Shadow and Substance: My Time with Charlie Chaplin (A Novel)

Hollywood - today and during the 1920’s - is the setting for this intriguing tale of an unknown writer and a world-famous film artist. Cooper Thiery is hired to write a revealing documentary about Charlie Chaplin, whom he has studied and idolizes. The assignment quickly becomes a conflict of loyalties. Cooper must decide what matters most: Charlie’s films, or his personal life. Enter Charlie, more than twenty years after his death, now confronting a man whose job it is to discredit the legend. Together, Charlie and Cooper explore today’s and yesterday’s LA, from the Brown Derby and Musso & Frank Grill, to Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Along the way familiar figures emerge, including Fatty Arbuckle, William Randolph Hearst, and Doug Fairbanks. With a fondness for Chaplin and a knowledge of his times, Gerry Mandel has brought two worlds together in a compelling story. About the author: Gerry Mandel is an award-winning writer whose stories have appeared in various literary journals, and plays produced by area theater companies. A documentary he wrote and directed in 2007, The Journeys We Must Take, won international recognition. An avid collector of all things Chaplin, Gerry has taught classes on Chaplin’s life and films at Washington U. and Webster U. in St. Louis, guest lectured for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s presentation of City Lights, and co-produced the Chaplin Film Festival in St. Louis. He lives with his wife, Mary Lee, and two Golden Retrievers, in St. Louis, MO. This is his first novel.