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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable writing and hopeful message, May 7, 2007
This review is from: Double Time (Paperback)
In an attempt to win back his wife's love, unemployed Billy T. Pickle decides to rob a bank. Things don't go too well, as he first hands over his wife's shopping list, then finds his car vandalized and undrivable. Thinking quickly if not clearly, Billy grabs a teenage runaway as hostage, then carjacks a car driven by an elderly woman. The three of them make their escape from Washington D.C., but Billy has no idea where to go next.
Teen Phoenix Knott had enough of her single mother and had decided to run away to spend time with her father--in Seattle, completely on the other side of the country. As she is the only one of the three with a real destination in mind, ultimately the three head toward Seattle. By this time, Kate, the elderly driver, has decided she needs to help Billy out, providing frequent insights and encouraging him to re-imagine his life. Along the way, the Phoenix and Kate begin reading a romance novel about a pair of twins, mistaken identity, and true love. The novel further reinforces the lessons Billy and Phoenix are learning.
Author Prisilla Cogan creates an entertaining story with the pathetic Billy--henpecked and more a danger to himself than anyone else, the desperately seeking Phoenix, and the wise Kate bonding together over romance novels, tourist destinations, Canada and America as they make their way across the country. Cogan mixes a wry sense of humor with a touch of angst to hook the reader and keep us reading.
DOUBLE TIME's message is positive and certain to appeal, especially to young readers. More cynical readers might find it a bit simplistic and the NPR commentator's thoughts on the romance novel aspect seem quite on. Even we cynics (sadly I fall into this number) will enjoy Cogan's story of a man searching for a new dream after his old dream exploded.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun, June 2, 2007
This review is from: Double Time (Paperback)
From its implausible beginning to its clever end, Priscilla Cogan's DOUBLE TIME is a real delight to read. When hardluck schmo Billy Pickle botches a bank robbery (though he DOES get the money) and subsequently kidnaps a runaway teenager and an elderly widow, and the three take off in Matilda, Kate's (the octogenarian) car, you know you're in for an adventure. As they flee north and west, an impromptu family forms. The romance novel they read to entertain themselves on the trip, DOUBLE TROUBLE, becomes part of the fun. Like a Shakespearean comedy, the novel-within-the-novel plays on the mistaken identity of identical twins, and the comedy of the romance novel's characters spills into the "real" life of Billy, Kate, and Phoenix, the runaway.
Somebody once compared a novel to a trip, and the roadtrip that forms the essential plot off DOUBLE TIME is indeed about discovery. The conclusion comes as a surprise but one you think afterward, "oh, I should have seen it coming!" Lots of fun.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An enthusiatic/tepid recommendation., June 8, 2007
This review is from: Double Time (Paperback)
This is a book that many readers will love and many will find simply a pleasant quick read. The readers who love Paulo Coehlo The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream will likely enjoy Priscilla Cogan. The two authors share the use of fiction (novels) to explicitly teach something of living life wisely and fully. They both at times place speeches in characters' mouths to make their point rather than depend upon the reader recognizing the message through the characters' actions.
Double Time interweaves two stories. The "live action" is a trip across the country of three unlikely travelers - an inept, would-be criminal driven by love; a rebellious teen running away to her father; and a wise, elderly woman. The "fictional action" is a story being read as the three characters cross the county. This story is a "romance" novel - an unhappy photographer who hires a woman to impersonate her while she spends a year traveling the world and taking photographs, a husband who doesn't know the difference, a wise old black servant ... This story has the normal romance elements - falling in love with someone unavailable, surprise identity, happy ending ... Or at least these are the elements I assume are normal romace elements. Both stories are used to encourage personal growth in the characters and the readers.
Cogan is a sufficient craftsman to make the two stories intertwine successfully and to keep the reader engaged in both stories. So if you like novels with an explicit message, you will be enthusiastic about the book. If, however, you prefer that any message about human nature and growth be expressed only through the characters' behavior, then you will have a tepid response. Either way, the book is worth the time required to read it simply to observe how well the multiple threads of the narrative interweave and strength each other.
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