The Cheer Leader (edition 2013)

by Jill McCorkle (Author), Elizabeth Evans (Narrator), Audible Studios (Publisher)

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Fiction. Literature. HTML: Jo Spencer is a girl who knows what to be and how to be it-straight-A student, cheerleader, May Queen, popular and cute and virginal, and in perfect control. But halfway through her first year in college in the early seventies, her carefully normal life explodes and she comes completely undone. In The Cheerleader, Jo Spencer looks back, as if she were watching reruns of old syndicated TV shows, to figure out what happened. Ordinary chance has dumped Sam Swett, age twenty-one, in the Marshboro, North Carolina, Quik Pik in the middle of a murder. Sam has shaved his head, given away all his belongings except his typewriter; he's drunker than he's ever been and running as fast as he can from his upper-middle-class upbringing. For the next twenty-four hours, Sam is propelled straight into the very core of this small Southern town as it sorts through the facts. .… (more)

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Member:	joeparr2000
Title:	The Cheer Leader
Authors:	Jill McCorkle (Author)
Other authors:	Elizabeth Evans (Narrator), Audible Studios (Publisher)
Info:	Audible Studios (2013)
Collections:	Your library
Rating:
Tags:	Spirling to madness

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The Cheer Leader by Jill McCorkle

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At first, I almost stopped reading McCorkle's first novel nearly half-way through, but thankfully I stuck it out. Thereafter, McCorkle exhibits nearly masterful possession of her art form in a way that is seldom encountered in other psychological works. I hestitate to compare authors, but McCorkle shows Oates' grasp of the demonic through to a denouement that leaves readers the option of filling in the rest of Jo's life. (

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joeparr2000 | Aug 1, 2023 |

This novel was written in 1984, and I wish I had read it then. In the first part of the book, Jo Spencer reflects on her childhood, family, friends, philosophy. In the second part, we see that in her high school and early college years, she falls apart, becoming obsessive and anorexic. I think at the time the book was written, the honesty in discussing Jo's lifestyle would have been stunning. Today, with what we know about anorexia, I suspect some of the fictional situations would have been differently perceived. I remember the first few anorexic young women I knew, in the early 1970s, and what our reactions were; and how that is not the same reaction we have now.
McCorkle is a wonderful author; I recommend all her books and stories. (

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annaflbak | Apr 28, 2008 |

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There is a picture of my mother that she keeps tucked away in her old scrapbook, yellowed pages pressing crumbled corsages, letters, gum wrappers.

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Jill McCorkle

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Fiction. Literature. HTML:

Jo Spencer is a girl who knows what to be and how to be it-straight-A student, cheerleader, May Queen, popular and cute and virginal, and in perfect control. But halfway through her first year in college in the early seventies, her carefully normal life explodes and she comes completely undone. In The Cheerleader, Jo Spencer looks back, as if she were watching reruns of old syndicated TV shows, to figure out what happened.

Ordinary chance has dumped Sam Swett, age twenty-one, in the Marshboro, North Carolina, Quik Pik in the middle of a murder. Sam has shaved his head, given away all his belongings except his typewriter; he's drunker than he's ever been and running as fast as he can from his upper-middle-class upbringing. For the next twenty-four hours, Sam is propelled straight into the very core of this small Southern town as it sorts through the facts.

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