Mark Evan

Team Charlie follows the life of a man who began to hear voices in his head starting in early middle age. Formerly in sales and successful, he lives with his father up to the year that the book begins at. His father passes away, and we accompany Charlie on a long walk - about. He has become very disconnected from his previous life.

Our society remains depauperate in quality works on mental illness which promote empathy. Mark Lages fills one of numerous gaps in an intimate manner. The book show more reads in third person, primarily, but we never venture away from the main character. The source or cause of his mental hallucinations is never specified though it brings to mind schizophrenia. He has a stable cast of named characters in his head, and at least one is present almost all of the time hence the book's title.
Most are benign at worst and likeable at best.

Team Charlie moves us further away from the 20th century notion of associating mental illness with criminality or a kind of collapse in maturity. It also highlights the manner in which healthcare for patients with mental illnesses can be precarious and deficient. In Charlie's case, effective medical outreach could have saved him half a lifetime of trouble. Lages makes a timely jab at the retrogressive religious community whose belief systems are too preponderant in America and antithetical to optimal healthcare. The book should be in the library of most colleges of theology.

In a future edition, Lages will do the reader a favor by adding a section with links to professional organizations. While he seems carefully non-committal as to what disease afflicts Charlie, adding some general, non-fiction descriptions of illnesses involving auditory hallucinations might be valued by the reader. Such material should be used in an afterword. The story needs none of it incorporated.

Team Charlie gives people more breadth for understanding the human condition in a sensitive and personable way. It has an engaging storyline, and Lages' uses a writing style that gives the main character's personality continual development in ways which might not readily be seen. The reader will feel fortunate for having read it. show less