Another novel that explores the same theme of someone reliving their life again and again upon death is The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by British author Catherine Webb. This is pretty much the textbook example of male gaze. It's painful to listen to this for hours on end. Now I know what's like for women to watch or read most movies or books. So, yeah. Thanks, Replay, for helping me to build empathy with how women feel in our society by being so terribly creepy? I think? I read this book for a book club I'm in, and it surprised me that I hadn't heard about it before. I bought the book and I read it and I wanted to like it. There had been a lot of hype when it came out in 1986 and won the World Fantasy Award of 1988. I like fantasy. I write fantasy. But I don't think this book is actually real fantasy. I don't think it's science fiction either. I think it is a failed attempt to write a story where a human being finds redemption through an unusual method. At forty-three Jeff Winston is tired of his low-paid, unrewarding job, tired of the long silences at the breakfast table with his wife, saddened by the thought of no children to comfort his old age. But he hopes for better things, for happiness, maybe tomorrow ... In the subsequent epilogue, a Norwegian man finds himself waking up in a youthful body in 1988, twenty-nine years before his apparent death in 2017. He marvels at the possibilities that await him at retaining the memories of his life and world and national events for the next quarter century. It becomes apparent to the reader that the replay phenomenon is not limited to the three individuals experiencing it in the novel, nor is it limited to the 1963-1988 timeframe.

In a later replay, the two decide to take their experiences public, giving press conferences announcing future events in explicit detail. The government eventually takes notice and forces Pamela and Jeff to provide continued updates on foreign activities. Although the government denies responsibility, major political events begin to transpire differently, and Jeff attempts to break off the relationship. The government refuses, and the pair are imprisoned and forced to continue providing information. We now follow the story of his life...his redeath and his reawakening again, and again. While Murry in Ground Hog Day relives the same day, Jeff is reliving 25 years. The novel was a selection of the Literary Guild and the Doubleday Book Club. In the succeeding years, it has been included in several lists of recommended reading: Modern Fantasy: The Hundred Best Novels (1988), Aurel Guillemette's The Best in Science Fiction (1993), David Pringle's Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction (1995) and the Locus Reader's Poll: Best Science Fiction Novel (1988). [ citation needed] In the Locus 1998 poll of the best fantasy novels published prior to 1990, Replay placed #32. [ citation needed] On the Internet Top 100 SF/Fantasy List, Replay was voted to the #43 position in 2000 but climbed to #19 by 2003. [4] A novel of gripping adventure, romance, and fascinating speculation on the nature of time, Replay asks the question: "What if you could live your life over again?" Pamela and Jeff eventually fall in love and become convinced that they are soulmates. Complications arise when they notice that their replays are getting shorter and shorter, with Pamela not beginning her next replay until well after Jeff. Eventually, the two decide to try to find other replayers by placing cryptic messages in newspapers. The messages, which seem very vague to anyone who is not a replayer, generate a fair amount of dead-end responses until the pair receives a letter from a man who is clearly knowledgeable about future events. Jeff and Pamela decide to visit the stranger, only to discover that he is confined to a psychiatric hospital. Surprisingly, the staff does not pay attention to his discussion on the future, but it soon becomes clear why the man is institutionalized when he calmly states that he thinks aliens are forcing him to murder people for their own entertainment.Written over 30 years ago, Replay feels very familiar, to the point that I read portions and wondered if I had read the book when it first came out. Many of the ideas and beats in this story can be found in later time-loop fictional works—using knowledge of the past to make money, to try to stop some past tragedy, or to find a more satisfying partner after a failed marriage in the original timeline. La idea es buena y nos propone muchísimas reflexiones. Si bien, personalmente creo ( y aquí es dónde algunos amantes de los clásicos me echarían a los lobos) que no está bien llevado. La primera mitad del libro se corresponde prácticamente al primer despertar de Jeff y siendo sincera se me hizo eterna, de hecho estuve a punto de abandonar la lectura en varias ocasiones. A partir de aquí aparece una segunda protagonista que le da un poco de vida a la historia y la hace mucho más interesante, aunque sin llegar a sacar el jugo que podría tener este argumento. Quizás no era mi momento para leerla, a mis compis de lectura de la Cafetería de Audrey parece que les gustó un poco más. El libro me ha gustado, si bien ha habido partes que se me han hecho mas tediosas ya el ritmo no es elevado.

