{"product_id":"checker-and-the-derailleurs-a-novel-isbn-9780061711374","title":"Checker and the Derailleurs: A Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“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.” —\u003cem\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom the author of the \u003cem\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/em\u003ebestseller \u003cem\u003eThe Post-Birthday World\u003c\/em\u003e and the international bestseller \u003cem\u003eWe Need to Talk About Kevin, a\u003c\/em\u003e tender, hilarious story of youth and envy, ambition and rock and roll, hero worship and heroism, and, especially, love\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBeautiful 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003eBeautiful 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.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e“Shriver is a lively storyteller, and she keeps readers guessing to the end. . . . Checker and the Derailleurs, like its beguiling protagonist, is hard to forget.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePeople\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“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.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Nothing if not lyrical, both in the internal assonances of its sentences...and in sentiment. It is fairy tale as well as theology, a domestic adventure story featuring wisdom.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A funkily romantic novel...Shriver’s writing soars.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eGlamour\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A bittersweet, graceful, poetic yet clearsighted vision of the New York Tom Wolfe won’t tell you about. More than that, it is a tale about good and evil, and about the promise and pain of being nineteen.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCleveland Plain Dealer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Funny, clever, and touching. Shriver uses a few interesting narrative techniques, and peppers dialogue and exposition with quotations from rock. Her own lyrics are terrific. Recommended.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Surprising, moving, and modern, wonderfully observed and wittily styled. It’s a cover version of some time-honored motifs by a writer with an acute, hip, and loving sensibility: as though Jane Austen listened to rock and roll.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAmtrak Express\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Brilliant and funny; Checker lives on in memory as a complex fictional creation.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMilwaukee Journal Sentinel\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Some of the observations in this book are wrapped so tightly around my own experience of feelings, it seems I have been visited by the friend I always needed or the artist I always wanted to be. It honors the individual and reminds us all of the painful fullness of every soul.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eGrace Slick, former lead singer of Jefferson Airplane\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Shriver is a gifted, expansive writer, and her novel should be a big hit with rock music fans, who have been so poorly served by fiction writers in the past.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harper Perennial","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44887882694885,"sku":"NP9780061711374","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780061711374.jpg?v=1730227658","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/checker-and-the-derailleurs-a-novel-isbn-9780061711374","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}