Saving Charles

by Larry Matthews

It's been thirty years since Charles was the most famous young healer in America and the magic is gone. His life on Paradise Mountain is empty. His marriage is stale. His children despise him. He's as lost as he was all those years ago when he left the backwoods for a life that was, for a time, unimaginable. Now middle-aged, he takes to the road again looking for the magic of his life and reunites with the singer Johnny Jones. Now playing rodeos and bars, Jones is a long way from the days when he filled arenas with screaming fans. Trying to rekindle the good life of their younger years. Charles and Johnny find instead a drug-dealing spiritual leader charlatan who convinces them to stage a nationally promoted reunion that produces a calamity. Charles soon finds himself in a federal prison camp, left to ponder his values and his life, where he seeks the counsel of gangsters and hustlers. Saving Charles is about a man's journey to find his own soul after he had saved so many others.

204 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2012

Reviews

[Brian Benson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just finished reading Saving Charles. For anyone who has ever pondered the direction of their life, I highly recommend this entertaining and believable novel. Mr Matthews' easy going style immediately connects us to the characters in his story. To me, Charles is not just a character in a book, he is a part of that which exists in each of us. It is a story about the journey that we all share. How we arrive at the various points in that journey, is our own individual story. Kudos to Larry on another great novel.

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book.