Autumn Rhythm: Musings On Time, Tide, Aging, Dying, And Such Biz (Paperback)

by Richard Meltzer (Author) "They live they live and they die..." (more)
Key Phrases: heh heh heh heh heh, Wheel of Fortune, New York, Rolling Stone (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Meltzer (A Whore Just Like the Rest), who has pioneered rock 'n' roll criticism since the 1960s, explores the intricacies of growing old while looking back on some of the highs and lows of the years that he can remember. Penned in his usual out-of-the-blue writing style, these poems, essays and haikus seem to all blend into one long rant at times. But that's by design, since Meltzer's credo on aging argues that people should get everything out of their systems before time runs out. "The Wisdom in Our Underwear," a far-out take on the 20th century, is both entertaining (on 1984: "Reagan had to be Prez; the Olympics had to be staged in L.A.... There was no irony left in the world") and stimulating, if not hard to follow at times. Still, saying that anything that happened after 1969 has been off "the frigging map" does show a hint of '60s smugness, especially for someone who drops pop culture references from the 1970s through the '90s throughout his book. His "musings" on old age are basically a collection of journal entries on what he does, or did, as well as people he has known. Among these ruminations are some nuggets of truth about aging, like his football analogy that once a person hits a certain age, life's playing field gets shorter and you have to settle for "three yards and a cloud of dust" instead of "80-yard passes." The book's narrative structure supports this thought; plow through the parts that strike your fancy and for the rest throw a Hail Mary pass and hope for the best.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist
Meltzer's agent once wanted to turn him into "the new Charles Bukowski." Catch was, he would have to "be and behave like an 'old curmudgeon.'" No dice then, but now, at 58, though Meltzer still doesn't cop to being old, he has noticed things . . and forgotten others, which induces "Autumn Rhythm," a rant in his finest and funniest manner, an epical vernacular monologue with stylistic roots in nineteenth-century humorists Bill Nye, Artemus Ward, and Mark Twain. The piece is, of course, on aging, a subject Meltzer's apparently absent-minded self-interruption and digression suit to a tee. The other long pieces here vary the theme. "The Wisdom in Our Underwear" ruminates on the end of the twentieth century, and "Middle Beginning End" considers Meltzer's relations with his mother, now quite senile; both are less manic than "Autumn Rhythm," with the latter achieving genuine emotional weight. The accompanying short pieces are poems and essays about departed acquaintances, including a very perspicacious assessment of . . . Charles Bukowski. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (September 21, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306813815
• ISBN-13: 978-0306813818
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,087,082 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars He's Ba-a-ack!, November 11, 2003

By	Jill Pole (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Autumn Rhythm: Musings On Time, Tide, Aging, Dying, And Such Biz (Hardcover)

He's a curmudgeon always was, a cat with a taste for sour cream, a brilliant distressingly human type guy. Won't lie down and go to sleep on top of pedestals. Falls off roaring words, heart blazing from both barrels. He's a rock, jazz, and culture critic I first remember from the sixties. He saw through the ominous commercialization of music and culture back then, and he's been sawing through ever since.

If you're aging and alive as ever, remember something huge happening in the 60's that had nothing to do with misty water-colored memories, wonder how the exhilarating changes that took place for so many of us could have been so thoroughly distorted, effaced and buried in reams of ridicule, 'serious' criticism and nostalgic pap, (whew but true), Meltzer might be just what your bruised spirit needs.

If yr a cat with a taste for sour creem.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rants on Geezerhood from Old Man Meltzer , September 20, 2005

By	Frank Clover (Columbus, OH United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Autumn Rhythm: Musings On Time, Tide, Aging, Dying, And Such Biz (Hardcover)

This is an uneven collection of rants and reflections on growing old from the grey area between middle and old age. Like most people who find the world changing more quickly than their ability to adjust to those changes as they grow old, Meltzer strives to make a virtue out of his inability to adapt to computers and the Internet, indiscriminately lumping them together with MTV and other, less benign, cultural excrescences. These sections are rather hackneyed and about what you'd hear from any aging 60's-survivor barfly muttering over his beer. More effective are Meltzer's unflinching descriptions of the physical decay and the loss of old friends and enemies that accompany staying alive over time. Read and heed, young people, and see what you have to look forward to (not that there's much you can do about it).

4.0 out of 5 stars EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWW!, January 26, 2008

By	C. Yonts "chris101887" (Available upon request to authorized personnel.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Autumn Rhythm: Musings On Time, Tide, Aging, Dying, And Such Biz (Hardcover)

If only he'd left out the dream (and subsequent - copious - discussion) about effing his mother. The book gets off to a cracking start, but takes a nosedive after aforementioned freudian dream, and never fully recovers. Ends with Meltzer asserting (through denial) he is the "new Bukowski." Silly old fart.