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    Charlotte Street
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    Charlotte Street
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    Charlotte Street
    Ebook440 pages6 hours

    Charlotte Street

    By Danny Wallace

    3.5/5

    ()

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    About this ebook

    It all starts with a girl . . . because yes, there’s always a girl.

    Jason Priestley (not that one) has just seen her. They shared an incredible, brief, fleeting moment of deep possibility, somewhere halfway down Charlotte Street.

    And then, just like that, she was gone—accidentally leaving him holding her old-fashioned disposable camera, chock full of undeveloped photos.

    And now Jason—ex-teacher, ex-boyfriend, part-time writer and reluctant hero—faces a dilemma. Should he try to track The Girl down? What if she’s The One? But that would mean using the only clues he has, which lie untouched in the beaten-up camera.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJun 26, 2012
    ISBN9781443411868
    Unavailable
    Charlotte Street
    Author

    Danny Wallace

    Danny Wallace is an award-winning writer who’s done lots of silly things. He’s been a quiz show host. A character in a video game. He’s made TV shows about monkeys, robots, and starting his own country. He has written lots of books for grown ups, in which he uses words like ‘invidious’, and he pretends he knows what they mean but he doesn’t. He thinks you’re terrific. Danny’s first book for children, Hamish and the Worldstoppers, was the first in a bestselling series, and his recent standalones, The Day the Screens Went Blank and The Luckiest Kid in the World are highly acclaimed. The Boss of Everyone is his latest novel for readers age 8+.

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    Reviews for Charlotte Street

    3.5/5

    74 ratings18 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Danny Wallace's books have never failed to amuse me and make me laugh out loud while reading them. This book is not an exception, although I wouldn't put in quite as on par as some of his previous novels (such as; Yes Man!) The story follows the classic thirty-something man down on his luck and recently split from a previous girlfriend he's not sure he is over yet. Enter the new woman, a woman he falls in love with just by looking at her and then the quest to find her.

      The book is quite slow to get moving and I did find myself wondering what, if there was any, plot to the book at all. Eventually it begins to unravel as the main character, Jason Priestly begins to piece together the mystery woman's story through her photographs in order to find her. Although enjoyable to read, I did find some of the humour slightly forced and quite a few of the story's details were repeated a number of times during the book, for example; his flat was located next door to a building thought to have been a brothel, but actually wasn't. Details like this weren't necessarily important to the storyline but still were mentioned each and every time something about his living situation was brought up. Overall it was a good read with a great group of characters featured throughout the novel.

      I would definitely recommend this book and any others written by Danny Wallace that you may come across!
    • 4/5
      A cute love story by Danny Wallace, whose writing I rather enjoy.
    • 3/5
      Can I just say how much fun it is to be in Danny Wallace's head again? Even when he's pretending to be someone else, he's delightful.

      Wallace's protagonist is Jason Priestley. (No, not that one.) One day on Charlotte Street he sees a woman struggling with packages as she gets into a taxicab. A quick offer of help and Jason is smitten. At the end of the brief encounter, he finds he has accidentally kept one of her things, a disposable camera.

      The plot of Charlotte Street is remarkably like his non-fiction. Jason's 'stupid boy project' involves trying to track this girl down using the very pictures he wants to return to her. Wallace walks a fine line with his plot, but he's good enough to hang a lantern on the fact that Jason's behaviour is vaguely invasive. The characters use the term "stalking", but unlike most stalkers Jason doesn't imagine a relationship with the girl that doesn't exist. He's aware of the questionability of his behaviour and knows perfectly well he may find this girl only to be told to bugger off.

      The title of the book indicates that Wallace intended Charlotte Street to be a definitive part of the story, but as someone whose never been to Charlotte Street (and has only occasionally been to London) I was left with the feeling that I was missing something.

      I admit to a vague disappointment while reading this volume that the events inside it never happened, but I realize how ridiculous a demand that is. Join Me and Yes Man were delightful "stupid boy projects", but if he were to keep up such activities, it would mean he would have less time to write.

      Therefore, I can only look forward to his next piece of fiction.

