Charlie Two Shoes and the Marines of Love Company

A fascinating and inspirational account of Tsui Chi Hsii's (Charlie Two Shoe's) long-suffering odyssey to come to the United States with his family. It turns out to be a lot more complicated story than you might expect and has the potential for being a Hell of a movie, with lots of opportunities for scenery chewing, but that probably won't happen. In fact there probably won't even be any paperback updating of the still unfinished story at time of publication because one of the coauthors, Michael Peterson, is now a convicted murderer whose other books are long out of print. Life is truly stranger than fiction.

My boyfriend bought me this book for Christmas, and I was thrilled. Not only am I a social studies teacher and a history buff, but I am priviledged enough to know Charlie Two Shoes. He owns a business in the town where I live and is always there with a smile and a friendly word. He autographed my book with the inscription "May God bless you and yours with health and joy." When I went by today to thank him for the inscription, he told me that there is a lot of history in this book that is not often told. While I have not yet finished the book, I have enjoyed what I have read so far. No matter what crimes have been committed by one of the authors, you should take the time to buy this book and read the interesting true life story of a truly wonderful man.

Charlie Two Shoes is a fascinating story of one man's friendship with a group of US Marines and his incredible perseverence in getting re-united with them. Peterson and Perlmutt tell the story through Charlie's eyes and those of his Marine pals. They give us an intriguing look at life behind the Bamboo Curtain. More amazing than Charlie's budding friendship -- he was around the Marines for about four years as a teenager -- is his enduring perseverance in keeping his dream of a reunion alive. The dream survived decades, including years in a Chinese prison and more under house arrest in his small village. After all that, his eventual reunion in the U.S. had drama of its own. One Marine buddy turned out to be more interested in his own fortunes than Charlie's,and Charlie's efforts to stay got mired as much in domestic politics as international. A good read by gifted writers.

Charlie Two Shoes and the Marines of Love Company is not only an inspiring story about friendships and loyalty, but also an excellent retelling of some little known American history. Set in Northern China starting at the end of World War II and continuing to recent times, the reader will learn about the atrocities visited upon the Chinese peasantry by the Japanese, the communist take over of China and America's futile efforts to stop it, the severe poverty and starvation the Chinese people endured, and the political repression and corruption that continued for years. Into the shadows of these desolate and hopeless conditions, the warmth and charity that the American Marines and missionaries brought with them to China and to a young boy, nick-named Charlie, shine brightly. The reader is invited on a journey through Charlie's life of joys and travails, but is pulled aside by the authors from time to time for some excellent and concise description of the historical context. Thus this true tale of friendship and suffering also enables the reader to also learn the larger story of the historical events which ultimately were its cause.