate into such memorable characters as Milo Minderbinder, The Chaplain, Major Major Major Major and the unforgettable Yossarian. In NOW AND THEN we are afforded a privileged insight into the mind of one of the twentieth century's greatest literary talents. : Amazon Review: Catch-18 was the intended title of Joseph Heller's most famous novel, Catch-22, which the author renamed to avoid confusion with Leon Uris's bestseller Mila 18. It's hard now to imagine anyone ever mistaking a single line written by Heller for the work of someone else; his atmospheric new memoir grabs readers' attention with the same plain, powerful prose; blunt, but oddly tender, humour; and striking ability to recreate a particular time and place that distinguishes all his fiction. : The brief, haunting section on his air force service confirms that Heller drew on his own experiences for Catch-22. But it's his boyhood home, Brooklyn's Coney Island in the 1920s and 1930s, that prompts Now and Then's best pages. You can practically taste the cheap ice cream and hot knishes, hear the shrieks of kids on the amusement park's hurtling rides, see the facades of long-demolished apartment buildings and smell the sand- and-salt odour wafting from the beach. The dignity and emotional reticence of Heller's widowed mother, the security he felt in an impoverished but safe immigrant neighbourhood, come to life just as vividly. : Scattered anecdotes about famous friends (including Irwin Shaw and James Jones) are also evocative, and occasional comments about his novels' themes reveal Heller to be a better self-critic than most writers. But it's his affectionate tribute to a vanished New York that most clearly displays this popular author's narrative skills and engaging personality.--Wendy Smith -- : About the Author: Joseph Heller was born in Brooklyn in 1923. In 1961, he published Catch-22, which became a bestseller and, in 1970, a film. He went on to write such novels as Good as Gold, God Knows, Picture This, Closing Time (the sequel to Catch-22), and Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man. Heller died in December 1999. Size: 13.2 x 19.9 x 2.2 cm. 288 pages. Quantity Available: 1. Category: Biography & Autobiography; Paperback; ISBN: 0743240081. ISBN/EAN: 9780743240086. Inventory No: F246-1079.

Keywords: BZDB395 Biography & Autobiography; Paperback; Now and Then A Memoir From Coney Island to Here Joseph Heller Paperback


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