Exclusive interview with author Danny Wallace and a review of his first fiction novel about a man who needs to learn to do more than just live
Rating: 3 Stars
By Gabrielle Pantera
“I got the idea from something that I think happens to a lot of people at some point sometime, seeing someone and immediately, irrationally, imagining an entire future with them,” says Charlotte Street author Danny Wallace. “Your courtship, your marriage, your kids, your lifetime together, and then six seconds later they’re gone and so are you. It’s a natural thing, but I decided to take it further. What happens if you have those thoughts, and then have at your disposal a way of maybe seeing them again?”
In Charlotte Street Jason has hit his thirties and his life in London has fallen apart. He’s lost his girlfriend Sarah, now lives with his mate Dev. His job as a journalist is not going as well it could be when on Charlotte Street he helps a woman get a cab. When the cab drives off Jason is left holding a disposable camera. How does he get the camera back to her? Jason is pushed by Dev and others he meets in his quest to find the girl and become a better man.
The concept in the novel is great. It’s told from the hero’s point of view. This is Danny Wallace’s first novel. The message in the story is how to more than survive what life throws at you, then try to thrive. The writing is engaging, but the story could be enriched by tracing a second character’s point of view.
“One of the major characters in the book is London,” says Wallace. “That’s how it feels. It’s an incredible place I’m so pleased to call home, but it was great to see places I thought I already knew through characters I was only just getting to know. So I walked the streets, took in the details, made notes of the moments I saw that appealed to me…a man leaning against a doorway here, a girl getting out of a taxi there…and just tried to capture them later on when writing.”
Wallace has been writing for magazines and newspapers since he was a teenager and has written many books including Join Me, Are You Dave Gorman, and Yes Man.
Wallace wrote the pilot for The Middle on ABC. He has a deal for a new comedy titled Man And Boy with director-producer Julie Anne Robinson, a single-camera show produced by ABC Studios.
Wallace was born in Dundee, Scotland and currently lives in London. “I try and keep my website updated and everything I’ve done, from TV to radio to books like Yes Man are all detailed on there,” says Wallace. Take a look at www.dannywallace.com
Charlotte Street by Danny Wallace. Trade Paperback, 416 pages, Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (October 23, 2012) Language: English, ISBN-13: 978-0062190567 $14.99.
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