AS TIME GOES BY Nearing the end, Old asks himself, “Does my life ultimately have any importance in any universal scheme? Am I just taking up space? Have I wasted the time given me? What effect have I had on others? Have I unknowingly, worse, knowingly, hurt others in some fashion? What’s my worth? These are playful existential questions with no pertinent answers for me. So I’m putting down my cane and picking up my pen. I’m going to sift through the sands of my time to see what I can discover through remembrance. Don’t expect any fancy writing. No playing with altered punctuation, or trying to be aesthetically clever, or poetic, or intellectual. Not here a Sedaris, or Saunders, or Atwood, or Yuknavich. Just me, squinting into some memorable windows in my life before they all fog.”
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As Time Goes By
Plagued by questions of narcissism, existentialism, and identity, Old is a contradictory narrator who both insists on his significance and denies it, offering up memories of his childhood, Navy service, love affairs, and professional life in unembellished prose. Awash in nostalgia, this book offers a misty-eyed look back at childhood from the vantage of old age… Even so, the author imbues each chapter with the essence of the past, painting a vivid portrait of American boyhood in the 20th century.
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California author W. Royce Adams is a prolific writer, both in articles in literary magazines, and in fiction books - The Rairarubia Tales, The Computer's Nerd, Me & Jay, Jay, and short story collections - Against the Current. Now he adds this ‘fictional memoir’ AS TIME GOES BY and fully establishes himself as an important American author. The ring of his polished voice spills onto the opening page - ‘Call me Old. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having nothing to particularly interest me after retirement, I thought I would (Yes, I’m paraphrasing) set about taking a journey through a sea of words to help me drive off the damp, drizzly December time of my life…’ What follows is a volume rich in references to philosophy, concepts about the meaning of life of other famous authors, and much self-reflection about the ‘status’ of aging (brain fog, depleted memory, etc) and existential questions - all admixed with memorable moments from childhood through youth and beyond. The themes (or shared memories) are at all times fascinating, entertaining, at times humorous, and at times, tender. For senior readers this book is reassuring and relatable. For all readers, this book is a stand out for discovering the majesty of life. Highly recommended
Grady Harp - Amazon Review
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Plagued by questions of narcissism, existentialism, and identity, Old is a contradictory narrator who both insists on his significance and denies it, offering up memories of his childhood, Navy service, love affairs, and professional life in unembellished prose. Awash in nostalgia, this book offers a misty-eyed look back at childhood from the vantage of old age… Even so, the author imbues each chapter with the essence of the past, painting a vivid portrait of American boyhood in the 20th century.