R.I.P. Ken Grimwood

Cafe Society
1

SF/Fantasy author Ken Grimwood died over the weekend at age 59. Grimwood’s best-known work was the classic Replay, winner of the World Fantasy Award and voted by readers of Locus as #32 of the top fantasy books written before 1990 (tied with Something Wicked This Way Comes).

Replay is one of my favorite novels of all time, an extremely imaginative look at the old question, “If you had your life to live over, what would you do?” The ending is just plain wonderful. One of the tragedies of Grimwood’s death was that he was working on a sequel; now we’ll probably never see it.

2

Replay is definitely a fascinating book, one that keeps twisting into directions that you never suspected.

Grimwood is one of those interesting one-book writers*, someone who had one huge overwhelming idea, executed it perfectly, and then never really lived up to that standard. Walter Miller, Ralph Ellison, Daniel Keyes, Thomas Heggen, Harper Lee; the list is endless.
*I know that Grimwood has written other books but I never met anybody who read any.

3

So sorry to hear that Ken Grimwood passed away. Replay is just an extraordinary book, which I first read shortly after it was first published as a paperback. I had long wanted to see it done as a movie, but after Groundhog Day was released, I felt that its chances probably became diminished.

And for those of you who haven’t read the book, go out and find a copy and read it. Replay is something special.

4

There would be trouble turning Replay into a novel – it covers too great a time span, for one thing.

I read the book originally in hardcover; I think I got it from the library. When I saw it in paperback, I snatched up a copy. It was a keeper.

5

I guess so, Ken Grimwood tried it and he’s dead.

6

Are you sure he’s really dead? I meanhe could have found himself back in his younger self which would mean that the sequel could be written first!

7

I read Into the Deep, which isn’t bad. Expanded on the dolphin fascination that he hinted at in Replay.