Dufris's skilled delivery of the fantasy of reliving one's life has just the right tone of wise hindsight." ---AudioFile From the Publisher Of course, this being a thriller, there's a love interest and a bad guy. But the best part of Replay isn't the plot; it's the fact that the book is about you — yes, you. The author does a great job of illuminating the main character's inner dialog and questions about his predicament. At each point in the novel, the protagonist responds to his situation sensibly and/or understandably, demonstrating smarts, will-power, perseverance, and human fallibility (his patience can and does reach a limit). I liked the plot twists and turns ... at least for the first 2/3 of the book, I really had no idea WHAT was going to happen next. I was hoping it wouldn't end the way it did, simply beca In all likelihood, that was the level of need she'd been about to express over the phone before he began to die. " -- a dozen eggs," her sentence probably would have ended, or " -- a box of coffee filters." When I try wrapping my mind around time travel and the math associated with such concepts the pressure in my head usually has me looking for a shot of high octane alcohol to keep my brain from exploding into shards of disconnected thoughts. It wouldn’t be very useful after that.But of course they'd never do that. That was the main part of the failure, the fact that they seldom spoke of deeper needs, never broached the tearing sense of incompletion that stood always between them.

Those stories are basically retellings of Replay. So many of the events, solutions, even the focus on Kennedy, gambling, and building brand new careers, repeating a whole lifetime over and over, learning and attempting bold crazy schemes, are the same. In Replay, Jeff Winston repeatedly dies and wakes up earlier in his life, living out 25 years over and over. He struggles with the meaninglessness of this repetitive life without a future, sometimes taking respite in drugs and sex. Eventually he meets and falls in love with Pamela, a "replayer" like himself. Then they realize their replays are becoming shorter and shorter. Soon, they will die, and they search desperately for answers, only to cause more problems. Finally, Jeff finds himself replaying over and over the moment of his death, until he comes out the other side with a fresh, unknown future in front of him. Small potatoes worry about a wonderful story! REPLAY is a heart-warming thought-provoking morality tale that will resonate with any thinking reader. Highly recommended. Of course, things get more complicated as the replays become shorter and shorter, each time beginning a few months or years closer to Jeff's unavoidable date of death, which never changes. Some of the replays are far from happy, and Jeff realizes that even with several lifetimes to live, there's never enough time to avoid regrets. In the end, living is about recognizing that, and always moving forward.There'd be no child, though; they'd known that was impossible for years, since Linda had gone through the ectopic pregnancy in 1975. And there wouldn't be any house in Montclair or White Plains, either; Jeff's position as news director of New York's WFYI all-news radio sounded more prestigious, more lucrative, than it actually was. Maybe he'd still make the jump to television; but at forty-three, that was growing increasingly unlikely. The novel has been included in several lists of recommended reading: Modern Fantasy: The Hundred Best Novels (1988), Locus Reader's Poll: Best Science Fiction Novel (1988), Aurel Guillemette's The Best in Science Fiction (1993) and David Pringle's Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction (1995). Grimwood moved to Los Angeles, California. He wrote some of his early novels while working as nightside editor at KFWB News 980 radio in the city. The success of Replay (1987) enabled him to leave that job and pursue writing full-time. What is odd about Replay is that there is seemingly no point to the time loops. In Groundhog Day, Bill Murray is doomed to keep repeating the same day until he becomes a better person. In Edge of Tomorrow, Tom Cruise is repeating the same day in the hope of figuring out how to defeat the alien invasion. In Replay, Jeff just keeps reliving a smaller and smaller section of his past. He lives his life differently each time, but his choices make no difference to the ultimate outcome. Nor does his extended lifespan make him a drastically different or better person. Fiction is full of speculations about where the world would be if Kennedy had lived. Some show a better, more advance world, but others show a world that is much worse than the one we wake up in today. I think many of us feel, even those that were born after the event, that we were robbed of a better version of ourselves, a divergent self that died with Kennedy. #mythology