Leading the Cheers - Softcover

Review

The impact a return to the past can have on the present is the theme of this delicately crafted novel by Whitbread winner and Booker nominee Justin Cartwright. Dan Silas, who has been living in his native England for the last 27 years returns to the American town where he grew up for his high school reunion. The place resonates with poignant reminders of his teenage years, not least his deeply cherished memories of Gloria, his childhood sweetheart. But a journey back cannot fail to disrupt one's perceptions of one's past, and Dan discovers that not only are his memories of his relationship with Gloria a false recording of reality but that she gave birth to their daughter soon after he left America. That daughter, of whom he never knew, is now dead, killed by a serial killer a few years previously. Furthermore, his oldest friend Gary has suffered a breakdown and now believes himself to be the brother of a dead Indian chief. Dan tries to resolve his sense of helplessness in the face of a present and a past that no longer make sense by visiting his daughter's killer in prison and by retrieving some "stolen" Indian artefacts from a museum for Gary. Cartwright explores well the dislocation Dan experiences as a consequence of this sudden radical corruption of his life and the way his necessary readjustment throws his present life into sharper focus. At times the novel suffers from a sugary American pathos that is a little cloying, and some incidents, Gary's illness for example, are treated with frustrating simplicity. Despite this, the novel is a haunting examination of the fragile relationship between experience and identity. --Perry Chaser

Review

"A meditation on time, memory, friendship and
identity. It overturns the clichéd perception of America and
gives a new depth to something which is often treated
sensationally. Cartwright has a real talent for getting to the heart
of different cultures and how we live now."
The judges of the Whitbread Prize for Best Novel

'Such a complex and rewarding novel is only what you would expect from such a talented and original writer'
Evening Standard

'A vividly exceptional performance, both for the poetry of its descriptions and the largeness of its themes. It is an off-kilter study of America, from Jefferson to serial killers, and a meditation on the way people cope with death and the lack of meaning in life'
Sunday Times

'A book which is itself individual; eloquent, tender, as well as sharply observant and funny'
Sunday Telegraph

'Excellent . . . sharply written episodes abound'
Mail on Sunday

'In Cartwright's skilful hands the ordinariness of circumstances is always juxtaposed with something so extraordinary that no doubt is left as to why his story has to be told'
Daily Telegraph