Leading the Cheers: A Novel

For Dan, America has come to represent a kind of lost, earnest innocence: you can practically hear the fife-and-drum music in the background as he rolls into town for the reunion. No less rosy are his memories of his best friend, Gary, and his high-school sweetheart, Gloria, with whom he first coupled on Thomas Jefferson's bed at Monticello on a class field trip. "In my memory, Gloria and Monticello are for ever joined." But now she claims he fathered a daughter that fateful afternoon, a daughter who's been murdered by a serial killer. Meanwhile, Gary has gone off the deep end, convinced he's an Ojibway Indian and leading ceremonies in a tipi in his mom's backyard. Dan's attempt to reconcile his Edenic memories with the bitter realities wrought by 30 years of history yield a singularly woeful comic novel. At times Justin Cartwright's narrative seems filigreed with ideas and ironies; at other times it seems concerned, quite simply, with one man who learns that his "version of what goes on is certainly faulty." --Claire Dederer

Book Description
After Dan Silas's advertising company is bought out, his invitation to his thirty-year high school reunion arrives with perfect timing, and he leaves London to return to the small Michigan town he has not seen since 1968. With wit, humor, and compassion, Whitbread Award-winner and Booker Prize-nominee Justin Cartwright takes Dan through the mounting stages of both culture shock and mid-life crisis. Back in Michigan, he discovers his best friend now believes he is a reincarnated Shawnee Indian and his high school sweetheart claims she had a daughter by him - who has just been murdered by the Hollybush's new celebrity, a small-town serial killer. With brilliantly evoked characters and crackling dialogue, Leading the Cheers comically explores what people want out of life - and what they get instead.

A good attempt by Justin Cartwright. This novel is rather appealing but somewhat dark.An intriguing plot which conspire readers to be curious of what happen next? How's his reunion goes? Did he meet Gloria again? What did he missed out all these years?


Skip this one.   June 11, 2001
 2 out of 3 found this review helpful

The author tries to get away with as little effort as possible. The story has no original plot or thougt, but are made up of stereotypical and rather stale characters that we all have met before in popular fiction and TV-dramas. His story and characters lack believeability and origiality (of course he made it in marketing - but decided to leave it because it was too shallow; of course she was a cheerlead - all his female encounters were the most disirable, etc., etc.) His description of Michigan and America shows many similarities to an exchangestudent's fond rendition of a youthfull encounter with America - not a deep understanding of the country. I am left with the feeling that the author had a basic idea for the book, took a two weeks trip to the United States, and filled in the blanks from what he observed. This renders the book without a proper framework to build a good story.


Entertaining, perceptive, intelligent   September 21, 2000
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Leading the Cheers is a quick and entertaining read which manages to cover a lot of bases. Underlying the plotline is the revelation that we view the world through only one set of eyes - that our subjective picture of reality might be little more than a self-serving illusion.

Reviews praise the book as "hilarious" and "funny", whereas I'd probably say "amusing" or "ironic". Cartwright has an intelligent and sharp sense of humor, but it is definitely of drier/more ironic nature than is implied by these descriptions; this was not a book that made me laugh.

That said, this was a lively and compelling novel with interesting, well-developed characters and a good mix between plot and introspection. The storyline involves a successful British ad executive's return to Michigan, his childhood home, to attend his high school reunion. Although he has never questioned his interpretation of the events of his youth he suddenly finds himself faced with a number of questions. Things aren't always as they seem. Along the way we get some sharp insights on middle-American culture, Indian rituals, and the meaning of "success" and "failure".

A quirky cast of characters includes a lanky descendant of Northern European immigrants who following his nervous breakdown during his freshman year at Harvard channels the spirit of a long dead Native American called Pale Eagle; a serial killer serving a life sentence; and a group of former high school cheerleaders and jocks facing middle age stranded in their small-town environment.

Other reviewers have pointed out some factual inconsistencies, which I honestly would not have noticed. Regardless, I enjoyed Cartwright's eye for detail and well-crafted descriptions. A thought-provoking and original novel.


Recommended.   April 21, 2000
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

The inside dust jacket describes this book as "witty and often hilarious" with a "shocking denouement." I'm not sure I agree with any of those descriptions, but I nevertheless found the book moving and enjoyed it immensely. Very thought-provoking, with a number of interesting themes running throughout. I also agree with the "Literary Review" comment to the effect that this is a rare book about "the kind of America nobody (read: none of us upper-crust coastal snobby intellectuals) knows or cares about." I would certainly recommend it. With respect to the reviewer who commented on the apparent inconsistency between 1996 and 1998, it was my sense throughout that the book was taking place in 1996, not only because of the Clinton-Dole campaign, but because of other references as well. I would concede that a 28th-year reunion is somewhat odd, but I just don't recall Dan ever actually describing it as a 30-year reunion, although he does say that the class President has kept in pastoral touch with the class for "nearly 30 years." If in fact I missed the reference to a 30-year reunion, then I would agree that that is more than a minor flaw, given the importance placed on dates in the book.


The prodigal returns   March 22, 2000
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

Dan Silas spent his formative years in Hollybush, Michigan. Now resident in a committee run London executive estate, he finds his past calling back to him. Dan is to be a speaker at his high school reunion, thirty years after he's left. Called to speak because he's become something of a success in his home country, and because he's practically the only one of his high school chums to have really left. In the middle of a separation which hurts him less than it should, Dan's return to Hollybush makes him realise a few certain truths. Features of this introspection are the encroaching insanity of his friend, who has gone native under the name of Gary Pale Eagle, a sexual encounter in Jefferson's bed, and the revelation that he had a daughter, brutally murdered by a serial killer.

This is a very American novel. All aspects of American and western life come under a subtle but penetrating gaze. There is a discourse on Emerson's notion of self running throughout this novel. Cartwright, born a South African, presents an extremely vivid portrait of a contemporary English man. What better device than to set such a character out into America? Accent is very relevant to this novel, and accent is strong and flowing, mutable, a metaphor for self. Devastating declarations arise, and you feel horror on behalf of the narrator, who declines to comment, since such things are deigned to be self evident. Deprecating humour abounds too. Sometimes, 'Leading the Cheers' feels like the Coen Brothers' Fargo. A homely portrait of American life with engaging characters, mixed with pure horror. It all rings so true, despite the fact that it's mere composition. I've earflapped the pages which speak to me, so that I can find my way back to them in the future. Quite appropriately, it also involves the narrative tracking of a journey, with Gary Pale Eagle willing to steal for clues.