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Chargement... Now and Then: From Coney Island to Herepar Joseph Heller
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The demented Army Air Force ofCatch-22, the lethal business world ofSomething Happened, the dysfunctional family ofGood as Gold-all these, we have assumed, had their roots in Joseph Heller's own past. Now, more than thirty-five years after the explosion ofCatch-22into the world's consciousness, Heller gives us his life. Here is his Coney Island childhood, down the block from the world's most famous amusement park. It was the height of the Depression, it was a fatherless family, yet little Joey Heller had a terrific time--on the boardwalk, in the ocean (dangerously out of his depth), playing follow-the-leader in and out of local bars, even in school. Then a series of jobs, from delivering telegrams (on his first bike) to working in a navy yard-until Pearl Harbor, the air force, Italy. And after the war, college (undreamed-of before the G.I. Bill), teaching, Madison Avenue, marriage, and-always-writing. And finally the spectacular success ofCatch-22, launching one of the great literary careers. The strengths ofNow and Thenlie in the energy, humor, and mischief that have characterized all of Heller's work, along with the dark undertones that lie beneath them. He brings back 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, inCatch-22, into such memorable characters as Hungry Joe, Orr, Major--de Coverley, Natel's whore, and (of course) Yossarian, and such moving and frightening scenes as the death of Snowden.Now and Thenis both an account of a remarkable life and a glimpse into the creative process of a major American writer. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999Classification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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I loved Catch 22 and I wanted to love this, but the non-sequential structure that underpins that seminal book reoccurs here and it just doesn't work. The events he jumps back and forth between are simply too unmemorable. Heller has lead an interesting life so why he downplays his airforce days and chooses to devote so much time to a dull childhood, flavourless descriptions of bus rides and tiresome sessions with psychiatrists is beyond me. Just as we're getting to some great stuff about Coney Island hoodlums the book ends.
I can only relate reading Now and Then to walking past a Michelin-starred restaurant, smelling the fine flavours emanating from its kitchens but never being allowed in to taste them. Heller won't let us in either. ( )