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Loading... Life Expectancyby Dean Koontz
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.  melydia | Oct 28, 2009 |  I've actually read this book before and checked it out from the library with the intention of getting my husband to read it. But then I ran out of books and realized that I couldn't remember anything about the book, so I decided to do a re-read. You would think that forgetting the whole plot the first time through would be a negative for a book but that's not the book's fault...it's just how I am. I did remember from my first read through how enchanted and optimistic the book made me feel. Thankfully that did not change on the second reading. The plot is far-fetched (how could I have forgotten the clowns?) and at times the message of directing your own happiness can get a bit preachy. But according to the news stories you see on TV, perhaps we can use this reminder. (  ) meli1029 | Aug 7, 2009 | This was my first Dean Koontz book. I could not put it down. Fantastically plotted, well thought out, action packed, and twisted it was fabulous. This book made me a true Koontz fan. I have yet to find a book of his I enjoyed more. (excluded the Odd Thomas series) (  ) leb62 | Aug 1, 2009 | This book was not what I expected but I couldn't put it down and finished it in 2 nights. Koontz weaves quite an action packed story full of twists and turns, terror and laughter. There are parts that are predictable but the end brings another twist that pulls it altogether to make it an interesting and enjoyable read. (  ) janimar | Jul 25, 2009 | A break from the norm here, which is always welcome from an established author. Let me state first that I did enjoy this book and found it a page turner. However, it is the clever plot that keeps you glued, not the style. Koontz is extremely wordy is this book. There is no denying that Koontz is a true master of metaphor abd similie but there are pages of it here, so much so it is almost a book of prose, rather than a thriller. Koontz's clever characterisations and diabolic plotline will see you through the waffle though and their is some high quality dialogue that will remind you why you read Koontz - it's clever and cruel in equal parts. Enjoyable but no classic. (  ) SonicQuack | Apr 15, 2009 |  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0007196954, Paperback)With his bestselling blend of nail-biting intensity, daring artistry, and storytelling magic, Dean Koontz returns with an emotional roller coaster of a tale filled with enough twists, turns, shocks, and surprises for ten ordinary novels. Here is the story of five days in the life of an ordinary man born to an extraordinary legacy—a story that will challenge the way you look at good and evil, life and death, and everything in between.Jimmy Tock comes into the world on the very night his grandfather leaves it. As a violent storm rages outside the hospital, Rudy Tock spends long hours walking the corridors between the expectant fathers' waiting room and his dying father's bedside. It's a strange vigil made all the stranger when, at the very height of the storm's fury, Josef Tock suddenly sits up in bed and speaks coherently for the frist and last time since his stroke. What he says before he dies is that there will be five dark days in the life of his grandson—five dates whose terrible events Jimmy will have to prepare himself to face. The first is to occur in his twentieth year; the second in his twent-third year; the third in his twenty-eighth; the fourth in his twenty-ninth; the fifth in his thirtieth. Rudy is all too ready to discount his father's last words as a dying man's delusional rambling. But then he discovers that Josef also predicted the time of his grandson's birth to the minute, as well as his exact height and weight, and the fact that Jimmy would be born with syndactyly—the unexplained anomal of fused digits—on his left foot. Suddenly the old man's predictions take on a chilling significance. What terrifying events await Jimmy on these five dark days? What nightmares will he face? What challenges must he survive? As the novel unfolds, picking up Jimmy's story at each of these crisis points, the path he must follow will defy every expectation. And with each crisis he faces, he will move closer to a fate he could never have imagined. For who Jimmy Tock is and what he must accomplish on the five days when his world turns is a mystery as dangerous as it is wondrous—a struggle against an evil so dark and pervasive, only the most extraordinary of human spirits can shine through. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:23 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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Wikipedia in English (1)
On a stormy night in 1974, Josef Tock sits up in his hospital bed and makes a series of predictions about his grandson, Jimmy, who is about to be born just down the hall. The bulk of these predictions consist of a list of "five terrible days" in Jimmy's life, the first occurring in his twentieth year. Moments after speaking, Josef dies. The night of mixed grief and joy quickly turns to terror as a crazed clown, whose wife died in childbirth that very night, guns down two hospital employees.
Jimmy himself narrates the story, going through each "terrible day" one by one. As one might expect from a story beginning with prognostication and a deranged circus performer, the plot takes a series of unlikely and frankly ridiculous turns. But it's also very funny. Jimmy's commentary, though it occasionally gets a bit long on the introspection, is vivid and full of amusing asides. The other characters are just as memorable, and this is due in no small part to the excellent reader. His intuitive grasp of the characters' personalities made for spot-on inflection of some very bizarre lines.
As the roller coaster plot careened along, I was able to predict almost all of the strange twists ahead of time, but this actually added to the charm, like I was playing a trivia game. Usually I don't like knowing what happens next (hence the reason I don't do much rereading) but in a few cases (like this one) the journey is just as much fun whether you know the destination or not. Koontz is usually a reliable spooky read, but this was a rare view of his humorous side. Highly recommended. (