Review: Good story of a human experience....
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 18, 2014
Can the story of a relationship be told through emails between a couple? Garcon puts forth a convincing argument that it can in "Charles and Edward." Each heartfelt or teasing or frustrated or loving email peels away a layer so that we see deeper into this couple and the challenges and pitfalls they face.Charles is an older man in the upper class of British society.  He's a book dealer and in early emails has clearly opened his personal life to Edward. Edward asks after his daughter and her business endeavors. While Edward is building a connection that could work for him in a business sense, Charles is a man drunk on his intoxicating and exotic new lover.  As he tells Edward, he's a millionaire and not a billionaire so much negotiate price with his new plaything to optimize their visits and feed his addiction.Edward's emails convey a desire to build his business and perhaps a bit of curiosity about his new friend. He doesn't answer every email and when the suggestion is made to lower Edward's per encounter price he seems a little offended but Charles is entree to a certain type of client and can Edward pass that up? He's a little coy and distant perhaps to keep the fish on the hook.In "Charles and Edward," Garcon gives us a human tale. Readers may view Edward as taking advantage of Charles but they are both, at the start, in a mutually agreeable business relationship and part of that arrangement for Charles appears to imagine a romance. From the start, Charles is the one using endearments. Through the email a chronological tale unfolds of two men giving each other what they need and each appreciating the other for that service."Charles and Edward" is a fast moving and easy read that manages to stay interesting despite being told wholly in correspondence. If you are interested in tales of a romantic nature and in the human story, "Charles and Edward" may be the novel for you.