The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-Year-Old Man
David von Drehle
One of our nation’s most prominent writers finds the truth about how to live a long and happy life in the centenarian next door. When a veteran Washington journalist moved to Kansas, he met a new neighbor who was more than a century old. Little did he know that he was beginning a long friendship—and a profound lesson in the meaning of life. more
194 pages, Hardcover
First published Simon & Schuster
4.02
Rating
6405
Ratings
830
Reviews
David von Drehle
20 books 158 followers
David von Drehle is the author of three previous books, including the award-winning Triangle, a history of the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire that The New York Times called "social history at its best." An editor-at-large at Time magazine, he and his family live in Kansas City, Missouri.http://us.macmillan.com/author/davidv...
Community reviews
An intriguing look into the life of a centenarian. Told from the perspective of the Author (who was the neighbor), we get a glimpse into the life of a man whose lived through events that made history around the world. We also get to learn about his adventures, his treasures, his tragedies and his heartache. Filled with factual information about historical events along the way, I’d have to say about half the book is comprised of Charlie’s story, but interspersed between all the nuggets of events and people in Charlie’s time on earth. It is an amazing story that fosters resiliency, determination and bravery. more
[M]y neighbor was, in the sunshine of an August Sunday morning, washing his girlfriend’s car. I couldn’t help but note that the vehicle in question was parked in the same spot where she had left it the night before …. [He] was bare-chested, dressed only in a pair of old swim trunks. With a garden hose in one hand and a soapy sponge in the other, he flexed his muscular chest with each splash and swirl, while his wavy hair flopped rakishly over one eye. This was Charlie White. more
I wanted to like this book more. It’s about a doctor who lived to he 109. He began practicing medicine before penicillin was used, before there were highways stretching across the US, prior to computers and TVs. He lived an amazing and amazingly long life. Yet we hear Charlie’s life through the lens of the author, who is rather heavy handed in creating “lessons learned” and “ways to live” based on his perceptions of what Charlie experienced. more
*3-3. 5 stars. Dr Charlie White lived a remarkably long life (109 years) and accomplished many things, especially in the medical field. The author, David von Drehle, was his neighbor in later years and heard many of Charlie's stories, which he has compiled in this short biography. Von Drehle likes to think Charlie was a Stoic, a person who can endure pain or hardship without showing their feelings or complaining, because Charlie was able to keep an optimistic outlook on life no matter what befell him. more
Truly a book of inspiration, written about a man that reached the age of 109 and enjoyed a very full life. In his lifetime he worked hard, he spread joy, he took chances and enjoyed wonders. A must read. . more
When the author moved to a Kansas City suburb in 2007 he met his new neighbor who lived across the street from his house named Charlie White who was 102 years old. Beginning is 2007 until 2014 when White died on his 109th birthday, the author had numerous informal conversations with him. Later the author decided the stories he heard from Charlie White deserved to be compiled into this book which was published in 2023. About halfway through the book at a point where Charlie is beginning his career as a medical doctor, the author summarizes Charlie's life adventures up to that point with the following words: He had been on his own a long time. When he darted from a train and walked the last miles home from a pedophile's summer camp as an eight-year-old. more
No rating for a book that gets many stars for the majority of readers. It's just not for me. I'm not at all embedded in the writing style after 20% read- and am truly tired of the lectures. Charlie is interesting and worth a read. But much more so for those who were never there. more
The Book of Charlie was intermittently a story about an interesting and engaging character who lived a very long life and the author’s desire to write a history book - it could have been more Charlie and less history. Charlie lived his life governed by the basic principles that most of us try to follow - his greatest strength was his ultimate resiliency and ‘can do’ attitude in all things. He lived some remarkable stories. A life of over a hundred years spans so much change, innovation, conflict, and advancements - but the author’s segues into history lessons detracted from Charlie’s story and left major gaps in his life - perhaps there weren’t stories of interest over all those missed years. This was a book group choice and left us all feeling that the story could have been much more. more
The guy’s life is incredible, but this book isn’t. Ends up being a slog through basic history of the 20th century. more
I received a copy of "the Book of Charlie" from NetGalley. David Von Drehle. writes of his neighbor, Charlie White. When he moved into his neighborhood Charlie White was one of his neighbors. He found out that Charlie was 102 years old. more
The Book of Charlie is a loving and lovely tribute to the life of Charles White who lived to be 109 years old by embracing everything that life had to offer and understanding the wisdom of living in the present while firmly facing forward. I highly recommend it to all readers. I received an early drc from the publisher via Netgalley. more
David’s study of Charlie White’s life focuses on how a man makes it to such an age with all his faculties and physical capacities still in place. In Charlie’s case, many of the anecdotes over his life span focus on his lens of seeing life’s challenges through a lens of comedy, joy and/or daring. Not only does the reader receive a beautifully told life story, Von Drehle, being a true reporter, gives one interesting facts about each time period of Charlie’s life, from the miraculous introduction of Ford’s Model T to radio to modern medicine. more
chapter 10The best part of this book was chapter 10 because the words were Charlie’s. I would have liked more of his philosophy. more