      This review also appears at Boxes of Paper
    • 3/5
      Jason Priestley is feeling kind of pathetic. He's living over a video game shop, next to that place that everyone thought was a brothel but wasn't. In between writing snarky reviews for the free paper they hand out on the train in London, he keeps busy watching his ex's dream life unfold via Facebook while he...eats soup. By all accounts, Jason is trapped in a horrible rut, waiting for his real life to start while he drinks bizarre Polish alcoholic beverages with his best friend and roommate Dev, who keeps his customer-free retro video game business afloat with the profits from his father's Brick Lane restaurants. Things are going along more or less miserably when Jason has a run-in with a girl, because there's always a girl. He helps her get into a taxicab with an inordinate amount of stuff, and is left with the memory of her smile, the lingering sense that he should have asked her out for a drink, and one disposable camera. When Dev convinces Jason that they have to develop the photos, Jason's suddenly hurtling down a rabbit hole toward laughable lunacy and self-discovery as he sets out to find the girl in the pictures and the hope she left behind. I didn't like Charlotte Street as much as I'd hoped. I was hoping for a laugh-out-loud funny, twisted love story. What I got was the tale of an irritatingly immature guy who through a series of mostly unrelated events matures to the point of being tolerable but not for any reason that is readily apparent. While bumbling one's way to self-actualization might be the way it happens, I didn't find that it made for an especially compelling story. While Charlotte Street was amusing, I didn't find myself laughing so much as being almost squirmingly uncomfortable with all the awkward scrapes Jason stumbles into. I struggle with the kind of humor that relies on your relating to a character having crushingly embarrassing, shamefully awkward moments. Even on TV, when other people are laughing, I find myself inwardly cringing. This books is full to the brim with those sorts of sitcom scenarios that I find uncomfortable rather than hilarious, which is, I'm sure, more a problem with this reader than with the book itself. Humor is one of those things that is so subjective that it's hard to please everyone, and I'm sure the humor found in Charlotte Street has the potential to appeal to a large audience, that maybe doesn't so much include me.I loved the premise. I loved the beginning of the story where he has the hope of meeting the girl. I even continued chuckling at some of the humor devices Wallace kept falling back on throughout the length of the book, like how Jason is not that Jason Priestley, and the apartment being next to the not-brothel. I even liked the ending and how it seemed oddly more feasible than much of the meat of the book. Unfortunately, the middle meandered for so long that the story bogged itself down and left me longing to turn the last page for all the wrong reasons.
    • 4/5
      Charlotte Street is a British romantic comedy along the same lines as a Nick Hornby novel. Jason Priestly (not that Jason Priestly) has recently quit his job as a school teacher to become a journalist. He’s ended up writing reviews for a free paper that’s handed out at the train station – not exactly where he wants to be. If that’s not disappointing enough, he finds out through Facebook that his recently ex-girlfriend is engaged.One day, he sees a girl on the street struggling with her packages. Jason doesn’t notice until she’s riding away in a cab that she’s dropped her disposable camera. His friend Dev convinces him to go on a quest to find the mystery girl – she might be the girl of Jason’s dreams.Oh, how I love dry British wit. There’s no shortage of it in Charlotte Street. Jason’s friend Dev is the best. He is so clueless and funny without realizing it. A couple of the situations were a little too much on the side of screwball comedy, which I do not care for, but most of the book was just really funny. If this book were a movie, a young Hugh Grant would play Jason. The book has been optioned by Working Title Films but I couldn’t find any information on whether it will actually be made into a movie. I hope it is.I really enjoyed Danny Wallace’s sense of humor and plan to read more of his books.
    • 3/5
      Jason’s girlfriend leaves him and he is in a downward spiral until he meets another woman struggling with her packages. As he helps her and she takes off in a cab, he realizes he has her camera, but has no way of contacting her. He is obsessed in finding her and the undeveloped film may be the only clue to her identity. This sounds like a romantic comedy and has some funny parts, but after awhile I found Jason to be unlikeable, as with some of his friends. Good story and I enjoyed reading it, but just didn’t care if Jason ever found the girl of his dreams.
    • 4/5
      What a fun book! This was my first time reading anything by Danny Wallace, but I really enjoyed the witty voice of his protagonist, Jason. The premise of the book is basically that Jason's life is a mess. He's going through some tough times with his career and his personal life simultaneously, trying to get over an ex-girlfriend while transitioning into a new career. In the middle of all this, Jason, in an uncharacteristic move, helps a lady on Charlotte Street get into a cab and is left with her disposable camera in his hands. This starts Jason and his friends on a semi-stalkerish adventure to find the girl and return her photos to her.Jason's troubles are relatable - ever stressed over whether to delete an ex from your Facebook friends? - and he tells his story with wit and a well-crafted voice.
    • 2/5
      This book started out great and I was really into the humor and the story. Then about halfway through I became bogged down by the story and the humor was gone as well. The characters were intriguing at first as well, and then I found that I just did not care about any of them and I did not care if Jason ever found "the girl" I am disappointed as I thought this was going to be a fun, light read, but that is not the case.
    • 4/5
