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Summary: The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud
Review: This book has it all, including interesting characters and great relationship studies. It makes you ponder not only the life of Charlie, but your own life. Ben Sherwood has written a book that will make you laugh, cry and think. WELL DONE. I'm off to buy The Man Who Ate the 747!
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Summary: I could not put it down!!
Review: This book is a great read! I did not want it to end. I wanted to meet the characters. I live close to the setting and every time I go by the scenes where the book took place, I want to meet Sam and see how he is doing. They became such a part of me and my life. I feel like I lost a friend when the book was over. I can't wait to see if this novel becomes a movie. It has a role that Julia Roberts would love to play and she would perform it well!!It is well-written and has an incredible message of hope! A must read for anyone, a fabulous, joyful novel!!
Thank you Ben Sherwood for the pleasure of reading your story!! I am off to buy anything else written by Ben!!
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Summary: Two brothers journey through this life and the next
Review: This is a beautiful story of loss, life, love and the mystical wonder of the hereafter as it is experienced by Charlie and Sam, two brothers whose love for eachother surmounts all obstacles, including death. Ben Sherwood is an articulate, sensitive author, who leaves no stone unturned in assuring his reader understands each emotion his character experiences. Charlie, Sam and Tess will live in your heart long after you have read the very last page. Thank you, Ben, once again, for touching MY heart, in a way that only your wonderful stories can. Tommi
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Summary: A Touching Tale
Review: This is a book about turning loss into affirmation ... about keeping promises ... about unabashed belief in miracles. And it's a book about second chances. All of it worked for me.
To summarize this wonderful tale would ruin its tender surprises, and there are many. The guiding premise is that we need to grieve and let go. Those who have died feel our pain and linger in spiritual limbo until we do. Unfinished business on either side of life complicates our ability to move on.
Sherwood's writing is underplayed, stopping dangerously short of sentimentality, as he reveals the connections that bind us, one to another. Charlie is connected to his brother Sam, certainly, but he is likewise connected to others, notably Mr. Guidry, the widower who visits his wife's grave every day, and Tink, his friend and drinking buddy. These connections exert their influence here in life and later in the afterlife. These connections define life.
I heartily recommend this book. It shines a shimmering, uplifting light on our strivings. It's magical and romantic, a pure delight.
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Summary: A true bond of love that never dies...
Review: This is a book that will stay with me for a very long time. It is touching and full of hope. I can only hope that there are honest people (like Charles St. Cloud) in the world who can communicate with passing spirits and can give reasurances that they will be remembered. Personally, I would like it if I could leave this world and be able to speak to one last soul, even if it's to say goodbye.
It's been a long time since I've read "Lovely Bones" and it is still clear to me. This book is going to be the same way.
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Summary: More than a story about the bonds between two brothers.
Review: This is a story of hope for all of us.
I read this book in one sitting. At the end, I cried. I cried, I think, because Charlie's story validates my dreams of deceased relatives whom I hope really come back to visit me. Charlie's story restores my faith that the bonds of love are so strong that even death cannot break them. I love the story of Charlie St. Cloud and his brother Sam. I've known kids like them who were so likeable that even a little trouble now and then only endeared them to me. However, what kept me reading their story were the details that Ben Sherwood adds in. The information about the cemetery and how it operates, how families respond to death, and how Charlie sees the devotion of not only the families, but the deceased themselves...these details make Charlie's story real. Finally, one of the most touching details for me is the fact that the story begins and ends with the man who saved Charlie's life. I hope you will read Charlie's story to see what I mean. When I was traveling on business a few years ago, my mother was nervous about this particular flight. That night she had a dream about my uncle getting off the plane with me. He looked tanned and rested and happy. However, he had been dead for three years. She said, "Frank, I am surprised to see you here! You look wonderful." He said, "You don't think I'd let anything happen to our girl, did you?" My Uncle Frank had worked at an airport doing airplane maintenance on weekends for most of his life. Now I feel secure knowing I'm traveling with Uncle Frank. Thanks, Ben Sherwood, for this comforting, wonderful story. I can't wait to read your next book.
