What You Don’t Know About Charlie Outlaw by Leah Stewart

G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 336 pages, $26

“What You Don’t Know About Charlie Outlaw” is a book about a crime, a kidnapping of a celebrity. There is a cold-blooded murder and a thrilling rescue from the side of a cliff. There is abandonment, cruelty, abasement, knife-work, and arguing, loud arguing. But it is not truly suspenseful. My bet is that that was never Leah Stewart’s aim. Instead, there is reassurance. There is even foreknowledge in some situations.

Charlie has a television show. He is the main character. One day, as is the wont of media, he is being interviewed. There is nothing unusual about the interview, except Charlie finds himself telling the truth. Suddenly his life changes. The people from his show are angry. His girlfriend, another actor, dumps him, because he has unintentionally disrespected her. Savaged by all, he decides that the best thing for him to do would be to turn off his phone, grab a flight to an obscure island where English is not the first language, and walk, alone, into the jungle. He loves his girlfriend, Josie, and would do anything to put matters to right. It will be better after his walk in the jungle, he hopes.

Back home Josie is regretting their breakup. When she was young she had a breakout hit television show. She played a tough girl who saved the world. (Think “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”) Twenty years down the road, nothing great has come along to challenge Josie. As a matter of fact, it is extremely difficult to land parts. Between missing Charlie and being discouraged about her failed auditions, she is having a tough time. And now, she thinks bitterly, Charlie won't even return her calls.

After Charlie is kidnapped by a bunch of islanders with very separate notions of what needs to happen, he gives them the name of his character instead of his real name. The result is no one knows Charlie is missing. Charlie’s life begins an existential journey without much choice on his part.

It sounds depressing, doesn’t it? However, “What You Don’t Know About Charlie Outlaw” is a sweet and gently comedic book. And an authentic-sounding insight into acting.

In a vignette Stewart describes Charlie’s first fan encounter in a deli:

Charlie ducked his head, abashed, and murmured another thank-you. In the twenty or thirty seconds of silence that followed, during which she went on adoring him with her eyes, he realized that they might stand here together in this small enclosed space for the next ten minutes, or even longer as those artisanal vegan breakfast sandwiches take a long time to produce. Now what? Where do you go next in an interaction that starts with a declaration of love?

Here’s a piece about Josie and her television character:

Josie plays three conditions crucial to that character especially well — uncertainty, intensity, determination. She is excellent at the kind of close-up in which the gaze firms, the jaw tightens. The moments when self-doubt and indecision give way to resolve are Josie’s forte. (She is also particularly good at longing and the struggle to repress it. She is good at the tug-of-war between emotion and control.)