From the author of two of our most legendary novels, bCatch-22b and bSomethingbrHappenedb, comes a slyly funny, vastly revelatory memoir that is at once a lovingbrevocation of a lost America and an exploration of the frontier where life turnsbrinto literature. pNow and Then follows Joseph Heller from his fatherless childhood on thebrboardwalks of Depression-era Coney Island, where he grew up amid the rumble ofbrthe Cyclone and the tantalizing aroma of Mrs. Shatzkin's knishes. It offers abrdizzying bombardier's-eye view of the sky over wartime Italy, where Hellerbrencountered the characters and incidents he would later translate into Catch-22.brIt depicts a writer coming to terms with both rejection and celebrity. Here, inbrshort, is a life filled with incident and insight, recollected with subversivebrhumor, exquisite timing, and a fine appreciation for the absurd.