      I'm as much of a sucker as anyone else for a quick fun rom-com and this one fits the bill with the twist of our lead being male. Jason starts as a bit of get it togther buddy schmuck (but then don't most of our girl rom com leads begin there too) and grows a bit to reach his eventual ending (no I won't spoil it but you can probably guess). This is a funny enough (not the funniest rom com I've read) book that reads quickly enough and is engaging enough to make it worth picking up when you're in the mood for something light-reccomended.
    • 3/5
      A quote on the cover of Charlotte Street by Danny Wallace promises it "will have you laughing out loud and melt your heart, all at once." (Cosmopolitan U.K.) Unfortunately, I think this is another book where I just don't get the humor. This may in part be due to the timing of my reading it. No where in the description was it mentioned that Jason Priestley left teaching after a school shooting incident. Now, it was nothing like the Newtown, CT tragedy and no one died or was even seriously injured. However reading about a similar event in the first two pages of the book nearly caused me to put it down all together. I am glad that I kept reading though. While I didn't find the story humorous, I did enjoy it.Jason Priestley lives a sad life. His former girlfriend is now engaged and pregnant. He lives with his best friend Dev above a failing video game store. Even his freelance writing assignments are completed without real effort. Jason is one of those characters who drifts with no real direction. Life seems to happen to him and is always in reaction mode instead of trying to push forward and make things happen. Even the quest to find the girl who left the camera is Dev's idea and Jason just ends up along for the ride. I was happy to see Jason grow a bit throughout the book and at least by the end he seems to be pushing forward and making some decisions on his own.There were two things that I didn't care for with this book though. The first was that Jason addressed the reader directly. I didn't like this because I wanted to simply observe his story not be a part of it. The second was the way that pieces of the girl's blog were inserted between chapters. While this turns out to be extremely relevant to the story by the end, the first time it happened I was extremely confused because I had no context for this sudden section in italics that didn't seem to fit the rest of the story. I had no idea who was talking or where any of that came from. While this may have been intentional, I found it distracting from the main story. The second blog insertion made much more sense and from that point I could at least follow the thin story thread.Overall Charlotte Street was an enjoyable book although it was not exactly the lighthearted read I was looking for. I'm not sure what the male equivalent to "chick lit" is but I would place this book into that category.
    • 4/5
      Jason Priestly (no, not that one) is not doing well. He's depressed. He gave up his job as a teacher to become a journalist but his work writing snarky reviews for a free local newspaper is not very fulfilling. He's still obsessing over his ex-girlfriend but according to her cheery Facebook posts, she just got engaged to someone else. His life is so dull his own most recent Facebook status update is that he's eating soup. Nothing much is going right for him and he's indulging in a huge pity party. Until one day when he helps a beautiful girl getting into a cab with a load of packages. She smiles at him and rides out of his life. But he has her disposable camera which he inadvertantly forgot to hand back to her and after looking for her at various different times on Charlotte Street and not finding her, his roommate Dev convinces him that he should develop the pictures despite Jason's own concerns about the ethics of it all. After all, the pictures might contain clues to her identity and if she is the girl that fate has directed him to find, he should at least make the effort, right? So goes the premise of Danny Wallace's debut novel, Charlotte Street.Jason is wallowing in his own inability to find happiness. He's directionless and living a pitiable, disappointing sort of life until this missed connection with "The Girl" rejuvenates him, gives him a quest and a reason to get out of bed every day. But even as Jason starts to work through the pictures on the camera, searching for the girl, he must also continue to wade through his current life and find the strength to face the truths about himself and his past that are holding him back. He's not just on a quest to find the girl, he needs to find himself. Although narrated by Jason with an occasional sprinkling of ambiguous blog posts from The Girl, there's a growing ensemble cast here with characters joining the story and becoming integral to the search for the girl. Flatmate Dev is the catalyst for developing the pictures but his quiet tolerance of Jason's gloomy gussing ebbing drives him to push Jason onward in the search. His new friend, Abbey, who helps him discover a hot new band; his old friend, Zoe, who continues to give him work; his ex; and a volatile former student named Matt all help him in his search, recognizing a restaurant, a watch, a destination in London, and help him look into his own heart and grow as he gets closer to the elusive girl meant to be. But it's not smooth sailing solving the mystery of her identity. Jason, because he is Jason, bollockses things up quite a bit, drunk Facebooking his ex, alienating Dev, and just generally being an immature git among other things. But just as in real life, these are speed bumps in the path of striving for maturity and on the way to contentment and the way that Jason handles them shows the ways in which he is changing.The novel's premise is incredibly intriguing and Wallace has done a nice job with it. Jason isn't always the most appealing character and there are times the reader wonders if he deserves to find "The Girl." He is a self-absorbed, pain in the ass whiner a lot of the time but there's something about the idea of fate and his slow growth away from that pitiful, oblivious self-centeredness that keeps the reader in there with him. There are a ridiculous amount of coincidences, especially in the search, that might stretch credulity but serve to show just how connected we all are in this age of rampant social media. There are moments of good humor and the pathos of what-ifs. It's interesting to read a romantic comedy from a guy's perspective and this Hollywood-ready novel delivers not only that but a riff on connection and the importance of it in all of our lives. The ending is a bit rushed but overall, it's a fun and engrossing read.
