Publishers Weekly
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Though Cartwright's (The Face I Meet) story of a British man's return to the America of his high school years won England's Whitbread Award in 1998, it is likely to read less well on this side of the Atlantic, with its intermittently patronizing depiction of middle America. Dan Silas, a London-based former advertising executive whose professional and personal life is in disarray, returns to Hollybush, Mich., for his 30th high school reunion. He reunites with his old girlfriend Gloria, who informs him not only that is he is the father of her daughter, but that the daughter has been killed by a serial killer. He discovers as well that his beloved friend Gary, unbalanced since a breakdown during his freshman year at Harvard, believes himself to be Pale Eagle, a 19th-century follower of Tecumseh. Eager to connect with his old circle and to be moved by the generous, large-scale emotions that he feels are quintessentially American, Silas agrees to visit Gloria's daughter's killer in prison, and he also steals valuable Native American artifacts from a London museum for Gary. But Silas's unhesitating commitment to his classmates sits uneasily with his sense that he is "in the middle of nature with amiable morons." Gloria, whose "breasts have welded into a bosom" works at the biggest Christmas store in the country, populated by "frolicsome... very fat people"; Duane, another old acquaintance, has a "potato-dumpling look." Silas's obsession with aging, neglected bodies can be construed as an attempt at pathos; but since he never subjects himself to similar scrutiny, they seem to bespeak an author's contempt for the overfed flipside of American generosity rather than a damaged expatriate's uneasy reunion with people he once deeply loved. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Indians past and present, a disaffected Englishman, and a high-school reunion in Michigan are the unlikely parameters of this quietly comic, intensely human story, the Whitbread-winning latest from the ever-resourceful Cartwright (In Every Face I Meet, 1995, etc.). Footloose in London after being dropped by his long-term live-in and bought out by the new Japanese owners of his ad agency, Dan Silas is far from fancy-free, but new possibilities beckon in an invitation to be the guest of honor at the 30th reunion of his Michigan high school class. Although he left a few weeks after graduation, when his auto exec father was transferred back to England, and hasn't stayed in touch, those he left behind readily remember him. Cheerleader Gloria hasn't forgotten their first encounter in Jefferson's bed at Monticello on their senior class trip, while his best friend Gary, the Harvard-bound brain, still regards him as a friend. But life hasn't treated either of them kindly: Dan returns to Ford country to learn that Gloria's daughter'the result of their Jeffersonian coupling, she claims'was the victim of a serial killer a couple of years ago, and that Gary, now Pale Eagle, believes he's the reincarnation of an early 19th-century boy captive turned Indian visionary and has been in and out of mental institutions since he broke down at Harvard. At first Dan is a willing part of this parade of shattered lives, connecting him as it does to his youth and innocence, but when Gloria asks him to visit the killer in prison, the horror of it leaves him ready to go home. Still, when Gary also makes a request, Dan agrees, thinking it might help his friend's recovery'and never suspecting that the result will have a lasting impact on him as well. Alive to nuances in the most casual circumstances, willfully eccentric, and charmingly resonant regarding life's quirks on both sides of the Atlantic: a tale full of subtle surprises.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Dan Silas is an English advertising executive, enjoying a hiatus after being bought out of a successful agency. He thinks that he understands himself and his world, but when, on a whim, he decides to return to the states to give a speech at a high-school reunion, he finds that his past was not all he thought it was. As relationships are reestablished, he quickly realizes that his idealized memories do not match the recollections of his classmates. Gloria, his high-school sweetheart, tells him that he had fathered a daughter during a class trip and she has been a recent victim of a serial killer. His best friend has apparently suffered a psychiatric breakdown and now thinks that he is Pale Eagle, a Shawnee who died in 1813. What's more, Pale Eagle has a quest for Silas involving the theft of items from the British Museum. Surprisingly funny and compelling, Cartwright's novel takes a fascinating look at memories and how we perceive ourselves. Highly recommended. --Eric Robbins