30 May 2015

Review #231: Whiskey and Charlie by Annabel Smith



My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Mum used to say we were the same soul split in two and walking around on four legs. It seems unnatural being born together and then dying apart.”

----Melodie Ramone



Annabel Smith, an English writer, has penned a terrific novel, Whiskey and Charlie , that traces the life story of two identical twin brothers who were initially close and were thick as thieves, but gradually as they grew up, their strong bond of brotherhood tore apart until the day came when they couldn't stand each other. Initially published as Whisky, Charlie, Foxtrot in Australia, the book has gone into re-print with a new title but with the same charm.




Synopsis:

Whiskey & Charlie is a captivating debut novel of brothers who have drifted apart and the accident that will determine their future, by an unforgettable new voice exploring the struggles and strengths of the sibling bond.

Some twins communicate in a secret language all their own. For Whiskey and Charlie Ferns, the two-way alphabet (alpha, bravo, charlie, delta) whispered back and forth over their crackly walkie-talkies is the best they can do. But as the brothers grow up, they grow apart. Whiskey is everything Charlie is not-bold, daring, carefree-and Charlie blames his brother for always stealing the limelight, always striving ahead while seeming to push Charlie back. By the time the twins reach adulthood, they are barely even speaking to each other.

When Charlie hears that Whiskey has been in a terrible accident and has slipped into a coma, he is shocked...although perhaps not devastated. But as days and weeks slip by and the chances of Whiskey recovering grow ever more slim, Charlie is forced to look back on their lives and examine whether or not Whiskey's actions were truly as unforgivable as Charlie believed them to be.



This is Charlie and Whiskey's story- the two identical twins who grew up in Australia. Charlie and Whiskey had a good childhood, but time and Whiskey's ever-growing popularity with girls and peers made Charlie a lost soul. And the moment he went into adulthood, the animosity being so strong between him and Whiskey, that they almost stopped communicating, owing to Whiskey's popularity in the advertisement sector. When Charlie and Whiskey were little kids, they used to play with walkie-talkies that their aunt bought for them. They used to talk in code language that only they both could understand. But when Whiskey met into an accident and was lured into a coma, Charlie had to re-think about his opinion about Whiskey that whether is it too late to forgive him. Read this beautiful moving and heart-breaking story of Charlie and Whiskey, and watch yourself going into a deep coma of love and affection for your sibling.

The author's prose flow like a lyrics that is tuned into a beautiful song. The writing is absolutely flawless and evocative. The narrative style is layered with emotions and depth. From the very first chapter itself, the author's eloquent words captivated me till the very end. The story itself is a very stirring and tear-jerking one that shows us a man's journey onto the road to forgiving his own brother, which was clearly not an easy path.

The story unfolds wonderfully. Charlie's POV helps us to contemplate with his holding-back attitude towards his brother and each chapter reflects his life-story with Whiskey, his mother, aunt, half-brother, Mike and his girlfriend, Juliet. That is yet another story which unravels in the background of Charlie and Whiskey's story. Juliet is a huge part of Charlie's life and they were in a live-in relationship, but Charlie's parents' divorce puts him on a hold about the idea of marriage with Juliet. But their inevitable chemistry keeps Charlie moving forward and became what he was today. Whiskey's wife, Rosa plays a greater role in Charlie's life which manages to lessen the gap between the brothers' estranged relationship.

All the characters in the book are strongly and well-developed layered with deep emotions, depth and compassion, thus their demeanor left an impressionistic mark upon my mind. Charlie's inferiority complex attitude annoyed me a lot, but as his memories went deeper into his childhood, I began to see why he hated his brother this much. Although, there is no POV of Whiskey so we exactly couldn't figure out whether he did those things to Charlie intentionally or out-of-fun. Charlie's hatred clouded his mentality of forgiving his brother finally in his death bed, but the supporting characters helped him to clear his judgements and let him see past through the indifferences.

The main theme of the book is redemption and forgiveness which the author have strikingly invested in her storyline which only brought out pain and grief in my heart.

Verdict: A must-read for everyone if you have a sibling or rather say, a twin. This book grows a new kind of love and respect for our siblings, because no matter what, blood is indeed thicker than water.

Courtesy: Thanks to the author, Annabel Smith, for providing me with a copy of book, in return for an honest review.
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Author Info:
Annabel Smith is the author of Whisky Charlie Foxtrot, and A New Map of the Universe, which was shortlisted for the WA Premier’s Book Awards.

She has been writer-in-residence at Katherine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre and the Fellowship of Australian Writers (WA), had short fiction and commentary published in Westerly and Southerly and holds a PhD in Writing from Edith Cowan University.

In 2012 she was selected by the Australia Council as one of 5 inaugural recipients of a Creative Australia Fellowship for Emerging Artists, for the creation of an interactive app to accompany her experimental speculative fiction The Ark, to be published in 2014. She is currently working on an epic quest with a sci-fi twist featuring a monkey, an evil priestess and the mother of all tsunamis

Visit her here


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5 comments:

  1. Great review! I think it's such a shame when two brothers who are very close drift apart, and it seems like they both go around living life in very different ways, which would make this enjoyable :)

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  2. Thanks for stopping by Olivia! :-) And thanks a lot!

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  3. Thanks for a lovely review Aditi, I'm so pleased you liked it.

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  4. Thanks a lot, I'm glad that you liked my review and it was pleasure to review your book! :-)

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