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.

SHE PULLED BRAD UP BY HIS PITTS

SOMEWHERE BETWEEN 22 YEARS OLD AND TOTAL AHOLE
Like many other reviewers, I picked this up because of my love for REPLAY, by Ken Grimwood. A book I picked up at a library clearance sale about 30 years ago. This book is not bad, but it is not Replay. While Replay started off the bat with a reincarnation, Repeat starts with a hour and a half of a loser droning on about his loserness. This is closer to a Neil Simon play. The emphasis is on being funny. I will admit that after I got over the pity party and realized it was not going to be Replay, I did find it laugh out loud funny in parts. In this reincarnation the main character goes all the way back to his birth. He also seems to be sent back in time by his witch wife. A wife that he loves and that loves him. He is unhappy because his career never went anywhere. I quit at about four hours. Not that the book was bad, it just wasn't what I was interested in. I am hoping in his second life he learned that being married to someone you love and having a good family is better than a successful career, but this is not a spoiler, cause I don't know.

Poor Vulgar REPLAY knockoff...

NO SPOILER: REPLAY by Ken Grimwood happens to be my favorite read of all time... and I have read more than 300 books in the Audible library in the last several years! Since Replay was written in the 80's, I was hopeful this would be a modern similarity, HOWEVER, the deluge of vulgarity and illicit sexual content ruins this REPLAY wanna-be. I am not a prude for expletives when called for (war, crime, etc.), but this was TOO much. I barely made it to chapter 8 and when the protagonist re-enters puberty through detailed masturbation techniques, I just lost the remaining desire to continue listening. Authors - YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE VULGAR TO BE RELEVANT! This is too bad because the author is clearly witty and has some great humorous lines. The narration was also very poor for the women's roles and again, the amount of foul language diminished the real content I was reading for. I would NOT get this book. Instead grab REPLAY by Ken Grimwood or LIGHTNING by Dean Koontz and enjoy. If any of this review was helpful, please click YES below. Later.

Similar to Replay - But needs some work

This was a fun book that is a similar storyline to Replay. However, the conversation is a bit stodgy at times and this story does not go into as many specifics through each timeline as Replay. All things considered, this is a good time loop story, but not the best I've listened to.

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.

NO REPEAT FOR ME.

I tried so hard to like the main character. No matter what he did, no matter where he went, no matter how many times he hit repeat, he was an ass. I wanted him to be stuck forever, because he did not deserve what he had and did not appreciate. The narrator also did not do very well with women voices. They were all the same.

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.

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

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.

Not what I expected

Not what I expected. Instead of being a delve into the character of a man who has to live lifetime after lifetime, this became a morality play about a man coming to terms with his mistakes in life and realizing he had time to make changes to the future instead of focusing on his past. The main character seemed almost autobiographical and reflected on events from the author's life. This book was written for him and not for me.

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.