Charlotte Street

Charlotte Street is a British romantic comedy along the same lines as a Nick Hornby novel. Jason Priestly (not that Jason Priestly) has recently quit his job as a school teacher to become a journalist. He’s ended up writing reviews for a free paper that’s handed out at the train station – not exactly where he wants to be. If that’s not disappointing enough, he finds out through Facebook that his recently ex-girlfriend is engaged.

One day, he sees a girl on the street struggling with her packages. Jason doesn’t notice until she’s riding away in a cab that she’s dropped her disposable camera. His friend Dev convinces him to go on a quest to find the mystery girl – she might be the girl of Jason’s dreams.

Oh, how I love dry show more British wit. There’s no shortage of it in Charlotte Street. Jason’s friend Dev is the best. He is so clueless and funny without realizing it. A couple of the situations were a little too much on the side of screwball comedy, which I do not care for, but most of the book was just really funny. If this book were a movie, a young Hugh Grant would play Jason. The book has been optioned by Working Title Films but I couldn’t find any information on whether it will actually be made into a movie. I hope it is.

I really enjoyed Danny Wallace’s sense of humor and plan to read more of his books. show less

Jason Priestly (no, not that one) is not doing well. He's depressed. He gave up his job as a teacher to become a journalist but his work writing snarky reviews for a free local newspaper is not very fulfilling. He's still obsessing over his ex-girlfriend but according to her cheery Facebook posts, she just got engaged to someone else. His life is so dull his own most recent Facebook status update is that he's eating soup. Nothing much is going right for him and he's indulging in a huge pity party. Until one day when he helps a beautiful girl getting into a cab with a load of packages. She smiles at him and rides out of his life. But he has her disposable camera which he inadvertantly forgot to hand back to her and after looking for her show more at various different times on Charlotte Street and not finding her, his roommate Dev convinces him that he should develop the pictures despite Jason's own concerns about the ethics of it all. After all, the pictures might contain clues to her identity and if she is the girl that fate has directed him to find, he should at least make the effort, right? So goes the premise of Danny Wallace's debut novel, Charlotte Street.

Jason is wallowing in his own inability to find happiness. He's directionless and living a pitiable, disappointing sort of life until this missed connection with "The Girl" rejuvenates him, gives him a quest and a reason to get out of bed every day. But even as Jason starts to work through the pictures on the camera, searching for the girl, he must also continue to wade through his current life and find the strength to face the truths about himself and his past that are holding him back. He's not just on a quest to find the girl, he needs to find himself.

Although narrated by Jason with an occasional sprinkling of ambiguous blog posts from The Girl, there's a growing ensemble cast here with characters joining the story and becoming integral to the search for the girl. Flatmate Dev is the catalyst for developing the pictures but his quiet tolerance of Jason's gloomy gussing ebbing drives him to push Jason onward in the search. His new friend, Abbey, who helps him discover a hot new band; his old friend, Zoe, who continues to give him work; his ex; and a volatile former student named Matt all help him in his search, recognizing a restaurant, a watch, a destination in London, and help him look into his own heart and grow as he gets closer to the elusive girl meant to be. But it's not smooth sailing solving the mystery of her identity. Jason, because he is Jason, bollockses things up quite a bit, drunk Facebooking his ex, alienating Dev, and just generally being an immature git among other things. But just as in real life, these are speed bumps in the path of striving for maturity and on the way to contentment and the way that Jason handles them shows the ways in which he is changing.

The novel's premise is incredibly intriguing and Wallace has done a nice job with it. Jason isn't always the most appealing character and there are times the reader wonders if he deserves to find "The Girl." He is a self-absorbed, pain in the ass whiner a lot of the time but there's something about the idea of fate and his slow growth away from that pitiful, oblivious self-centeredness that keeps the reader in there with him. There are a ridiculous amount of coincidences, especially in the search, that might stretch credulity but serve to show just how connected we all are in this age of rampant social media. There are moments of good humor and the pathos of what-ifs. It's interesting to read a romantic comedy from a guy's perspective and this Hollywood-ready novel delivers not only that but a riff on connection and the importance of it in all of our lives. The ending is a bit rushed but overall, it's a fun and engrossing read. show less

Jason Priestley is feeling kind of pathetic. He's living over a video game shop, next to that place that everyone thought was a brothel but wasn't. In between writing snarky reviews for the free paper they hand out on the train in London, he keeps busy watching his ex's dream life unfold via Facebook while he...eats soup. By all accounts, Jason is trapped in a horrible rut, waiting for his real life to start while he drinks bizarre Polish alcoholic beverages with his best friend and roommate Dev, who keeps his customer-free retro video game business afloat with the profits from his father's Brick Lane restaurants.

Things are going along more or less miserably when Jason has a run-in with a girl, because there's always a girl. He helps show more her get into a taxicab with an inordinate amount of stuff, and is left with the memory of her smile, the lingering sense that he should have asked her out for a drink, and one disposable camera. When Dev convinces Jason that they have to develop the photos, Jason's suddenly hurtling down a rabbit hole toward laughable lunacy and self-discovery as he sets out to find the girl in the pictures and the hope she left behind.

