By Jennifer duBois
I must admit, I was initially dubious but am now a committed devotee to all things Kindle. I love my Kindle like it’s my third child - except not, because I take him (yes, him. His name is Ed. Because Edward>Ed-wood>wood>kindling>kindle. It’s not weird) everywhere with me and become a little panicky any time I realise that I’ve left home, kindle-less. What if I have to wait somewhere for some unknown purpose, with NOTHING TO READ?!
Anyway, I digress. What I meant to say is that one of things I like best about my Kindle is the complete lack of context for most of the books on there. I have a tendency to stumble across various lists (50 best books of 2015; 25 up-and-coming authors to watch; 100 books everyone must read…) and methodically go through said lists, downloading every book mentioned. As such, I end up with a fairly enormous collection of books in my to-read folder, with no memory of what they’re about or why I have them.
Cartwheel was one of these mystery books, which I stumbled across in the depths of my Kindle recently and started to read with absolutely no idea of what it might be about. And it was good!
Cartwheel is the story of self-absorbed 20-year-old American student Lily Hayes, whose semester abroad in Buenos Aires is (somewhat inconveniently) interrupted by the violent murder of her roommate, Katy. Unfortunately for Lily, she is the prime suspect and is quickly carted off to Argentinian prison. Her unusual behaviour after the murder - like putting on a massive PDA with the neighbour shortly after finding Katy’s body, or pausing mid-way through her interrogation to do a cartwheel - really does not help her case.
An actual cartwheel. Like this. As you do, when in mourning for your murdered friend.
The narrative follows Lily’s from her arrival in Buenos Aires through her developing relationships with those she meets (including poor old Katy), to the night of the murder and the ensuing interrogations, jail time and court case, but it also cuts back and forth in time and between one character and another. Cartwheel is written in the third person, so each chapter isn’t so much narrated by a different character as it is coloured by one character’s point of view - this switches between Lily, her parents, her sister, her interrogator and the PDA neighbour; the clear differences in tone from one chapter to the next are very impressive with each chapter adding another layer to the personalities of the main characters, particularly Lily.
Possibly the biggest strength of this book is the fantastic characters. Nobody in this story is simple or straightforward, everyone is complex and it’s not even particularly clear whether any particular character is good or bad. They’re all both and neither at the same time (just like real people), which I loved. Lily’s character is particularly complicated - she is the cliche of a typical American teenager in a lot of ways: loud, selfish, oblivious to those around her. But she’s also strong and opinionated and you come to realise as a reader that many of the behaviours her parents put down to naivete are actually well-considerd and completely intentional. Every other character in Cartwheel has a completely different understanding of who Lily is as a person, what motivates her and how she has ended up in this situation.
It’s very cleverly done and really pivotal to the story - these complex, interesting, odd characters are really the bones that hold the whole book together and a big part of what makes it so readable. It is very, very readable. Cartwheel is one of those books that you don’t want to put down until you find out what happens next - it’s interesting and absorbing and suspenseful but there’s also a real depth to Cartwheel that you wouldn’t find in your typical whodunnit story.
This is Amanda Knox. Her roommate was also murdered and then she acted a bit odd about it.
Cartwheel is said to be “inspired by” the Amanda Knox story. Being very unfamiliar with the Amanda Knox case, I took this very much at face value. Having spoken to a few other people since, however, it would appear that this is kind of a point of controversy when it comes to this book. According to some, Cartwheel is almost a point-for-point retelling of the events in the Amanda Knox case - apparently even the mid-interrogation cartwheel is something that Amanda Knox was rumoured to have done. To be honest, I haven’t really taken this into account at all but it is possible something to keep in mind if you are more familiar with this case… Potentially, Cartwheel could be seen as exploiting Amanda Knox and the really crappy things that have happened to her (assuming that she was innocent?) just to get a storyline for a novel.
I also suspect that Jennifer duBois may have taken a few liberties in writing about Buenos Aires - again, I’m no expert but the Buenos Aires of this book is dark and seedy and dangerous. It’s like a third-world country where murderers, thieves and rapists lurk in every shadow, where a young woman should never walk on her own (even in broad daylight in an upper-class neighbourhood), drug dealers are constantly on the prowl and corruption is rife. To me this sounds a little too much like a vague desciption of scary-overseas-country-that’s-not-america rather than the real life city of Buenos Aires, which (correct me if I’m wrong?) is a vibrant cosmopolitan city with lower rates of violent crime than many cities in the US? I don’t feel like I’m particularly qualified to comment on this but to me it just seemed a little bit lazy compared to those beautifully complex characters.
Buenos Aires - actually looks quite nice here...
And here
And here too
Possibly these people are running from violent crime? They're not running very fast though...
Aside from Amanda Knox & Buenos Aires concerns, Cartwheel is a great book. It’s well-written and cleverly constructed, with some of the best-written characters I’ve come across. It’s not perfect, but it’s absolutely worth your time.
8/10
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