Charlie P

Central Park West Trilogy #3

by Richard Kalich

“ Charlie P is energetic, delightfully sardonic, dark without being oppressive, playful and very readable.”—Sven Birkerts In Charlie P , New York author Richard Kalich offers us a singularly unique, comic, and outlandish everyman. Akin to other great American icons such as Sinclair Lewis’ Babbitt and Ring Lardner’s Al, Charlie P plumbs the relation between fantasy and reality to offer us a character both asocial and alienated and, at the same time, at the heart of the American dream.

250 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2005

About the author

Richard Kalich was born in New York and grew up on the Upper West Side. He's the author of The Nihilesthete (1987), Charlie P (2005), and Penthouse F (2010), published in 2014 in a single volume as Central Park West Trilogy, which encapsulates Kalich’s uncompromising examination of the state of modern life, as well as his metafictional experimentations with form and language. His later works include The Assisted Living Facility Library (2019) and A Man Made Long Ago (2021). He has been nominated for the National Book Award and for a Pulitzer Prize.

Reviews

[George]

"Similar to Oskar Matzerath deciding he’ll never grow up after his father says he’ll become a grocer, Charlie P decides after his father dies “to live forever rather than suffer the indignity of mortality. Under no circumstances would he allow death to interfere with his daily regimen from this time on.” This time being the age of three, the same age as Oskar in Günter Grass’ The Tin Drum. (Speaking of Grass, Dick told me over the phone that when his first novel came out, young German readers would make pilgrimages to his NY apartment and whisper to him, “You’re bettaw than Goontaw Grrahws.” But, because their styles are so different, that’s like comparing apfels to oranges.) Charlie P’s formula for immortality is simply to not live his life, thus it will never end. Adding to the themes explored in the earlier volumes, this novel demonstrates the persistence of life despite its permanence."

Read the full review of the trilogy for free here: https://thecollidescope.com/2022/05/2...