Let me start out by saying I started this audio book on June 5th 2 days be for I had major surgery (right knee replacement) I developed some severe after effects and suspended all listening and/ or reading. I was finally able to pick this back up, with skimming over what was already read and then to completion of this book within the past 3 days. This is a really remarkable story number one because our MC started telling his life story to his neighbor at age 106 (he died at 109. It’s remarkable to hear about life, family raising, jobs, and antidotes through the year. I enjoyed listening to the author who lived next door to Charlie reading his own book. more
I have a rule that I'll give any book at least 50 pages before putting it down. I have a second rule to avoid any book with the slightest whiff of the saccharine. Unfortunately, I only kept to the former and not the latter with this book. I take full responsibility: The Book of Charlie and its author were featured on CBS Sunday Morning, a show that routinely has stories aimed at old people looking for a boom to read at their doctor's office. But the story was done in a clever way so as to make it seem like the book would be bit more substantial than the usual entry in the "treachly sub-200 page reflections on a life" book. more
I enjoyed hearing Charlie White's life story but didn't care for the overly glowing narration and the author's heavy-handed attempts at teaching us (his selective version of) 100 years of American history and stoicism. Many readers (myself included) had parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents (or older people in our lives who we talked to and learned from before they passed away) who were born around Charlie's birth year of 1905, so we already have a historical context for life back then. It annoyed me how the author kept shoehorning famous people into Charlie's narrative that Charlie never met (i. e. , Walt Disney, Ernest Hemingway). more
Absolutely adored this meandering tale of Dr Charlie White who was from my home town. It’s absolutely charming and I loved hearing of my town throughout the decades. It was fun to read about the places o knew about before and after their current development . more
As compact and efficient as a biography of a normal person you only knew in the last few years of life can get, the writer does a great job of looking at an exceptional human who lived through the 20th century and did some things and learned from them. A fabulous example of the genre. more
5-What an interesting, thoughtful biography. David von Drehle has written a concise, meaningful profile of his neighbor, Dr. Charles White (Charlie), who was born at the beginning of the 20th century and died in the 21st at the remarkable age of 109 years. During his life as the world completely transformed, Charlie rose above childhood trauma, maintained his equilibrium, remained resilient, and sustained intellectual acuity until the very end of his life. He began practicing medicine when few tools or knowledge for healing existed but learned and grew with rapid scientific advances as his profession was profoundly revolutionized during his exceptionally long career. more
It’s a solid 3. 5 stars. It’s a quick read at just under 200 pages. I enjoyed most of it but the author dwelled too much on Charlie’s father at the beginning & on historical happenings throughout Charlie’s life that I felt had no bearing on his longevity. But what a character Charlie was. more
Although I loved the stories of Charlie’s life and his amazing longevity, I felt the author to be a tad repetitive and preachy about stoicism. There is much to reflect on in this book, especially the need to move forward and not dwell on the past and always be standing on tiptoe peeking into the future. One kernel important for me —you are responsible for yourself and you cannot control others behavior, so don’t spend time on that negativity. Move on. . more
This book was a pleasure to read. I think we all have people in our lives that remind us a little of Charlie. The book reminded me to embrace change and worry less. I especially love that it’s a local story – viewing Kansas City’s expansion over a century through Charlie’s eyes was great, and I learned some new things about our history. more
A wonderful book about a life well lived. Charlie’s main quality was his ability to let life come to him. It was also very different to see the history in the 108 years of his life interlocking with the overall history of the large events of the world. I recommend highly. . more
The most delightful, insightful and wonderfully colorful read. The Book of Charlie is not only an inspiring book but the writing of it must have been a labor of love. An amazing human being, Dr. Charlie White, who lived to the age of 109, a century of living. And what a journey Charlie had in his 109 years. more
Phenomenal storytelling of an amazing man’s life. Thought provoking and heartfelt. We need to stop and find the “Charlie” in our lives. . more
Mining the human story for treasured nuggets of insight, perspective, wisdom, and truth telling, Von Drehle is the neighbor who recognizes a man with enough stories to more than fill a book. From childhood through age 109, this story is history in it's most pleasant form, a leisurely flowing with changing times, family, friends, career, and leisure. Some parts are less captivating, mundane even, but such is real life. The observation of the uphill complexities of life-building followed by the progressive downhill journey of simplification of life, in a well and long-lived life is remarkably related in this book. Well worth reading at any age. more
Excellent. Life stories from a man who lived to 109 years old. more
The author unfortunately chose to co-opt Charlie as his personal ventriloquist puppet. Charlie's long and interesting life's story plays second fiddle to the stoic philosophical interpretative inclinations of the author. As a result the reader gets more wisdom nuggets from Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius and Seneca than from the actual centenarian himself. more
I feel kind of duped by this one. I tend to like books by people who have done something extraordinary and written about what they learned/skills they developed/etc. , but this one was a miss. For one, the subtitle is rather bombastic. There’s nothing that struck me as uniquely “American” about Charlie’s life, and although I’m hesitant to dunk on some dead guy, his life doesn’t strike me as being all that “remarkable” other than his having lived so long. more
Charlie White was an ordinary man. He was not a celebrity. He was not fabulously wealthy. He achieved no fame. But he lived an extraordinary life—so extraordinary that his neighbor wrote a book about him. more