“Silence, or something like it. An arpeggio of birdsong. The low rumble of a car. The distant diminuendo of a plane. Such are the sounds that have, over so many years, formed, for Cass, their own kind of music. The only kind that sounded right inside her head; that didn’t thud and clash there, ugly, discordant, deafening.”

Greatest Hits is the second novel by freelance arts journalist, features writer, theatre critic and author, Laura Barnett. It’s 2015, and singer-songwriter, Cass Wheeler is hesitant as she sits in the listening room of her home recording studio, about to spend the day listening to the sixteen tracks that will make up her new album, Greatest Hits: “The songs that tracked the arc of a lifetime.” She’s hesitant because the songs to which she will listen are, all but a few, chosen from her previous work. They are guaranteed to stir up memories of the milestones in her life; some happy, others less so, and some, decidedly traumatic, and she wonders if she will be able to cope.

Despite assurances from those around her, the prospect of re-entering the music scene after a ten-year hiatus also causes some anxiety. How will her choices, and her new works, be received by those attending the launch party this evening? And underlying it all, Cass wonders if her recent harsh words have put an end to a fledgling relationship she now very much wishes to develop.

The format Barnett has used is clever: after the initial introduction in the present day, each chapter is titled as an album track and begins with evocative song lyrics and their recording details, before recounting the events of Cass’s life to which the song relates. This is then followed by Cass’s present day thoughts and activities. In the latter, references are made to certain important incidents, and these are gradually revealed. In this way, Cass’s early years, her first interest in music, her significant relationships, her career, her family, her successes and her tragedies, and her ten-year silence are all described. Cass Wheeler’s Discography at the end is a lovely final touch.

Barnett’s plot is wholly believable. She easily captures her setting and readers of a certain vintage may experience some nostalgia. Her characters are well-formed and realistically flawed: even those who deeply disappoint arouse some empathy. Barnett also treats the reader to some beautiful descriptive prose: “She closes her eyes; she can feel the answer lurking in a distant, shadowed corner of her mind. That’s how it is, so often, now: the clear Technicolor of memory fading to sepia, recollection a deliberate act. An act of deliberation.” and “’Francis is in pieces.’ Cass pictures her father, then, as a china figurine, lying smashed on the carpet in the front room.” are examples.

“And then she had been left alone with that silence, and she had understood, for the first time, that it wasn’t really silence, but its own creeping layered symphony of sound.”
Readers who enjoyed “The Versions of Us” will not be disappointed in this latest offering from Laura Barnett. A tender and thoughtful read.