Heartland reviewed by Freedom in a Puritan Age
Thursday, 3rd December 2009
26th November 2009
Heartland by Anthony Cartwright
Reviewer: Wes Brown (Shark, due for publication in 2010)
“For those of us hungry for something substantive in our contemporary fiction, Heartland, Anthony Cartwright’s second novel, elegantly crafts a deft lyrical realism that’s given shape by a tightly woven, elliptical narrative. Like Don DeLillo’s classic Underworld – Cartwright, cubist-like, uses sport to draw together disparate strands of fragmentation.
Beckham’s face filled the screen, filled the room. Rob had driven past the giant hoarding over the motorway a few weeks ago. He’d driven for miles, worrying about the game against the mosque and the election, worrying about his dad who’d gone out to do some canvassing for Jim.
Beyond the superficial similarities and sense of urban dysphoria, with Heartland you still sense more traditional influences in the social realist novel; and though Cartwright’s concerns are glaringly up-to-date, he is a skilful enough a novelist to not simply or crudely pass reportage off as fiction . . .”
To read the rest of Wes Brown’s review, go here
