The Hopeless Life of Charlie Summers
Paul Torday
The Hopeless Life of Charlie Summers
Hector Chetwode-Talbot, Eck to his friends, has left the army after a rather nasty moment in Colombia. From a privileged background, he is slightly at a loss as to what to do next, when he is approached by an old army pal, Bilbo Mountwilliam. Bilbo runs an investment fund company and business is booming. Bilbo persuades Eck to join the company as a 'greeter', for a person with Eck's list of contacts is an easy route to a rich seam of moneyed clients. All Eck has to do is supply the contacts with entertainment and large G&Ts and then the fund managers will do the rest. Soon Eck is able to buy himself a luxury sports car and decadent flat in the city. All that is missing in his life is a woman. It is on a golfing trip to France with his friend Henry Newark that Eck first meets Charlie Summers, a fly-by-night entrepreneur who is hiding out in France after a 'misunderstanding with Her Majesty's Customs and Revenue'. Charlie's latest scheme is to import Japanese dog food into the UK. Henry casually mentions that Charlie should 'look us up' if he is ever in Gloucestershire. Not only does Charlie Summers look Henry up, he arrives with his suitcase, intent on staying with the Newarks and relaunching his dog food business in their area. But with the financial crash looming, Eck begins to ask himself if they are so very different…
3.5 out of 5 based on 3 reviews
|
Omniscore:
|
| Classification |
Fiction |
| Genre |
General Fiction |
| Format |
Hardback |
| Pages |
288 |
| RRP |
£12.99 |
| Date of Publication |
February 2010 |
| ISBN |
978-0297855262 |
| Publisher |
Weidenfeld & Nicolson |
| |
Hector Chetwode-Talbot, Eck to his friends, has left the army after a rather nasty moment in Colombia. From a privileged background, he is slightly at a loss as to what to do next, when he is approached by an old army pal, Bilbo Mountwilliam. Bilbo runs an investment fund company and business is booming. Bilbo persuades Eck to join the company as a 'greeter', for a person with Eck's list of contacts is an easy route to a rich seam of moneyed clients. All Eck has to do is supply the contacts with entertainment and large G&Ts and then the fund managers will do the rest. Soon Eck is able to buy himself a luxury sports car and decadent flat in the city. All that is missing in his life is a woman. It is on a golfing trip to France with his friend Henry Newark that Eck first meets Charlie Summers, a fly-by-night entrepreneur who is hiding out in France after a 'misunderstanding with Her Majesty's Customs and Revenue'. Charlie's latest scheme is to import Japanese dog food into the UK. Henry casually mentions that Charlie should 'look us up' if he is ever in Gloucestershire. Not only does Charlie Summers look Henry up, he arrives with his suitcase, intent on staying with the Newarks and relaunching his dog food business in their area. But with the financial crash looming, Eck begins to ask himself if they are so very different…
Reviews
The Scotsman
Allan Massie
"It is lightly and elegantly written, in a manner sadly uncommon today, somewhat reminiscent however of that fine novelist of the 1950s and 60s, Roger Longrigg. It is funny, touching, and ultimately surprising, for Torday successfully brings off a change of tone in the second half of the book; and this is something very difficult to achieve."
13/02/2010
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The Financial Times
David Evans
"At times the book seems rather desperate to appear pertinent. There are longueurs on hedge funds, and jihadist kidnapping emerges as an unlikely theme. But Torday’s characterisation is subtle and effective: Charlie is a wonderful creation, at once sad and heroic, whose search for redemption attains real pathos at the end of this affecting, skillfully crafted novel."
08/02/2010
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The Spectator
John Preston
"…there are shades of both Greene and Ambler here, both in the crispness of his exposition and the marrying of humour with something close to tragedy… The difficulty with The Hopeless Life of Charlie Summers is that the two strands don’t tie up — either tonally or thematically."
03/02/2010
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