A Replay of Replay
To see a world in a grain of sand
And heaven in a wild flower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour
– William Blake
In July of this year I posted a “what if” article. Given a second time around, what would you change in your life. In this piece, written for those of us who have lived long enough to understand it, we explored regrets and mistakes. The gist of this article was not that we could change anything in the past, but by being aware of our history, avoid repetition in the present and the future.
Although I don’t usually read or write about fantasy books, a favorite fun read that I highly recommend for anyone interested in this is Replay, by Ken Grimwood. His thought-inspiring book won the 1988 World Fantasy Award.
This book was first published in 1986, and I first read it about 1988. Some would discount fantasy books, or Sci-fi as non-literary brain-desensitizing junk (much like watching Fox news). But then some will never understand that Andy Warhol was an artist, whether they “get it” or not. Fantasy is not my personal favorite genre of literature, but some great works of art have been produced by excellent writers. One example is Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. This book is often required reading in high schools and universities in the US. But I digress.
After nearly 20 years, I again read Replay, and enjoyed it just as much this time as I did in 1988. If you are old enough to remember “where you were” when JFK was assassinated, you will find other historical references in this book challenging. We tend to think our memory of events is exact, at least what we considered important at the time it happened. Many times during my second reading, I looked looked up from the book and thought, “Oh yeah, I had forgotten about that.” And wondered how and why I could have forgotten.
The plot of the book is more “what if you had changed you life” and how that could have made a difference. Or, would it have made no difference at all. If you had unlimited times to relive your life, is it possible to find perfection? The road not taken may have been a dead end.
Note: Although I recommend this book, I only link to it for convenience. I make no money and have no connection with the sale of it. Having long ago lost my original copy, I bought a very nice hardcover edition at Amazon.
