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Replay by Ken Grimwood (Fantasy Masterworks # 45)
01/11/2005 . Source: Paul Skevington 
pub: Gollancz. 272 page enlarged paperback. Price: £ 6.99 (UK). ISBN: 0-575-07559-7. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.orionbooks.co.uk
If you had your life to live over again, what would you do? Are you happy and I mean one hundred percent satisfied with every single aspect of your life? If not, what would you change? More importantly, what would you keep the same?
These are all questions that everyone over the age of twenty has asked of themselves. For me, they usually originate from the wrong end of a bottle of tequila, after having spent most of the rest of the night dancing to Madonna and the soundtrack to 'Grease'. Perhaps I begin to wonder about these questions on such occasions because they contain notions suitable only for the very lowest and the very highest moments in our lives.
Ken Grimwood understood this. He wrote a whole novel about it.
'Replay' is a book about a man, Jeff Winston, who has a heart attack and dies. An event that under normal circumstances would lead to the creation of a book of a disappointingly short length. There is no welcoming oblivion for Jeff however. He awakes to find himself a teenager again, with his whole life in front of him. As he re-enters his own primordial existence, he finds that the world unfurls around him in exactly the same way that it did before, except this time he knows in advance what is going to happen next. Jeff soon discovers that although certain events are set, he does indeed have free will - armed with his foreknowledge of coming events, this is a definite advantage. He is free to attempt to correct and amend the perceived mistakes of his first existence.
By now, you're probably mentally re-living your own lives. What would have happened if I'd asked her out? If only I'd gotten to him before my best friend did? It's unavoidable, as the appeal of this mental magic trick is universal. Whilst you're sitting there mulling it over, I bet you haven't for one moment thought, I wonder if I could engineer societal change so vast that the world would be unrecognisable from it's current state. Maybe I could stop wars...or start them! Most of your thoughts will be of a much more personal nature, of loves and opportunities lost.
Grimwood knew this intuitively, centring the action on the relationships and personal fortunes of Jeff and his lovers. The big issues do get a look in, but only in order to highlight and advance the true story, the human story. Like an earthquake, you can see the results of the event but not the event itself.
The author also forbids the technical aspects of the tale from intruding on the visceral impact of the story. He does this in an immensely skilful way. Whilst re-published as a 'Fantasy Masterwork', this book does not make use of the 'surrealist' get-out clause in order to drive its narrative. Questions of fate, determinism and the mechanism of time travel itself are addressed yet remain tantalisingly unresolved. We have to learn, as our protagonist does, that not all things are explicable and not everything should be explained.
With this structure firmly in place, Grimwood sets out to create one of the most captivating books of fiction that I've read. From the very first moment when Jeff awoke to find his world so drastically changed, I knew that I was in for something special. Jeff's reaction to his situation is tone perfect, complimented by the wonderfully evocative descriptions of the world of Jeff's past. It is here that we first encounter Grimwood's concise use of language - he fills each paragraph with information. For example, he describes the moment when Jeff first looks in the mirror after the event happens:
'...that youth was himself. Not in memory, but here, now: these unlined hands with which he held his drink, these sharply focused eyes with which he saw.'
Grimwood is not just adept with the content of the work, he is also a master of the spaces between the material. As Jeff is destined to relive his youth more than just the once, this novel is set over vast periods of time. It is a considerable challenge to produce a readable novel from this framework let alone an excellent one. Luckily, Grimwood's sense of pace is flawless. Like a mosaic or a great poem, that which is implied by the pauses and the breaks is almost as important as the brightly coloured tile you can see or the ringing syllables you can hear.
Also akin to the best works of art, is the novel's inherent thematic slipperiness. Like a butterfly on speed, it is incredibly difficult to pin down. For instance, does the text support the ideal of the 'one true love'? One reading would conclude that Pamela, who appears later in the novel, is indeed Jeff's soul-mate, and that he is obviously destined to be with her. It is just as easy to draw an alternative message from the book. After all, Jeff lives many lifetimes and does find happiness with the love of other women. Other such dichotomies exist within the text, but I'll allow you the pleasure of discovering them yourself.
Comparisons with the 1993 film 'Groundhog Day' are inevitable, however this enjoyable film is heavily outweighed by the hard punching depth and originality of 'Replay' that did, after all, come first. 'Groundhog Day' is a tasty little nut, but 'Replay' is the tree from which it fell.
Unfortunately, Grimwood passed away in 2003, leaving the world a poorer place for the loss of him. At the time he was working on a sequel to 'Replay'. Maybe in one of the other timelines, where a heart attack didn't strike him down, I'm sitting here reading that sequel right now. I envy that other me, more than I can say.
Paul Skevington
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