    • 4/5
      Jason Priestly is depressed. With a failed relationship, a bumbling career, and a generally directionless life, Jason is a man ready for something to believe in. So when Jason has a fleeting encounter with a nameless young woman, she becomes the unwitting object of Jason’s quest to rediscover hope. With only a packet of photographs to help him find her, he determines to find her, hoping she might be the love of his life. Charlotte Street is a slyly sweet and humorous story with undercurrents of genuine angst. Wallace explores what it means to face life’s disappointments and uncertainties. Chock full of likeable offbeat characters, and a palpable London setting, the story has a modern timelessness to it. Charlotte Street is not a romance per se. It is more like the hard but rewarding journey of self-discovery. Completely absorbed in his own problems, Jason is challenged to learn afresh what love and friendship are all about.At times the story gets a bit slow with confusing narrative and dialogue that interrupt the story’s flow, or by boggy side plots. Overall this is a book I’d recommend to someone looking for something light and funny but with glimmers of substance.
    • 4/5
      I had a hard time getting invested in this book. There was enough in there to keep me interested, but the two main characters were not all that likable. Jason, was a directionless man who spiraled downward and just didn't seem to have any ambition. I found that frustrating. But that is something that frustrates me in real life, so my dislike for him may actually be a reflection of how well the author portrayed this character. Suffice it to say, I was unable to walk away from this book and finished to the end, although at times I did want to disengage with the characters. There are some great lines, and the ending is pure hollywood, made getting to know the main character, and all his flaws worthwhile.
    • 5/5
      I got this book from the early reviewers program at Library Thing. What a great book! It has all the great things I love about books. A great, engaging story you can't put down. Set somewhere else besides HERE. And, it's funny. Remember the movie "Yes Man" with Jim Carey? Well, that was originally a book, and written by this same author. If you thought that movie was funny - hello? Who didn't? - you will also love this book. I laughed out loud a couple of times, and couldn't wait to see what would happen next! Read it! You'll love it.
    • 4/5
      Jason Priestley is an unhappy thirty something year old freelance writer/editor, sometime video game shop clerk, and former teacher who gets by with a little help from his friends as he tries to deal with the painful memories of his ex-girlfriend. Unfortunately, social media is there to make the forgetting all the more difficult as she begins her new life with her fiance and documents it online for Jason to see. Amidst working on being a mature grown-up he embarks on a journey to track down a girl he helps get into a cab and manages to wind up with her disposable camera that tells us her story.The novel has a slow, confusing start, picks up in the middle, and then slows down again at the end just like a roller coaster. 400 or so pages in length it almost starts to drag and veer off into the precious but manages to inject enough humor to keep most readers interested in reading to the end.
    • 5/5
      Jason is a freelance writer and reviewer for a "complimentary" magazine that Londoners may glance through on the tube on the way to work. Recently broken up from his ex-girlfriend, Jason is heartbroken to read her chirpy, updated Facebook posts about how well her life is going, as his seems to be going nowhere. Wallowing in his sorrow while reflecting on the sad state of his life, he offers his assistance to a beautiful girl who is dropping packages while trying to get into a cab. In the confusion, Jason is left with her disposable camera and wondering if she was "The Girl" he was supposed to meet in his life. He sets off to try to find her to return her pictures (his friend and flatmate, Dev insisted he develop them) and begins his life as a part-detective/part-stalker in search of his romantic destiny. With supportive chums along the way, an ex-girlfriend whose friends now hate him, and a new career as the step-in editor of the reviews column, Jason has a new-found lease on life. That is, until things start to fall apart...I really enjoyed this charming and heartwarming tale of a guy who just wants to have a "story" to tell his future kids and grandkids. All of the characters were well-developed and I would love to revisit them in a future story. There were moments in this book where I was openly laughing and my family implored me to tell them why. I loved the English setting, the integration of Facebook and social media, and Jason's ability to openly reflect on how pathetic his life had become. I can't wait to read another novel by this author!
    • 3/5
      I received this book as an Early Reviewer. This was a light, fun story about Jason Priestley (no, not THAT Jason Priestley) and finding The Girl- the one he ran into on the street and accidentally ended up with her disposable camera. It's also about his best friend, his ex-girlfriend, her new life, and finding his dreams, while accidentally inspiring others to find theirs along the way. Easy to read and a fun adventure. My one complaint is the annoying cliff hangers. The end of way too many of chapters should have been accompanied by an audio "dum, dum dummmm!" and it got old. Especially when the the conclusion was buried in the middle of the next chapter. That aside, it was nice to read a 30-something love/growing up story from a male perspective and David Wallace is an author I will look for again.
    • 5/5
      great storytelling , a bookn you can really escape in. magic