Charlie Barnes has had four wives, four children and numerous jobs and occupations. His youngest child, Jake, a fairly well-known author, is writing a biography of Charlie including the good, the bad and the ugly. The opening scene of A Calling for Charlie Barnes describes Charlie waiting for a phone call that will tell him whether or not he has pancreatic cancer.

If you enjoy dark humor(I never laughed out loud but I smiled a lot) and scenes that will pull the rug out from under you, I recommend A Calling for Charlie Barnes. However, if you prefer a work with a chronological plot, sympathetic characters and a reliable narrator, don’t read this novel.