Sunnyside

A novel of the early twentieth century combines historical characters, anchored by Charlie Chaplin, with a raft of whacky fictional ones. Robertson Dean is an excellent narrator with a range of vocal tools and capabilities. However, his sporadic attempts at voicing do little to serve this story. For example, when Charlie Chaplin does an impromptu monologue as Comrade Leon Trotsky, much of the poignancy of the piece is lost due to the vague blend of accents employed. This kind of voicing is especially difficult when a character as well known as Chaplin is involved and the author has chosen to use his "voice" to create yet another great historical character. M.C. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

Starred review from March 30, 2009
From the bestselling author of Carter Beats the Devil
comes an elegant blend of reality and fiction, war drama and Hollywood glamour. Gold sets into motion his cameo-heavy, multipronged plot with a bizarre incident in winter 1916, when Charlie Chaplin is spotted simultaneously in 800 places across the country, causing mass hysteria and panic. The primary story line follows Chaplin's struggles with women, creativity, film budgets and his opposition to the war. In a second, intersecting world, Leland Wheeler moves from the hinterlands to San Francisco with dreams of being a film star. He rechristens himself Leland Duncan, and though he gets shipped to the battlefields of France, the two ailing puppies he finds over there later provide his entrée to the movie biz. Finally, Hugo Black is a Detroit gentleman who volunteers for the infantry in an uncharacteristic whim and finds himself fighting in America's secret invasion of Russia. The result is a dramatic narrative of chance and coincidence, and also a serious reconstruction of an evolving social landscape. It is wholly exhausting and entirely satisfying: to borrow an idea from Chaplin's great personal-artistic quest in the book, it's a work as good as Gold.