Replay by Ken Grimwood Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Replay
Book Review: Fascinating and Misunderstood
Summary: 5 Stars
First, I'd like to say that a friend bought this book for me a couple of months ago, but I was slow to read it because our taste in books does not always dovetail. However, I picked it up on a sleepless night, found it fascinating, powerful, resonating.
I won't rehash the plot, others posting here have done an admirable job. However, there has been a lot of comparison between Replay by Ken Grimwood and the movie Groundhog Day (and other, newer movie/tv/book plots). We're all entitled to our opinions. For those who enjoyed Replay, hurrah! For those who didn't enjoy it, didn't get it, no harm, we can't all have the same tastes. But for those who couldn't or wouldn't enjoy it because they found Groundhog day more fun or comic or less dark - or found Replay less satisfying than the Bill Murray movie because the ending wasn't what they would have liked - I am saddened those readers missed the point of the book because they were so busy totting up a mental scorecard. I doubt Grimwood created Replay for the purpose of measuring it against any other story, past or future, but for his own need to answer that age-old question: If you could live your life again, what would you do? Groundhog Day is an enjoyable premise - if limited - about a protagonist who repeats the same day until he creates the "perfect" day - but it left me wondering - perfection in whose philosophy? Certainly perfection based on a very narrow bandwidth of criteria. Don't misunderstand; Groundhog Day is hugely entertaining, but these are two different stories that deserve to be reviewed on their own merits.
Replay is not concerned with perfection. It deals with a flawed human - Jeff Winston - who is given the opportunity to play out his life many different ways. In each life his character is flawed and human; it's not what he achieves but the journeys that are so compelling. Is he a boring character? Generally, yes, but aren't we all? Do we all live our lives with a view to entertaining others 24/7, as if someone were reading our life story and judging our most minute actions? He is who he is, not who the reader wants him to be.
Other reviewers have maligned the character because essentially he is not a person of destiny - he doesn't satisfy the sci-fi genre mythos of the becoming of a hero - like Luke Skywalker, an ordinary farmboy, becoming a savior of a Republic. But, after all, most people of destiny do not start their lives with their final, future achievements firmly etched in their minds. Why, then, read a book about a protagonist who is not a hero? The relative mediocrity of Jeff's lives is what makes Replay so fascinating - each life left me with a desire to see what he would do next time, to wonder: Is this the life where he will be larger-than-life? Or, will he stumble, make fatal mistakes this time? He's an ordinary person, muddling his way thru again and again. His foreknowledge gives him an advantage in some ways, but also stunts him in other ways.
To class Replay as a sci-fi novel is oversimplification, does not acknowledge it's place as literature. I find one characteristic of literature is that it serves as a springboard for more in-depth learning or the breaking of misconceptions. The famous quote in Replay "You and I, Arjuna, have lived many lives. I remember them all. You do not remember" is from the Bhagavad Gita, or "Song of God." Replay - along with other books such as The Legend of Bagger Vance - has sparked my interest in that religious and philosophical tome, and I've started reading it. I don't expect enlightenment, just maybe a different, evolving view.
Replay has joined other thought-provoking novels on my bookshelf, hopefully to be re-read and enjoyed many times.
Book Review: Page turner, but could have went much deeper
Summary: 4 Stars
I was expecting something better based on the reviews. So much of a rating of anything has to do with expectations. I started reading the book and was wondering if the story was going to get any 'bigger' than just circling around his life. For me- in the end it fell a bit stale. Not bad, not great. That stated, I did read it through in one sitting staying up all night to read it. SO, it did keep me interested. It seemed like the story was getting global but then not much came of things. This is about 90% romance novel and 10% time travel so don't think it's a sci fi book.
It's a study of one man's rather mundane existence being able to repeat his adult life over several times retaining the memories from the previous life.
So, what does one do with their adult life when the get multiple lives? It turns out- not very much! Think of the awesome possibilities. You can use your knowledge for good or evil trying to effect all of mankind.
Does he try to pull political strings with the massive wealth he accumulates? Make power plays in various countries? Stop all the horrible accidents that will happen? Alert people to the worst natural disasters? Nope. He doesn't do any of that.
It would have been very cool if there were other replayers and some were good, some were more evil and they played each life like a game of chess steering the word events with their knowledge. This isn't that book.
It concentrates mostly on his emotions and relations with women with some side roads into more interesting territory involving world events.
This is a love story wrapped in time travel wrapping paper. I did stay up all night to read it though as Ken knew how to keep things flowing.
Book Review: Too gritty
Summary: 2 Stars
This book has an exciting premise, but I felt like I was slogging through too much muck. It is very gritty with superfluous swearing. It doesn't add to the story and it drags one down. Not an easy read.Book Review: A Different Kind of Time Travel Novel
Summary: 5 Stars
What would you do if you got a second or a third chance to do it over? Ken Grimwood handles that question in a novel way that left me wondering what I would have done and if there are any replayers out there.
This book is fun yet it gives the reader things to think about. There are no cheap solutions. Boy meets girl doesn't alway happen.
This is an intertaining read and I strongly recommend it.
Book Review: Great read.
Summary: 5 Stars
I enjoyed this book very much. Great imagination, though it was bit predictable. It kept me interested all the way to the last page. Recently I have found few books to do so. I think all the imaginative and talented Science Fiction / Fantasy authors have moved on to the next plane. If you want a good read, pick up this 1980 something book. You will enjoy it.