Charlie Big Potatoes - Softcover

Robinson, Phil

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0333908198 ISBN 13: 9780333908198

Publisher: Macmillan, 2002

Synopsis

Male fiction in a new guise - cool yet sensitive, funny but serious, moving and unforgettable. Remember Phil Robinson, he's the writer FHM readers have been waiting for . . . Charlie Marshall is not a man who should be getting married. But it's too late. When he arrives wasted at his own wedding, the consequences of his drunken life land on him like a ton of falling wedding cake. He slips into unconsciousness as the ceremony begins leaving behind a distraught bride, her despairing nouveaux riche parents and 150 portions of uneaten salmon. Wracked with guilt, Charlie soon realizes that opting out of wedded bliss was a mistake of monster proportion and hits an all-time low when he's pulled - drunk, desperate and pleading - from his would-be-in-laws' ornamental duck pond. Rehab seems the only sensible solution but with drink and drugs denied him, Charlie rapidly has to face the fact that life isn't all rock 'n' roll: his parents' marriage is disintegrating, his job is on the skids and his friends appear to be wooing his ex. Can he gather his scattered wits, fake a quick recovery and get through rehab before his cheque bounces and his liver disintegrates? And more importantly can he grow up and get the girl without losing his cool? CHARLIE BIG POTATOES is a bittersweet delight, loaded with a vicious seam of dark humour that proves even if big boys don't cry, they can make life bloody difficult at times.

About this title

Review:

'This rather fine novel will not just appeal to males' -- Times Play Magazine

...choc-a-bloc with dark humour to leave you chortling into your pillow long after you've shut the book. -- Ice Magazine

It will have you both laughing out loud and wincing at its pathos, while women readers will gain something of an insight into the male psyche... -- Waterstone's Books Quarterly

Raw, funny, edgy and uncomfortable... with plenty of gallows humour, this book could beat up anything by Tony Parsons. -- FHM

Synopsis:

Male fiction in a new guise: cool yet sensitive, funny but serious, moving and unforgettable. Charlie is a man with problems. He's not a man who should be getting married, but it's too late. The ceremony is in five days' time. His job as a journalist for a men's magazine has enabled him to live the male dream and drift from one reckless moment to the next, mainly fuelled by drink and drugs. But all that's about to change. Too late, he realises that he can't handle the responsibility of marriage, the responsibility of a job or the responsibilities of friendship. Something's got to give and give it does, on the day of the wedding and in spectacular, jaw-dropping style. Charlie's self-destruction is complete - he makes a fool of himself, loses the best chance of a loving relationship he's ever had and is forced into rehab by his worried parents. However, there are lights shining at the end of the tunnel - his grandmother is a solid and grounding presence in his life and his best mate, the long-suffering Ray, won't ever desert him. Can Charlie gather his wits and pull off a recovery? Can he resurrect a relationship with his former fiancee?

And most important of all, can he manage to grow up before it's too late?

About this edition

• Publisher: Macmillan
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0333908198
• ISBN 13: 9780333908198
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 432