Checker and the Derailleurs

Checker and the Derailleurs
Lionel Shriver

From the Orange Prize winning author of We Need to Talk About Kevin this is a novel about what it takes to make it in music. How charisma is worth its weight in gold. And how jealously can grow until it has eaten away at a musician’s heart.He has that thing that they’d all pay for but can’t buy: on stage and off, the 19-year-old rock drummer Checker Secretti is electric. When he plays with his band The Derailleurs, the natives of Astoria, Queens clamour for a piece of him. But charisma comes at a price. A Salieri to Checker’s Mozart, the fiercely envious fellow drummer Eaton Striker is eager to sow discord among the Derailleurs, that he might replace the exasperatingly popular goody-goody in the close-knit neighbourhood’s affections.An examination of the passion, the jealousy and the friendship of young musicians trying to break out, Checker and The Derailleurs is also about cycling, rock lyrics, glass blowing, the marriage of convenience, and—most of all—the mystery of joy.

Copyright (#u01109050-7a1b-5d9c-9735-849b24773c94)

The Borough Press

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

1, London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2015

First published in the USA by Farrar, Straus and Giroux 1988

Copyright © Lionel Shriver 1988

Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2015

Cover photograph © Shutterstock.com (http://www.Shutterstock.com)

Lionel Shriver asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it, while at times based on historical figures, are the work of the author’s imagination.

The author gratefully acknowledges permission to quote from the following published works: “Bang the Drum All Day” by Todd Rundgren, copyright © 1983 Fiction Music, Inc./Humanoid Music (BMI), all rights reserved / “Eleanor Rigby,” words and music by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, copyright © 1966 Northern Songs Ltd., all rights for the U.S., Canada and Mexico controlled and administered by Blackwood Music Inc. under license from ATV Music (MACLEN), all rights reserved, international copyright secured, used by permission / “Darkness” by Stewart Copeland, copyright © 1981 Reggatta Music, Ltd., administered by Atlantic Music Corporation / “Dancing in the Dark” by Bruce Springsteen, copyright © 1984 Bruce Springsteen, all rights reserved, used with permission / “Blinded by the Light” by Bruce Springsteen copyright © 1973 Bruce Springsteen, all rights reserved, used with permission / “Save the Life of My Child” by Paul Simon, copyright © 1968 Paul Simon, used by permission, Inc., all rights reserved, used by permission / “Love over Gold” by Mark Knopfler, copyright © 1982 Chariscourt Ltd. (PRS), all rights administered in the U.S. and Canada by Almo Music Corp. (ASCAP), all rights reserved international copyright secured / “The Man’s Too Strong” by Mark Knopfler, copyright © 1985 Chariscourt Limited (PRS), all rights administered by Rondor Music (London) Ltd., administered in the U.S. and Canada by Almo Music Corp (ASCAP), all rights reserved, international copyright secured.

The drawings reproduced in Checker and The Derailleurs are by Lionel Shriver.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books

Source ISBN: 9780007564033

Ebook Edition © 2015 ISBN: 9780007564040

Version: 2015-01-13

Dedication (#u01109050-7a1b-5d9c-9735-849b24773c94)

To someone who doesn’t deserve it, as he very well knows

(#u01109050-7a1b-5d9c-9735-849b24773c94)

Well I have tried to be meek

And I have tried to be mild

But I spat like a woman

And sulked like a child …

And I can still hear his laughter

And I can still hear his song

The man’s too big

The man’s too strong

DIRE STRAITS

“The Man’s Too Strong,”

Brothers in Arms

Table of Contents

Cover (#u6bd234eb-9984-585c-b6be-34a3b484735f)

Title Page (#u8160323d-86d7-5b1b-99d5-4338dc890e9e)

Copyright (#u5b10c8c0-84ce-5a3f-a870-0326cf7df146)

Dedication (#uea349b4f-0e01-508c-8e19-3d0394b0b672)

Epigraph (#ud67b25d5-5da2-55f2-a9d1-875cd4cb0c09)

1. blinded by the light (#u77c2fddc-e021-5e9a-8382-884e0d041b15)

2. blood and crystal (#u54e6e9fb-4811-55c2-a558-f892603646d2)

3. bad company (#u8f3ce3f4-657d-5a3f-8a31-3a2b97b0ab31)

4. the house of the fire queen (#ub19e3abe-cb07-5b21-83bb-6aa1f33e5137)

5. bye, bye, miss american pie (#u5bd53287-8c92-5904-816c-3320e3103660)

6. simply red (#litres_trial_promo)

7. my love is chemical (#litres_trial_promo)

8. hot rocks, or: the igneous apartment (#litres_trial_promo)