- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: Pocket Books; New edition edition (6 May 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0743415736
- ISBN-13: 978-0743415736
- Product Dimensions: 17.4 x 11 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 767,854 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
The Times
Ambrose writes with verve and lucidity, carrying the reader with him every step of the way
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Douglas Adams
Highly ingenious storytelling
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I could not put this book down, it works on so may levels. It will keep you guessing right up to the end and beyond. What is real? What is the real nature of coincidence? To say more would be to reveal too much. This is a book just waiting to be made into a film......
Format:Paperback
I don't write reviews, but I was compelled to after suffering through this. It is by far the worst book I have ever read. The viewpoint characters are too one-dimensional, and whenever something happens that moves the plot forward the characters go into pages and pages of bland self analysis, and this happens several times throughout the book with irrelevant details and thoughts all written without a distinctive voice for each character (almost like the author is writing about himself). I found myself skipping whole pages because I could tell he was just going on about details that meant nothing.
The plot itself is boring, and the string of coincidences are so superficial and contrived I cringed several times when reading. The last 3rd of the book though, is worse than awful. It takes a complete left turn into science fiction, and the author probably thought that he was being bold and creative, whereas it just turned into a complete car crash of an ending and completely insults the reader and makes you wonder how on earth this steaming pile of crap got published.
I spent around £[] on this book, and now I'm throwing it in the recycling bin. For the love of god, do not read this book.
The plot itself is boring, and the string of coincidences are so superficial and contrived I cringed several times when reading. The last 3rd of the book though, is worse than awful. It takes a complete left turn into science fiction, and the author probably thought that he was being bold and creative, whereas it just turned into a complete car crash of an ending and completely insults the reader and makes you wonder how on earth this steaming pile of crap got published.
I spent around £[] on this book, and now I'm throwing it in the recycling bin. For the love of god, do not read this book.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
9 reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Coincidence
21 July 2002
Format:Hardcover
George Daly has become obsessed.
He's obsessed with the subjects of a couple of old photos and with coincidences, specifically those classified as synchronicity......and both are about to get him into trouble by colliding with one another.
The photo is of himself as a young boy.....he thinks. This boy is with a smiling couple that also appeared in an earlier photo with his parents. George has an inexplicable need to find out who those people are and why he can't remember having that picture taken.
Through a series of coincidences (which, by the way, prompt him to do research in order to write a book on the subject), George discovers the real identity of the boy....his twin brother.
Larry Hart doesn't know how it just so happened he ran into George Daly, but he's glad he did. George is about to rue the day he ever began his search, but Larry is going to benefit greatly from it. George's art dealer wife, Sara, is so engrossed in herself and her own extra-curricular activities that she doesn't even realize a large part of her life has changed.....but maybe she's better off living in that ignorance.
But it doesn't end there....a sequence of shocking events, fraught with danger and revenge, followed by an incredible revelation make for an unbelievable conclusion.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
David Ambrose knows how to tell a story. He makes the reader not only feel the characters but also feel for what they are going through. Once those characters have gained their three-dimensional status, he throws in a mind-boggling twist that by many other authors just wouldn't be acceptable.
Rather than have this story be a singular narrative which would create confusion-causing holes, Mr. Ambrose has split it into sections. Each section is told from the perspective of one of the three main characters, so that there is never any doubt of what one may have thought or felt or been experiencing at any given time.
David Ambrose has spun an engaging tale full of interesting stories of coincidence and one man's search bringing him answers he never thought possible.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Difficult to put down!
6 Dec 2003
Format:Hardcover
I started reading this book to kill an hour and ended up reading the whole thing in one sitting. It was so good I just couldn't put it down.
I don't want to give a synopsis because the book is full of surprises right from the start and any detailed plot discussion would ruin it for the reader. I will say that there are many interesting actually documented coincidences presented in the book. Different characters narrate different sections of the book, which gives more than one perspective of events. Also, there are a lot of coincidences that occur in the plot that turn out to be just that (coincidences, that is) and other situations where what we think is coincidence, was carefully orchestrated by one of the characters.
Prior to reading this book, I read Ambrose's "Superstition, which was also excellent and was written in a totally different style. It looks like Mr. Ambrose is a highly talented writer with many varying ideas.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Fun but not unflawed
3 May 2002
Format:Hardcover
This story is an entertaining, quick read that plays pleasant tricks with your mind. My favorite scenes are the ones in which the main character encounters bizarre coincidences (he has a dream, for instance, about being in cab #444 at 4:44 pm; he wakes up and finds that it's 4:44 am). Some will find that the last fourth of the book is too much of a deus ex machina, but I didn't mind. I do think the book makes the classic mistake of a "novel of ideas," which is talking about the ideas as well as leading us toward them. (I don't want to read in a novel about Jung's theory of synchronicity; I just want to feel the thrill of synchronicity itself -- as I do in the 4:44 dream scene.) By the way, for a more powerful, better-crafted, more enigmatic exploration of similar themes (writers searching for mystic patterns in New York), don't miss Paul Auster's "New York Trilogy."
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