I didn't like Charlotte Street as much as I'd hoped. I was hoping for a laugh-out-loud funny, twisted love story. What I got was the tale of an irritatingly immature guy who through a series of mostly unrelated events matures to the point of being tolerable but not for any reason that is readily apparent. While bumbling one's way to self-actualization might be the way it happens, I didn't find that it made for an especially compelling story.

While Charlotte Street was amusing, I didn't find myself laughing so much as being almost squirmingly uncomfortable with all the awkward scrapes Jason stumbles into. I struggle with the kind of humor that relies on your relating to a character having crushingly embarrassing, shamefully awkward moments. Even on TV, when other people are laughing, I find myself inwardly cringing. This books is full to the brim with those sorts of sitcom scenarios that I find uncomfortable rather than hilarious, which is, I'm sure, more a problem with this reader than with the book itself. Humor is one of those things that is so subjective that it's hard to please everyone, and I'm sure the humor found in Charlotte Street has the potential to appeal to a large audience, that maybe doesn't so much include me.

I loved the premise. I loved the beginning of the story where he has the hope of meeting the girl. I even continued chuckling at some of the humor devices Wallace kept falling back on throughout the length of the book, like how Jason is not that Jason Priestley, and the apartment being next to the not-brothel. I even liked the ending and how it seemed oddly more feasible than much of the meat of the book. Unfortunately, the middle meandered for so long that the story bogged itself down and left me longing to turn the last page for all the wrong reasons. show less

What a fun book! This was my first time reading anything by Danny Wallace, but I really enjoyed the witty voice of his protagonist, Jason. The premise of the book is basically that Jason's life is a mess. He's going through some tough times with his career and his personal life simultaneously, trying to get over an ex-girlfriend while transitioning into a new career. In the middle of all this, Jason, in an uncharacteristic move, helps a lady on Charlotte Street get into a cab and is left with her disposable camera in his hands. This starts Jason and his friends on a semi-stalkerish adventure to find the girl and return her photos to her.

Jason's troubles are relatable - ever stressed over whether to delete an ex from your Facebook show more friends? - and he tells his story with wit and a well-crafted voice. show less

Jason is a freelance writer and reviewer for a "complimentary" magazine that Londoners may glance through on the tube on the way to work. Recently broken up from his ex-girlfriend, Jason is heartbroken to read her chirpy, updated Facebook posts about how well her life is going, as his seems to be going nowhere. Wallowing in his sorrow while reflecting on the sad state of his life, he offers his assistance to a beautiful girl who is dropping packages while trying to get into a cab. In the confusion, Jason is left with her disposable camera and wondering if she was "The Girl" he was supposed to meet in his life. He sets off to try to find her to return her pictures (his friend and flatmate, Dev insisted he develop them) and begins his show more life as a part-detective/part-stalker in search of his romantic destiny. With supportive chums along the way, an ex-girlfriend whose friends now hate him, and a new career as the step-in editor of the reviews column, Jason has a new-found lease on life. That is, until things start to fall apart...

I really enjoyed this charming and heartwarming tale of a guy who just wants to have a "story" to tell his future kids and grandkids. All of the characters were well-developed and I would love to revisit them in a future story. There were moments in this book where I was openly laughing and my family implored me to tell them why. I loved the English setting, the integration of Facebook and social media, and Jason's ability to openly reflect on how pathetic his life had become. I can't wait to read another novel by this author! show less

Jason Priestly is depressed. With a failed relationship, a bumbling career, and a generally directionless life, Jason is a man ready for something to believe in. So when Jason has a fleeting encounter with a nameless young woman, she becomes the unwitting object of Jason’s quest to rediscover hope. With only a packet of photographs to help him find her, he determines to find her, hoping she might be the love of his life.

Charlotte Street is a slyly sweet and humorous story with undercurrents of genuine angst. Wallace explores what it means to face life’s disappointments and uncertainties. Chock full of likeable offbeat characters, and a palpable London setting, the story has a modern timelessness to it. Charlotte Street is not a show more romance per se. It is more like the hard but rewarding journey of self-discovery. Completely absorbed in his own problems, Jason is challenged to learn afresh what love and friendship are all about.

At times the story gets a bit slow with confusing narrative and dialogue that interrupt the story’s flow, or by boggy side plots. Overall this is a book I’d recommend to someone looking for something light and funny but with glimmers of substance. show less

I'm as much of a sucker as anyone else for a quick fun rom-com and this one fits the bill with the twist of our lead being male. Jason starts as a bit of get it togther buddy schmuck (but then don't most of our girl rom com leads begin there too) and grows a bit to reach his eventual ending (no I won't spoil it but you can probably guess). This is a funny enough (not the funniest rom com I've read) book that reads quickly enough and is engaging enough to make it worth picking up when you're in the mood for something light-reccomended.