Checker and the Derailleurs: A Novel
4.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
“Ms. Shriver portrays [her characters] with psychological depth and wry humor, dramatizing a subject that’s rarely been exploited in fiction, and pulling off a novel that not only works, but rocks.” —New York Times Book Review
From the author of the New York Times bestseller The Post-Birthday World and the international bestseller We Need to Talk About Kevin, a tender, hilarious story of youth and envy, ambition and rock and roll, hero worship and heroism, and, especially, love
Beautiful and charismatic, nineteen-year-old Checker Secretti is the most gifted and original drummer that the club-goers of Astoria, Queens, have ever heard. When he plays, conundrums seem to solve themselves, brilliant thoughts spring to mind, and couples fall in love. The members of his band, The Derailleurs, are passionately devoted to their guiding spirit, as are all who fall under Checker's spell. But when another drummer, Eaton Striker, hears the prodigy play, he is pulled inexorably into Checker's orbit by a powerful combination of envy and admiration. Soon The Derailleurs, too, are torn apart by latent jealousies that Eaton does his utmost to bring alive.
Lionel Shriver
Although Lionel Shriver has published many novels, a collection of essays, and a column in the Spectator since 2017, and her journalism has been featured in publications including the Guardian, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, she in no way wishes for the inclusion of this information to imply that she is more “intelligent” or “accomplished” than anyone else. The outdated meritocracy of intellectual achievement has made her a bestselling author multiple times and accorded her awards, including the Orange Prize, but she accepts that all of these accidental accolades are basically meaningless. She lives in Portugal and Brooklyn, New York.
Read more from Lionel Shriver
The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Abominations: Selected Essays from a Career of Courting Self-Destruction Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Motion of the Body Through Space Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Big Brother: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Post-Birthday World: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Game Control: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Perfectly Good Family: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Book Club Bible: The Definitive Guide That Every Book Club Member Needs Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ordinary Decent Criminals: A Novel Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Library Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The New Republic: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related to Checker and the Derailleurs
Related ebooks
Big Brother: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Perfectly Good Family: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The New Republic: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Game Control: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Two Weeks in Another Town: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Moon and Sixpence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ordinary Decent Criminals: A Novel Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Post-Birthday World: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Constance: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Liars and Saints: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Should We Stay or Should We Go: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ian McEwan Bestsellers: The Child in Time, The Cement Garden, The Comfort of Strangers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMiss Lonelyhearts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sound of My Voice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Franchiser Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Two Faces of January Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Easter Parade: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Darling: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Snake Eyes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Here Are the Young Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Times Are Never So Bad: Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lie Down in Darkness Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Possible Life: A Novel in Five Love Stories Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Let Me Be Frank With You: A Frank Bascombe Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Infidelities: Stories of War and Lust Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Family Daughter: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Time and Tide: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHamilton Stark Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Heart Laid Bare Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Missing Person Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Literary Fiction For You
The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Master & Margarita Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prophet Song: A Novel (Booker Prize Winner) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Covenant of Water (Oprah's Book Club) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Queen's Gambit Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Piranesi Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pride and Prejudice: Bestsellers and famous Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Read with Jenna Pick Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anna Karenina: Bestsellers and famous Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life of Pi: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Nigerwife: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demon Copperhead: A Pulitzer Prize Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Birds: Erotica Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Tender Is the Flesh Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Woman in the Room: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lady Tan's Circle of Women: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sympathizer: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Handmaid's Tale Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tattooist of Auschwitz: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5East of Eden (Original Classic Edition) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Checker and the Derailleurs
12 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5For a long time, Checker and the Derailleurs had mostly a cult following. Published in 1989, it went out of print until reissued in 2009. Now that Lionel Shriver's books are going to gain new audiences due to the buzz around the film version of We Need to Talk About Kevin, someone will probably try to make a movie of Checker as well.
I hope not. While it seems eminently filmable and the richly colored and textured images Shriver paints could be magic in the hands of a visual director like Terrence Malick or Tom Ford, it would be a shame to ruin a character like Checker Secretti.
Checker, who reminded me of a latter-day Phineas (from John Knowles's 1953 A Separate Peace), is like a personal gift from the author because we need so much to bring him to life inside our own heads. I very much want to hang with Checker, but the Checker of my imagination, not of some casting agent's.
Some folks read this book over and over, and I can see why. It's the only way we can keep knowing Checker and his friends over a lifetime.