An intriguing novel that explores the nature of memory and the mind's facility for reconfiguring or even completely reinventing our past. The central figure is Dan Silas who had lived for some years during his adolescence in America where his father worked as an executive for General Motors. Now, twenty-five years later, Silas has been invited back to deliver the keynote speech at a school reunion. Having an empty diary following his recent early retirement from the successful advertising agency that he and a friend had managed (until their recent sell-out to a Japanese conglomerate) Silas accepts, and decides to journey back into his past.
He gradually recognises that his own recollections might not be as pellucid as he had imagined, and encounters with former schoolfriends cause him to reassess his teenage years. He also faces a series of shocks at the varied fates of his friends with whom, despite yearbook promises to the contrary, he had completely lost touch. Foremost among these is Gary, now living in an asylum where he is convinced that he is actually Tecumseh, an orphan brought up by native American tribesmen.
As always, Cartwright writes with great clarity, even when tackling uncomfortable subject matter. This didn't have the immediacy of "Other people's Money" or "To Heaven by Water", but it still gripped the reader's imagination, and admirably repaid their attention. ( )

The well-written story of Dan Silas, who returns from his home in London to Hollybush High for his (25th?) high school reunion. The quiet, small-town of Hollybush is changed, but many of his former schoolmates still live there. He learns that he fathered a child there (or did he?), who was murdered as a college student in Ann Arbor. His old friend Gary is in and out of an asylum, convinced that he is Pale Eagle, a companion of Tecumseh, killed at the Battle of Detroit. Dan finds himself drawn into the possibly delusional worlds of Gloria and Gary, and struggles with the differences between his memory of events and those of his old friends, and the changes in his life back in London. ( )