Checker and the Derailleurs. Lionel Shriver

       Copyright

      The Borough Press

      An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

      1, London Bridge Street

      London SE1 9GF

       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

      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

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

      

       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

       Title Page

       Copyright

       Dedication

       Epigraph

       1. blinded by the light

       2. blood and crystal

       3. bad company

       4. the house of the fire queen

       5. bye, bye, miss american pie

      

       6. simply red

      

       7. my love is chemical

      

       8. hot rocks, or: the igneous apartment

      

       9. in defense of subjective reality

      

       10. howard and the flow state

      

       11. the newlywed game

      

       12. don’t be crue

      

       13. too much information