Time Won't Let Me: A Novel

In Bill Scheft's hilarious second novel, a finalist for the 2006 Thurber Prize for American Humor, five former members of a rock band, fast approaching age fifty, try to overcome their petty feuds and failed (and failing) marriages to recapture the fading yet distinct tone of their music and friendships.

In 1967, while students at Chase Academy, the prep-school garage band known as the Truants recorded a vanity album, Out of Site. Thirty years later, they discover that a record collector has paid $10,000 for a rare copy of the disk, and an avid fan-turned-promoter convinces them to reunite and cash in. But miles from the horizon of youth, weighted down by shortsighted choices and mortgaged ambitions, they find that's not so simple.

Richie, a divorce lawyer, must stop seducing clients with karaoke. John, a dermatologist, needs to escape the would-be patients who corner him at parties, sleeves rolled up—or worse. Tim must introduce his wife to his drum set, hidden in the attic the way most guys hide porn. Brian has to desert the thesis he's been "completing" for twenty-five years. And somebody, somehow, has to track down Jerry, a hopeless gambler/Equal addict last seen flying to the Caymans with $1 million taped to his body. Along the way they encounter a delusional sister, an anatomically blessed baker, Les Paul, and former J. Geils Band lead singer Peter Wolf.

With his trademark relentless humor, light and dark, and his compassion for the second acts of the baby boomer experience, Bill Scheft follows up his critically acclaimed debut novel, The Ringer, with another hysterical, touching look at chaotic lives in search of harmony.

Bill Scheft is the author of The Ringer and The Best of the Show: A Classic Collection of Wit and Wisdom. He spent eleven years as head monologue writer for David Letterman. He lives in New York City.