Soundtrack to a soul- baring novel
Like the folk albums of its protagonist, Greatest Hits features occasional poetic lyricism, rueful wisdom and quite a lot of self- involved moaning. Part fictional rockumentary, part memoir, the novel delves into the memories and regrets of an ageing folk star on the eve of her attempted comeback.
In a single day, Cass Wheeler listens to, or rather confronts, 16 songs from her back catalogue that represent her most significant milestones, moving from childhood through to the tragic events that drew her decades- long career to an abrupt halt. A real- life album,
Songs from the Novel Greatest Hits, is available to accompany the novel, a modern folk- pop interpretation made in collaboration with singer Kathryn Williams.
Born in a London vicarage to an indifferent mother and ineffectual father, Cass gradually rises to international fame with her introspective folk songs but finds her life blighted by the same deep emotions that inspire her music.
Her success is constantly threatened by her collaborator husband Ivor, who chafes in the role of second fiddle; she is brittle, wildly talented, selfish and occasionally violent, a flawed idol on an uncomfortable pedestal.
Greatest Hits often fast- forwards where it could pause. In a book that covers the international music world of the 1960s- 80s, there are few celebrity appearances or glimpses backstage; expect more stoner flatmates than Stones. Cass tells an interviewer that she doesn’t write about politics because she’s busy trying to understand herself; it seems an apologia for the book itself, which also has no interest in Vietnam, civil rights or anything else that stirred Cass’ folk- singing contemporaries.
The book, like Cass Wheeler herself, is primarily interested in Cass Wheeler. Her memories expose the casual brutality of time, life’s swiftness and its indifferent benevolence and cruelty.
The episodic flashbacks around which the novel is structured provide so much foreshadowing that there is little left to reveal at the denouement, but with suspense undermined, the heartbreaking futility of hindsight takes centre stage.
It’s not always clear that Cass understands her own role in her suffering or the suffering of others, but the soul- baring songs she chooses to represent her life underscore that our greatest hits are not always our finest moments.