The Song is You
by Arthur Phillips
Sycamore Public Library call number: FIC PHI
I am notoriously soft-hearted in the face of musical stories (see, e.g. Love is a Mix Tape and Time After Time). Pre-release buzz had guaranteed that I would read The Song is You. It was called the love story of a singer and her greatest fan, revealed in part through their correspondence--although they never meet. Truly unrequited romance! That is practically revolutionary in modern fiction.
From The New Yorker: "Phillips's best writing achieves an elaborate, gratifying precision, combining a naturally flamboyant style with neat, observational wit. This quality is sharpest in some of the character portraits and delectable set pieces that animate this novel, his fourth, but the central plot is sometimes strained. A middle-aged advertising director, whose marriage has broken up following the death of his two-year-old son, plays an invisible and unlikely muse to a young Irish singer on the brink of stardom. As the two engage in an indirect seduction--they never meet--the narrative veers close to the 'adolescent fantasy' that its protagonist fears. But this curious bond provides an armature for Phillips's beautiful evocation of music's consoling power to blur the borders between art, artist, and consumer."
The characters in this novel are, without exception, profoundly psychologically damaged. It is painfully ironic, then, that the science of psychology is derided or written off several times throughout the book. Sincerity and earnestness between characters is at a premium, too; subterfuge, convenient half-truths, and misdirection are presented as everyday behaviors. In short, this is not a love story so much as an exposition of extraordinary, selfish behavior - albeit written in beautiful language. Phillips does have a way with words. I wish that he had used them to write about even one ultimately worthy character.
REVIEWED BY: Amy
AGE GROUP: Adult
CLASS: Fiction
Grade: C