Life Expectancy
by Dean Koontz
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Book Summary Information
Author: Dean KoontzEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-10-25
ISBN: 0553588249
Number of pages: 496
Publisher: Bantam
Book Reviews of Life Expectancy
Book Review: Amazingly Creative Collage of Life - Love - Hope
Summary: 5 Stars
This novel is unusual in its focus and approach, quite a departure from the previous novels I read by the author [The Taking, The Watchers]. It begins with two haunting themes simultaneously presented: birth and death ... both are so creatively intertwined that to provide too much detail would possibly ruin the pleasure of the reading experience. The impact, scope and magnitude of this book is enormous. It leaves the reader anticipating and wanting more ...
Essentially, the main character, Jimmy Tock was born in the hospital at exactly the same time that another mother was undergoing labor but sadly, complications occured and the other mother died in childbirth. Both fathers were pacing in the waiting room ... anxious to learn the outcome for their hopes and dreams to start a family. One father went beserk after learning of the death of his wife ... he went on a murderous rampage in the obstetrics ward. He was literally a clown in the circus and his wife had been an aerialist, the daughter of one of the most famous trapeze artists. During these fateful events, the grandfather of Jimmy Tock was dying. Shortly before his demise, he unexpectedly recovered concsiousness ... just long enough to make five predictions about Jimmy's future, complete with dates and forewarnings. These haunting predictions become the cliff-hanger that keeps the reader flipping page after page as fast as possible ... wanting to know what happens next. The artistic merits of this book surpass expectations ...
The book exaggerates emotions and events in what seems like a schizophrenic and surrealistic manner ... but this is exactly what captures the reader's attention. It keeps one glued on the spot, reading every page, feverishly desiring to know the nature of future developments. The grand finale, in the last several chapters, brings together mind-blowing secret events from the fateful day when two babies were born ... whose lives were inextricably tied together. It is amazing how all the predictions of Jimmy's grandfather transpired, leaving the reader quite dizzy and breathless but totally satisfied. The ultimate message is clear: hope and love can overcome the most bizarre and twisted threats that life can offer. This was proven in the lives of Jimmy Tock and his wife, Lorrie. After finishing this book, the question begs to be answered, can Dean Koontz top this one? One thing is certain ... I will *definitely* read the next book to find out! Erika Borsos (erikab93)
Summary of Life Expectancy
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.
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