The demented Army Air Force of Catch-22, the lethal business world of Something Happened, the dysfunctional family of Good as Gold – all these, we have assumed, had their roots in Joseph Heller’s own past. Now, more than three decades after the explosion of Catch-22 into the world’s consciousness, Heller gives us his life.

          Now and Then displays the energy, humour and mischief that have characterised all of Heller’s work, along with the dark undertones that lie beneath them. He recounts a Coney Island that is not only a symbol of fun and fantasy around the world but a vision of what seems today to have been a golden age of carefree innocence. For the first time, he writes about the people and the events, both tragic and hilarious, he was eventually to translate, in Catch-22, into such memorable characters as Milo Minderbinder, The Chaplain, Major Major Major Major, and (of course) Yossarian. 

          Now and Then is both an account of a remarkable life and a glimpse into the creative process of a major American writer.