Wild Times, The

Martin Perlich's writing has the biting outragiousness of Jack Kerouac and the contemplative sensitivity of JD Salinger. Funny, sureal, visual and tender, Perlich's story captures the LA of the 70's like a literary snapshot. An excellent writer and a thought-provoking book.

"Martin Perlich's "The Wild Times" revives priapic romps as peepholes, a la Henry Miller, in a gonzo spiritual quest to experience, manifest, and above all, know and get inside of a moment of time the likes of which we may not see again. The hypomanic, erudite, hedonistic, hilarious, compassionate and warped innocent sophisticate counter-hero Mitchell Hertz narrates his own Steppenwolfian descent into murky soul-seek through the portals of sound, sense and intellect in a uniquely American sensibility. Perlich, with the adjectival acumen of the consummate wordsmith, blows syllables like Parker blew notes. And just when the reader has settled in to appreciate the trip for itself, we are delivered of a wallop that explodes and lays bare the easy assumptions of a lifestyle and an epoch that makes us wonder anew just what was it all about and what is its proper legacy?" Marvin Treiger, Ph D

The Times don't get much Wilder than these. For those of us old coots who set our 1) flags, 2) hair, 3) bras, and 4) hand-rolled joints on fire during that particular era, this is the long, strange trip we've been waiting for. Mix all that with Perlich's complete mastery of all-thing-radio and the stunning depth of classical music lore studded throughout this whip-saw novel and you've got...The Wild Times. Hang on tight.

Mitchell Hertz starts out as an amiable, irrepressible Holden Caulfield-style youth and transmogrifies into a lotus-eating, truth-seeking, long-haired hippie gonzo Trotskyite. He's a free spirit and a willing slave to good drugs, eager vaginas, and to the ever-present heartbeat of music. There would be no "Sixties" without such transcendently stoned mythological figures. Perlich plants his lovable Satyr in the ever shifting sands of the Culture Industry--straight jobs, where a man can get Income, or even better, Fired. Unafraid to follow his protagonist through the rat holes of failure or down any number of other, more sensual tunnels o' love, Perlich weaves his antic tale with great candor and comic twistedness.

Martin reminds us of Woody Allen (whom we like a lot) as a creative, genial mind, who blends reality and fiction in unexpected,pleasant and surprising ways. His writing is very good and holds reader's attention, with plenty of sex scenes with vivid, direct descriptions. Martin is passionate about many genres of music from pop to classical, and his passion and pathos are evident in his brilliant, witty writing. If you lived through the 70s, this will be nostalgic; if you didn't, you'll learn about this fascinating period.