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The Death & Life of Charlie St Cloud
Ben Sherwood
Published by Picador
ISBN 0330488902

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To review The Death And Life of Charlie St Cloud Amanda went to Marrakech in Morocco. One of Morocco's most important cultural centres, Marrakech is a lively place famed for its markets (souqs) and festivals. Morocco as a whole is increasingly popular with tourists, combining Africa, Arabia and Mediterranean Europe in one tantalising, magical, stimulating mix.

She enjoyed the theme within the book of what happens after we die and found the notion of spirits being all around us before they move on comforting. She said “I loved the idyll of Charlie and the spirit of his brother playing baseball in the clearing each evening, I found it comforting and touching”.

She thought that the book played on what everyone hopes secretly will happen after they, or someone they love dies, “it is many people’s fantasy that this sort of afterlife and connection between life and afterlife exists, it is a book that taps into emotional areas and may well appeal to readers on this level”.

She also dislikes the fact that so many books are dark and heavy, she said “I enjoyed the fact that this book approached the subject matter of death in a way which is resolutely optimistic, it makes a nice change”. She also says, “The Death and Life deals with dark and profound subject matter but it reads as a light book and is not too heavyweight, it has almost a Peter Pan quality to it and is also a very romantic book on some levels. I must say that it can be predictable also”.

She enjoyed the twists surrounding the character Tess and whether she is alive or dead and what will eventually happen to her, and thought that the twists helped to keep her engaged and contributed to making the book a good page-turner. Of the central characters she says, “I thought that both Tess & Charlie experience loss and death early on and have to recognise mortality and understand the impact of death very young. Death makes them both loners in different ways and on different levels, maybe to be spiritual you have to be on your own”.

She says the book was an eye opener for her in some respects: “It made me think what a nice job it would be to work in a cemetery!”

He was not quite so keen on the style of the writing “I did not think it was terrifically written”, however he was very interested in the subject matter within the book of what happens after people die. “I liked the fact that the book was open minded about the subject matter of death. The older I get the more open minded I like to become about this topic, I think this is because the older I get the closer I get to the inevitable and the more I want to believe that there is something after death and that this is not all there is”.

He thought that this book might be good for older children and younger teenagers as it could introduce spiritual areas and some of the points of discussion surrounding death (like what happens when we die – where does everyone go to?) to them in a way that they could understand and respond to. He describes the book as a “very accessible read”.

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