-
Tod Benjamin
a book bubble about
Charles and Charlie
Literature & Fiction
Author Insight
He would not be defeated.
He would not be defeated. This was a constant in the character of the devoted Catholic engineer, Charles Stoker. Strength of character and moral uprightness drove the decisions of his life, and guided him through his years of struggle from the first World War to the Great Depression. The Stoker Trilogy recalls the world-changing events of the first half of the twentieth century as lived through by the Stoker family, Charles and Millie, and their son, Charlie. Charles and Charlie was conceived as Book One of the trilogy. The book tells how the son, after his father's shocking death, learns the secrets of Charles' heroism in the 1914-1918 war. Then, as he himself reaches manhood, the boy is forced to face a life-changing moment of his own. He must make a decision that creates a huge moral conflict for him. Facing the consequences of his decision brings Charlie to a new life, and the reader to the climax of the book. The conflict between what Charlie thinks is right and good and the inherent beliefs and strictures of his religious upbringing is a recurring sub-theme of the three book saga, which follows the lives, triumphs and disasters of the Stokers and all those associated with them through to the end of World War 2.
Book Excerpt
Charles and Charlie
There was something else that Stephen Collick had said, what was it? Millie cast her mind back to the scene. Ah, yes, something or other…offer to compensate for the pain and sadness his family had unwittingly initiated twelve years earlier. That was it. His family had initiated… Had Charles not been open with her? Had his enlistment been triggered by something other than patriotism? Had he been involved in some secret hanky-panky that he had not trusted her enough to confide? Were there things she been blind to all these years?
His medals…they had never really spoken about them, had they? He had said they were what everyone in the RFC received, and they had just lain in that box. He never looked at them and she had never thought to. His sickness and his care were all that she had ever concerned herself with. When people called him a hero, she assumed it was because he flew aeroplanes and because he lost a leg. How blinkered had she been all these years?
She drew a deep breath. Well, what did any of it matter now? Charles was dead. After all those years of misery and pain, he would feel pain no more, thanks be to the Lord.
She sat quietly for a few minutes, then the resentment hidden within her welled up once more and tears ran down her cheeks.
“But I do!” she screamed to the empty room.
Amazon
Barnes&Noble
Click Follow to receive emails when this author adds content on Bublish
Comment on this Bubble
Your comment and a link to this bubble will also appear in your Facebook feed.