World Gone Water

by Jaime Clarke

World Gone Water enlarges the portrait of Charlie Martens, first introduced in Vernon Downs, a young man grappling with how to navigate the world. Set in Phoenix, seven years before the events of Vernon Downs, Charlie finds himself released from a voluntary stay at a behavioral clinic in the Sonoran desert, the result of an incident with a woman he met while tending bar in Florida where Charlie had fled to forget his high school sweetheart, whose sudden marriage to someone else devastates him. But Charlie’s homecoming launches him into a chain of events with a cast of characters that assault his fragile state and further undermine his general impressions about life and how to live.

World Gone Water roves the deep terrain of our want for emotional connection and is a devastating narrative about love, sex, and friendship.

Genres: Fiction

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2015

About the author

Jaime Clarke is a graduate of the University of Arizona and holds an MFA from Bennington College. He is a founding editor of the literary magazine Post Road, now published at Boston College, and co-owner, with his wife, of Newtonville Books, an independent bookstore in Boston.

Reviews

[Elyse Walters · Rating 3 out of 5]

World Gone By", is a prequel to "Vernon Dawns"...(even though this book came out after).
It takes place 6 years prior.

Charlie Marten has been in a behavior rehabilitation center. He's about to leave- transition
back into life.
His parents died when he was young. He grew up with different relatives- in Denver- Santa Fe-
Rapid City-San Diego- and Phoenix. .., so already we are given insights about Charlie's
frail strength in character.
'Coming -of -Age' books are usually not all roses- candy- happy friendships- with
Tinker Bell fairy dust. So.., I wasn't expecting an uplifting story about Charlie.
Having already met Charlie..,(the older Charlie), in "Vernon Dawns", I felt like I already
knew this character...

Yet.., I saw a much more disturbed Charlie in this book than in "Vernon Dawns", (where his obsession over shadowed every redeeming quality about him).

In "World Gone By", obsession might be welcomed. It seems a higher growth- development
taking all into consideration
Because... in this book, Charlie mostly just seems disturbed. His ideas about affection mixed
with sexuality are off. Basically - what feels haunting and tragic.. is that Charlie's
own blind spots - to himself- affect others. ( the cost of satisfying friendships and healthy
relationships).
It feels to me, that one more book needs to be written about Charlie-
I have a hunch (after reading "Vernon Dawns"), that we might start to see more
authentic transformation from Charlie. It takes years for scars from childhood trauma
to begin to fade.

Charlie is not a bad guy... just not healthy- emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
Time heals!

cheering for ya Charlie!

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book from the author/publisher when I won the first book in the trilogy.

Charlie is not a character I am fond of, but he is a character that somehow manages to both intrigue and offend me. And honestly, I think that's the point of him. He's supposed to make us think outside of the "normal", he's supposed to make us step outside of our comfort zones.

His story does an excellent job at that. It makes me uncomfortable, but also makes me want to continue reading because I have to know what happens next.

I love the writing style and am looking forward to the last book in the series.

[Gayle Slagle · Rating 4 out of 5]

World Gone Water by Jaime Clarke is a prequel to Clarke's precious novel Vernon Downs. It continues the saga of Charlie Martens, relating the events of his life prior to Vernon Downs. Charlie Martens is a character that I found myself hating most of the time, but then out of the blue shows some semblance of a redeeming quality. He will offend you at times, amuse you at times, shock you at times and somehow make you like him and hate him at the same time. The story delves into the dark arena of male/female relationships that stuns at times with its intensity and at other times shows hope and humanity. Martens is a flawed character who sometimes tries to redeem himself and at other times simply does not give a damn. World Gone Down is a character-driven novel that you will probably either love or hate, but is worth the read.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book in a Goodreads giveaway. I didn’t enjoy this book. I get that it explores the main character’s relationship with the various women in his life, but I found the variable timeline a little too jarring. I felt Charlie was a more sympathetic character in Vernon Downs. Here I found it hard to have any sympathy for him at all. And there seemed to be some gaping holes in the story. Maybe I’m meant to fill in the blanks but I’m still wondering what happened to Talie and what does Dale do with the gun?

[Lr · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was not terribly written, I just hated the plot. I find that truly engaging and sympathetic stories about violence and cruelty are few and far between, and World Gone Water missed the mark.

[Lorie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second book I ready by Jaime Clark. I liked this one a little more than the first one. This book is about Charlie too. It's about his relationship with Jane and his step-sister Talie. It also told a little bit about his childhood.

