Conscious Bob
Well-Known Member
I was looking forward to Sunnyside as I read Glen David Gold's debut novel, Carter Beats the Devil. Gold adds authenticity to his stories with his meticulous research but enjoyable as it is, Sunnyside has two problems.
The book begins with a mysterious chapter, off the California coast, the crew of a lighthouse spot a skiff in mountainous seas with one man on board, Charlie Chaplin in full movie costume. As it turns out this is one of eight hundred separate other sightings that happened on one day in 1916 right across the US, Chaplinitis.
Chaplinitis affects the two main supporting characters and their stories within the greater novel, one tries to rescue Charlie from his boat, the other ends up in the middle of a riot elsewhere in the country caused by another sighting. Chaplinitis is then history and I was puzzled as to it's significance within Sunnyside.
It isn't until much later on that it becomes clear Glen is using a supernatural plot device to tie his main characters together which is not to my taste at all. Chaplinitis is a basis for the plot device but the supernatural spin Glen puts on it jars with the factual tone of the rest of Sunnyside and it seems Glen did this to overcome the novel's second problem, it's not long enough.
Sunnyside is a thick, very dense book but too many of the characters run out of pages, their conclusions delivered in a rush or not at all. Even Charlie's story isn't unscathed, Chaplinitis may well get the best part of two chapters but Eric Campbell, Charlies friend and on-screen foil, gets only a sentence and a one line obituary notice.
The book begins with a mysterious chapter, off the California coast, the crew of a lighthouse spot a skiff in mountainous seas with one man on board, Charlie Chaplin in full movie costume. As it turns out this is one of eight hundred separate other sightings that happened on one day in 1916 right across the US, Chaplinitis.
Chaplinitis affects the two main supporting characters and their stories within the greater novel, one tries to rescue Charlie from his boat, the other ends up in the middle of a riot elsewhere in the country caused by another sighting. Chaplinitis is then history and I was puzzled as to it's significance within Sunnyside.
It isn't until much later on that it becomes clear Glen is using a supernatural plot device to tie his main characters together which is not to my taste at all. Chaplinitis is a basis for the plot device but the supernatural spin Glen puts on it jars with the factual tone of the rest of Sunnyside and it seems Glen did this to overcome the novel's second problem, it's not long enough.
Sunnyside is a thick, very dense book but too many of the characters run out of pages, their conclusions delivered in a rush or not at all. Even Charlie's story isn't unscathed, Chaplinitis may well get the best part of two chapters but Eric Campbell, Charlies friend and on-screen foil, gets only a sentence and a one line obituary notice.