Reviews for Twice : a novel
Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
A love story about a life of second chances. In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, andpresto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality. Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Publishers Weekly
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Albom (The Little Liar) delivers a clever tale of second chances and their limits. At age eight, Alfie Logan discovers an ability passed down through select members of his mother’s family: by uttering the word twice, he gets an instant do-over, such as the opportunity to be present when his mother dies from a pulmonary embolism, rather than playing soccer in the yard. The novel opens in the present-day Bahamas, where middle-aged Alfie has been arrested on suspicion of cheating a casino with a suspicious run of roulette wins. From there, his life story unfolds in sections that alternate between an interrogation by Det. Vincent LaPorta and pages from the journal Alfie provides LaPorta by way of explaining his extraordinary performance at the casino. Before his arrest, Alfie wired his millions of dollars in earnings to a mysterious woman named Gianna Rule, who turns out to have been the love of Alfie’s life. As the interrogation wears on, Alfie reveals the touching story of what happened with Gianna and what he failed to learn about love before it was too late. Along the way, Albom shrewdly uses Alfie’s efforts to convince LaPorta he’s telling the truth to encourage readers to suspend disbelief. The author’s storytelling powers are on full display. Agent: David Black, David Black Literary. (Oct.)
