Repeat

By: Neal Pollack

Narrated by: Jeff Cummings

Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

Through strange metaphysical circumstances, failed screenwriter Brad Cohen finds himself caught in an infinite time loop, forced to relive the first forty years of his life again and again. Each "repeat," Brad wakes up in the womb on what was supposed to be his fortieth birthday, with full knowledge of what's come before. In various timelines, he becomes a successful political pundit, a game-show champion, a playboy, and a master manipulator of the stock market, but none of them seems to lead him out of his predicament. As he realizes he wants to break out of the loop and find the love of his life - the one he hadn't appreciated the first time around - Brad tries, fails, and tries again to escape the eternal cycle of birth and rebirth. Repeat answers the question: If you could live half your life over, would you do things differently? Be careful what you wish for! Repeating is enough to drive a dude crazy.

©2015 Neal Pollack (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Laughed out loud but grimaced at all female voices

Any additional comments?

I really enjoy time travel books. I'll listen to any of them. I listened to this after the First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. They have a similar trope, but the execution couldn't be more different. This was funny. Really laugh out loud funny. (I'm sure I looked weird laughing on the stair stepper at the gym.) And I loved the narrator UNTIL he did female voices. Even the females I was supposed to like sounded dreadful. Overall, this was a good break for me after some more serious listens. (Harry and The Girl with all the Gifts.) I enjoyed the time period in which it was set-- it was a personal trip down memory lane for myself as much as it was for Brad. It doesn't take itself too seriously but it does have some surprising poignant moments. For anyone who loves time travel, go into this ready to laugh.

An endless loop.

Here you have just good clean fun! The narrator does a bang up job. The story is not your typical time loop. This book is more about the character of the protagonist than anything else.
Sit back, relax and enjoy.

a dork stumbled around

pop culture refrences, middle aged angst. slight sci-fi. you will smile and perhaps think?

Mixed Bag

What did you love best about Repeat?

The middle.

What other book might you compare Repeat to and why?

No.

What three words best describe Jeff Cummings’s voice?

slightly off in terms of word emphasis, and over eager to do "voices"

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

To the bitter bitter end

Any additional comments?

Not terrible, I enjoyed,most of it, it just drug in first and last thirds

It's not Replay, but what is?

I'm a fan of time travel. Especially time travel within ones own time period. Replay by Ken Grimwood did this best but I thoroughly enjoyed pollacks more current take on it. The story started slow and I wish he fleshed out some timelines more but overall it was very enjoyable.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat

Like the title, you could see the end of this story coming. From a yoga, Eastern Philosophy standpoint, you can see all stories' ends coming. This one put twists that I wasn't expecting. So many Do-Over stories are neat and clean. This one wasn't. Not only do most of us NOT want to know our parents have sex, we also don't even want to imagine being reborn, literally, head or feet first and don't even get started thinking about nursing!

Neal kept me attentive until the final life, with the classic knowledge that one must accept one's life. Not that one is doomed, but that with proper observation, one can see life for what it is, not for what we wish it could have been.

More of us could benefit from such such inner observation.

Predictable but enojyable

What did you love best about Repeat?

The humor of the book was right on point. Kept me chuckling to meself on a generally regular cadence.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

I actually think that this book would work better as a mini-series...but I suppose the tagline would be "What would you do if you could relive you youth" not catchy I know, but I'm a engineer not a writer.

Hollywood again..

I seem to unknowingly pick books with insider views of Hollywood, most recently, "In Some Other World, Maybe." And it is a bit depressing since they all paint a picture of toxic tanned shallowness that is just depressing. Same in this one. BUT, I like time travel/time shift stories (Replay!) so couldn't pass this up. The humor is quite variable (better as the book progresses). The plot is perfectly detailed some times and a bit too much of a gloss at others (I think it could have been longer and better explored during some of the later half). The narration is fine except as Stephanie headlines, the female voices are just wrong -bizarrely hysterical. On balance, if you like messing with time stories, I'd read it. Otherwise, use your Audible electrons for something else.

narrator's female voices are horrible.

decent version of an oft rehashed premise. it's full of pop culture references so I'm not sure how well someone will understand it in the future.

the narrator is very enthusiastic and overall was OK, but really should try to make his female voices not sound so excited and over the top.

Infinite time loop!

Comparisons to Ken Grimwood's Replay are inevitable but this book is fresh and funny in its own right.