Replay
                         by Ken Grimwood

             Review copyright (c) 1994 by Doug Ingram

	I was first loaned a copy of Replay about 7 years ago from a good
friend who often had recommended books to me.  I read through it very
quickly...it's a real page-turner...and then, a while later, when I wanted
to tell someone else about it and loan it out, my friend had lost his copy.
In addition, it had completely disappeared from the bookstores.  About six
months ago, Replay resurfaced somewhat prominently in paperback and is now
fairly easy to find even in most mall mini-stores.  So I finally bought my
own copy and reread it.

	Replay begins with the death of Jeff Winston.  He dies in
October 1988 of a heart attack.  He then wakes up about 25 years earlier
sitting in his dorm room across from his college roommate.  It takes
a while for Jeff to figure out what is going on, and pretty soon he
convinces himself that it isn't a dream.  He soon drops out of his former
path of life and decides to do it all over again, but this time with a
real appreciation for life and all it has to offer.

	He makes a few bets, knowing how the sporting events will turn out,
and pretty soon, he is financially well-off.  He tries making some contacts
with his former life, but he is too different now to make it work.  He
eventually gets married, has kids...and dies in October 1988.  Then he wakes
up again, a little bit later but still in 1963.  By this time, he's not
very appreciative of his fate, but he decides to give it one more go and
tries some new things in life, eventually meeting up with another replayer
and falling in love with her.

	These two go on to live their multiple lives together, as much as
possible, and their cycles get shorter and shorter.  All the while, each
is trying to figure out what is really the best way to live their lives
and what it all means.  The shortening of the cycle is an ever-looming
crisis in both their lives and is resolved by the end of the book.

	Grimwood does a wonderful job with all of the different alternate
histories he must keep track of, including a chilling sequence that
describes what happens to the replayers when they try to tell everyone
just what is going on.  He also writes his characters very well, and the
reader never grows tired of finding out what will be new this time.  Part
of this is due to the fast-paced plot, and part is due to the always
interesting philosophical ground covered in the novel.

	I found the overall message of the book to be very inspiring.  If
this isn't a case for living life to the fullest, I don't know what is.
Not only is it a powerful book on an emotional level, it is an excellent
read...one of those books you just cannot put down.  The genre of time
travelling is rather limited, and this is one of the few such books that
deals with the phenomenon on a reasonable level (without a lot of extra
science fiction ideas thrown into the mix and set in the present day)
in a way that makes it easy for the reader to empathize.  A real gem.

%A Grimwood, Ken
%T Replay
%I Ace Books
%C New York
%D 1992
%G ISBN 0-441-71592-3
%P pp. 313
%0 paperback, $4.99

Doug Ingram // d.ingram@tcu.edu // "Carpe Datum"
	http://personal.tcu.edu/~dingram/books.html (for more reviews)