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Summary: So touching...you need Kleenex!
Review: What a great tale. I believe in the "moving on to a better place" and I really found this book believable.
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Summary: As Good As It Gets
Review: Wow. What an amazing book! Ben Sherwood takes us on an unforgettable journey that moves and inspires. His characters come to life in this beautifully crafted story. It is one of the most uplifting and enjoyable books I have ever read. I could not put it down! I have recommended it to everyone I know, and I have heard nothing but raves. Read this book-you'll be glad you did!
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Summary: The Inspirational Story of How a Young Man Copes with Death
Review: Yes America, there is a heaven. Just ask Charlie St. Cloud, an earthly saint who secretly helps the dead's transition through the "in between," which waits after life and into the great beyond --- the next world, heaven, nirvana, whatever you may call it. As caretaker of Waterside Cemetery in the harbor village of Marblehead, Massachusetts, Charlie is the sandy blond, freckle-faced prince of a simple life in the safest of places. He tends the cemetery, plays catch with his younger brother Sam, enjoys quiet evenings at his forest-side cottage, watches the Sox and has his coffee each morning at the docks. The serenity is a thin blanket for Charlie's one big mistake, the accident that changed everything thirteen years ago. Though he throws a mean curveball and likes a swim in the pond, Sam St. Cloud is dead. But Charlie sees and talks to him because Sam is just like Charlie's other cemetery acquaintances, the others in the "in between," a place where the newly departed and a few spiritual hangers-on await their time to pass onto the next astral plane. Charlie is their gentle yet unofficial guide in that confusing time a soul may experience when it has left its earthly shell. The literary gatekeeper of world records, true love, miracles and hope, novelist Ben Sherwood (THE MAN WHO ATE THE 747) steps into the pastoral landscape of Thornton Wilder's OUR TOWN and Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life to explore the tortured lives of those who cannot let go and those who blame themselves for life's misfortunes. He describes Charlie's knowledge of the cemetery's spirits: "Folks often showed up bewildered ... Sometimes they didn't even comprehend that life was over and had to spend a few days figuring things out. Others knew right away what had brought them down and they screamed at God and the world from the moment they arrived. They were the ones who held on to friends and family as long as they could. And then there were the folks who had it the easiest of all, letting go quickly and moving on to the next realm." A high school junior at the time, Charlie's wonderful life ended at the same moment as his little brother Sam's when the car they mischievously "borrowed" to go see a baseball game was struck by a drunk driver. But Charlie's time in the "in between" was brief as he was shocked back to life by fireman Florio Ferrente, a doomed character whose dedication and heroism brings to mind thoughts of New York and D.C., 2001. Charlie was saved to live with the guilt and pain of knowing that he should not have been driving that car and that they shouldn't have been on that bridge when fate knocked them out of this world. Over a decade of lost dreams and major sacrifices later, Charlie feels his sole duties in life are to advise the confused spirits that pass through Waterside and keep a sacred promise, a daily date for catch with his brother's innocent spirit. A chance meeting with local sail maker Tess Carroll (and a most curious series of plot twists) sways Charlie with the power of the north wind. Transcendent in beauty and long on independence, Tess has a plan to sail around the world to prove her courage, to set a record, to remember the bold spirit of her recently deceased father and to find true love. Charlie finds that he must choose between the past --- living in the promise he made to his brother --- and the sparkling future he could have with Tess, a release, the gift of knowledge and freedom from the false Eden of the cemetery. A modern day O. Henry, Sherwood conjures the timeless muse of John Lennon to deliver the strongest ecumenical message our country could embrace in this post-September 11th era, when many thousands are still hurting --- the dead speak to us in music, in the wind, like the moon, the stars and the sun, and we just have to listen and know that we are not alone. We all shine on. --- Reviewed by Brandon M. Stickney
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