In the real world, Florida crime boss Charlie Wall was murdered in 1955; the crime was never solved. But in Paul Wilborn's THE EVERLASTING LIFE OF CHARLIE WALL, he lives on for thirty more years. Now living in quiet obscurity, he hires 30-year-old drug dealer Trip as his driver and bodyguard. The growing friendship between the two leads to intertwined stories of lost loves and lives set right. As their story proceeds, a figure in the shadows takes aim at Charlie once again.
The novel initially follows two narrative threads: the "present day of 1985," in which Trip looks after Charlie while pursuing a relationship, and Charlie's own history written down in book form by Trip. The stories often mirror each other. As Charlie's first love Ava appears and disappears from his life, Trip courts a poet who has sworn off men but is more than happy to help him find his voice as a writer (provided he gets clean). Trip takes down Charlie's story, injecting new life into the mobster's golden years by falsifying a bit of life-threatening excitement. Soon, more players join the fray. The hit man who tried to kill him 30 years ago has broken out of his retirement home, eager for one more shot at Charlie. And Angie, the woman currently courting said hitman, recruits a wannabe detective to stop the delayed hit from going down.
Little character elements, like Charlie Wall refusing to curse and coming up with inventive (almost grandfatherly) non-curses, bring a surprising humanity to a character who spent much of his life (both real and fictional) as a career criminal. He's oddly likable, and perhaps in this 30-year fictional safety net it's all right for him to be likable. His on-and-off romance with Ava—a good Catholic girl who won't divorce to return to her one true love—brings a softness to a character who could easily have just been a womanizer.
Trip's own story is profound, too. While his self-appointed job as Charlie's chronicler is what gives the book its backbone, it also serves as an escape from his life of dealing and taking drugs. Much like Charlie, Trip isn't a flat "good guy" or "bad guy." He contains multitudes, he has opportunities to become something better, and he starts much earlier in life than Charlie Wall did. In this way, the faux-historical elements become less the point of the story (despite Charlie Wall being the title character) and more a backdrop against which Trip can explore his own potential future and make a better, more meaningful life for himself.
Knowledge of the real-world Charlie Wall is not required to appreciate THE EVERLASTING LIFE OF CHARLIE WALL. However, readers familiar with the Tampa mobster's history will certainly enjoy this hypothetical alternative to his real-world unsolved murder. The novel, especially Trip's storyline, carries shades of Johnny Truant's story in House of Leaves: a young man's life is heading into a downward spiral, his story intertwined with and oddly mirroring that of an older man. The story also brings 20th century Tampa (the good and the bad) to vivid life, and clearly from the perspective of someone who loves it. Everything—the beer-and-a-bump bars, the "bolita" lottery, the open mic poetry nights, the elders' beloved café con leche—is presented familiarly. This is a fantastically rendered piece of historical fiction.
Paul Wilborn's THE EVERLASTING LIFE OF CHARLIE WALL is a surprising and brilliant "what if." This love letter to1980s Tampa examines what it means to set one's life right after living on the wrong side of the law.
~Kara Dennison for IndieReader