[Alex Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

World Gone Water lives within the context of a series of journals and writing exercises written by the protagonist during his stay in a behavioral clinic. And though this background is set up very efficiently and believably, the book really shines once it all but abandons this format. Jaime Clarke has created a very colorful past for the protagonist, Charlie, and the scenes we get do a much better job characterizing him than the direct address passages. The format of the book does work, however, to create a very dark air of mystery surrounding an act of sexual assault that Charlie allegedly committed (which is the reason for his stay in the facility) yet only rarely speaks about. The restraint shown by the author on this aspect of the plot works very well to make Charlie feel more human as a narrator, but it does muddy up the order of events a bit more.
​ Jaime has also done a fantastic job populating this book with a wonderfully diverse cast of friends, adversaries, and love interests. The story is organized, in terms of time, by using each of Charlie’s romantic relationships as a means to ground us in a specific period of his life. This is a technique that is working very well and it allows Jaime to frequently jump back and fourth in time without losing momentum. The pacing works so well, partly, because Charlie’s journey isn’t one to a place in time, but rather to a place of personal change. Charlie is battling with feelings of jealousy and inadequacy as he struggles to embrace the life that his morally bankrupt friends enjoy. What’s really interesting here, though, is that the courage and assertiveness that Charlie is working towards ends up being the very thing that hurts him most.
​It is during its climax, or climaxes, that World Gone Water really shines. As each of the different threads come to an end, the book unfolds into a back to back series of artfully chaotic scenes depicting all of the big changes in Charlie’s life and relationships. It is really stimulating to see how many of these tremendously over-the-top fiascoes Jaime has managed to string together. There is a level of creativity at play here that really makes the book.
​ “Someone in a tuxedo sticks his head in the door and yells that Vic is going to jump off the hotel roof, and while it seems impossible that everyone knows Vic, or cares about his welfare, the room empties, Jenny and Zach bursting from the bathroom, the smell of marijuana trailing them out the door and down the hall. The TV blares in the sudden silence, a commercial for a compilation of hit music for parties. Couples dance across the nineteen-inch screen, grooving to songs of my past, reminding me of all of my Jennies. One song in particular feels overly familiar, and I mumble the lyrics along with the television, marveling that I know the words to a song I haven’t heard in maybe fifteen years or more. The words come down from my brain as if I wrote the song, and I continue singing it even after the commercial has ended, am still singing it when a scream pulls me out the sliding glass door just in time to see Vic catch himself atop the building across the courtyard, windmilling to keep his balance. I spot Jenny and Zach, arm in arm, moving through the crowd below like celebrities at a charity event. The door swings open and Happy starts screaming in my direction. The officer puts my hands on the credenza and reads me my rights. The manager starts bitching at me about the state of the hotel room. Happy tries to get at him with the left hook, but the officer pushes him back. Vic teeters again on the hotel roof, the crowd below shouting up at him, Jenny shouting too, her pleas meant for Vic reaching my ears instead.
I watch Vic trying to keep his balance. The officer wheels me around, and even though I couldn’t pick Vic out of a line-up, I can feel him falling.”
​World Gone Water earns its time in the realm of ridiculousness by providing, not just true to life characters, but realistic actions between them. It is easy to see how each of the women Charlie dates, during both the highs and lows of each relationship, affects him.
​This book does ask a lot of its reader: the order of events is not always easy to piece together and often we’re thrown into new settings or chapters in Charlie’s life without much guidance as to when and where these things are happening. But it works. It works well enough that, in most cases, the reader can quickly grasp who is who. And by the end of the story, the chronology fades to the background anyway.
​It is clear from the start that Jaime had a vision for this story. It is also clear that he was willing to follow the story to where it wanted to take him. And that paid off. What he ended up with is a story that both challenges and rewards the reader. Or in other words: a great piece of literature.

[Lolly K Dandeneau · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charlie is disturbed, this is like sneaking up on someone's head split open and sifting through the dark matter of their terrible thoughts and rotten deeds. I don't like Charlie, it seems there isn't one redeeming quality about him except maybe when he is in love with mormon Jenny. He is an abuser, his musings are ones some readers probably won't want to see- sort of like sneaking into some creepy stranger's journal and realizing you were better off not knowing.
On the other hand, it has a the car crash appeal, you can't help but look. What reasoning does someone like him make for his actions? I like this line "It made me think about my own loss and I saw myself as something small and stupid, with a grin of infinite hope on my face."
Journey into the disturbed mind who may or may not have a little hope.

[Stacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Jaime Clarke is a great, crafty, sneaky, subversive writer. I loved how this book was filled with such a scary, satirical, emotional version of masculinity that was always throwing me off balance, reeling me in, then throwing me off balance again. This is hard to do, but Clarke does it with natural grace. He should be famous.

[Alana · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short book where not much goes on except the main character is trying to figure out how to connect with people, especially women, in an effective way. It's an interested meditation on relationships, what we want and what we give.

[Falene · Rating 1 out of 5]

If anyone read this crap of a book can you please explain it to me...wish I could give if a negative star