By KEN GRIMWOOD (Arbor House; 1986)

Never underestimate the power of baby boomer nostalgia.  It was that which gave us BACK TO THE FUTURE and STAND BY ME, as well as the similarly oriented novel REPLAY by the late Ken Grimwood.  All appeared around the same time, and REPLAY is in many respects the most potent and lasting of the three.  Its early-1960s to mid-80s time frame dates it, but the novel fully retains the mind-bending charge it had when it first appeared thirty-plus years ago.

It’s a time travel story of sorts, positing that one Jeff Winston, a discontented man in his early forties, dies of a heart attack one day, only to find himself reliving the last twenty five years of his life.  Like most of this novel’s prospective 1980s readership, Jeff came of age in the sixties, and was witness to quite a few upheavals political and otherwise.  As a “replayer” he’s afforded numerous trips back through his life, which always ends at the same point in the mid-eighties, with that fatal heart attack–after which he reawakens once again in the 1960s.

I’ll refrain from revealing too many plot twists, as the surprise factor is pivotal to this consistently inventive novel’s impact.  Yes, Jeff uses his knowledge of future events to his advantage, and does try and change the past (including an attempt at stopping the JFK assassination), with unexpected results.  He also attempts to make contact with other replayers, leading to an altogether unique time-tripping love story and the production of a big budget sci fi movie about dolphins and humans (which incidentally provided the impetus for Grimwood’s 1995 novel INTO THE DEEP).  Throughout, Jeff suffers crushing isolation and depression, making for a depiction of a lone man struggling against implacable forces that’s as potent in its way as those of I AM LEGEND and 1984.

There’s also a message, of course, about the necessity to live life to the fullest and always take risks (because Jeff never knows if his latest replay will be his last).  Writing-wise the book is on par with the bestsellers of the time, meaning the prose is workmanlike and somewhat impersonal, but does its job nonetheless, as REPLAY is nothing if not a page-turner.  The author was apparently working on a sequel at the time of his 2003 demise—which, like Jeff Winston, was via a heart attack, suggesting that sequel may have come about in real life.