Old Songs in a New Cafe Cassette [Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Waller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1994

An inspirational collection of romantic, reflective essays by the author of The Bridges of Madison County celebrate life, explore loss, and meditate on the complex nature of time--past, present, and future. Read by Robert James Waller.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Waller, whose novels The Bridges of Madison County and Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend are current bestsellers, here offers 19 essays previously published in the Des Moines Register between 1983 and 1989 and in two book collections. As he acknowledges, some of the pieces do not warrant reprinting; others, however, convey a quiet humor and sensitivity that his fiction readers will enjoy. Among these are a memoir of a beloved cat, accounts of Waller's teenaged experiences with basketball and billiards, reflections on turning 50 and an engaging tribute to Charlie Uban, who flew cargo planes during WW II. Waller--a professor of management at the University of Northern Iowa, a bar musician and a photographer--exhibits a refreshing modesty in many of these pieces.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

In a slow musical drawl, author Waller reads his own collection of essays that were written before he became famous for his novels, The Bridges of Madison County (Audio Reviews, LJ 2/1/93) and Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend (Audio Reviews, LJ 6/15/94). While growing up in a small town in Iowa, Waller became a basketball champion and learned the skills of billiards in an old, smoky pool hall. His essays reflect the lessons learned and the pain, guilt, joy, and gentle humor of an introspective man. Waller muses on turning 50 and catalogs the bittersweet aches of cleaning up the debris of a daughter's childhood. He wonders at the loneliness of the last dusty sea sparrow. His gentle, rolling words and quiet reading, interspersed with a few chords from a guitar, harken back to simpler times and the pleasures of small-town life. Strongly recommended for all popular collections.
Susan B. Lamphier, Somerville P.L., Mass.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Audioworks (May 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671882961
• ISBN-13: 978-0671882969
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,543,480 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #59 in Books > Books on Cassette > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What an amazing biography!, March 12, 2002

By 

J. Huntington (Jeonju, South Korea) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Old Songs in a New Cafe: Selected Essays (Hardcover)

Reads a tremendous lot like Robert Fulghum, but beyond that...

Through essays, the presumably all true story of a man who lived as if he was born with a detailed, incredibly accurate set of instructions and near-Godlike wisdom. Learns pool and billiards as an eleven-year-old kid and beats the town champ. Takes up basketball, making his high school team as a freshman and becoming a good major-school college player. Starts a loving marriage in college that remains super-strong over 25 years later. Plays guitar, and with his small combo is chosen for national TV appearances with Charles Kuralt and Robert Kennedy. Despite all his independent thought, establishes a solid - actually distinguished - career in academia. And, in the decade after this book, writes a novel that may have sold more copies - and tickets to its subsequent movie - than ANY in the 1990's!

And guess what? NONE of this - not even a SCRAP of it, according to the essays - ever misled him or cost him anything! He didn't drop out of school to hustle pool, ignore academics to over-concentrate on basketball, discover his wife who he chose at age 22 didn't fit his ever-evolving life at age 50, go for a low-paying full-time music career, QUIT music altogether and lose the fun of playing recreationally, or constrict his thinking by getting it in line with the PC work setting of a university.

Not only did he seem to be always doing the exact right thing at the right time, he avoided every trap there was.

Amazing! Have never seen a life so comprehensively superb since Jennifer Beals' in Flashdance, and she was FICTIONAL!

So, Robert James, we have two ways to interpret you. You can be one of the most premier renaissance men of our time, or an archly annoying "perfect" person akin to Martha Stewart. So, my challenge to you is - write an essay, telling us in detail, how in at least one instance YOU, not circumstances, luck or the people around you - have FAILED. Have you done it? Can you do it?

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful, May 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Old Songs in a New Cafe: Selected Essays (Hardcover)

I have read this book several times, love to take it on vacation. These stories are wonderful, heartfelt. A nice reminder of my own childhood growing up in Indiana. We have dusty roads, and favorite pets, and enjoy the quite life here too. It's beautifully written by a wonderful Author. Sure wish he would write more!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The wind beneath Robert Kincaid's wings..., April 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Old Songs in a New Cafe: Selected Essays (Paperback)

If you ever read "The Bridges of Madison County" and wondered how could someone create such an amazing story,or how it would be wonderful to know a person like Kincaid - You will be excited to find out that Robert Kincaid is actually Robert James Waller himself! In this autobiographic book Waller lets us all take a glimpse into his personal life and discover what a special person he is.You'll learn about his childhood,growing up adventures,family and hobbies. And you'll see Kincaid is not just an imaginary figure but a side of Waller's personality. I was fascinated to learn so much about Waller and his "reclusive life of words and imagination".