Customer Reviews

The Song Is You: A Novel

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Arthur Phillips gave an interview to Amazon for this book and that interview found its way to my Kindle via the Amazon Storefront. In it, Phillips discusses his passion for the iPod and his feelings about music - how each song revives a memory, a moment, a relationship; how a record can make you feel as insecure as the rainy day after 9th grade when you heard it, or a song can make you shake in longing for the person who shares the memory of that song with you. Phillips was right, and as soon as he said this book took that approach and crafted a story about/around/inspired by it, I knew I had to read it.

Phillips gives his readers an honest, voyeuristic, captivating journey through the past, present, and future of Julian and the ones important to him. Phillips uses songs to shift through time and space fluidly from memory to memory, telling stories not in a chronological order but as randomly as the songs on his iPod appear that trigger the memories.

Julian finds a new musician, Cait, and follows her career from a lowly dive bar to an international tour. Along the way, he begins finding his attraction to her spread deeper and more thoughtfully, as he connects her lyrics to the moments in his life past and present. Cait's music and persona help him cope with his past regrets, deal with his present aimlessness, and his longing for...he doesn't quite know what, maybe just his longing to be longing over something.

Julian writes/draws out some feedback for Cait at a show and it gets around to her; from then on til the end, the relationship becomes something torn between friendship, romance, mentorship, mutual therapists, and philosophers. The two never come face to face, but they spend the book dancing around the courtship of one another and finding ways to tease along the desires they both sustain for each other.

"The Song is You" took me on a journey I wasn't expecting. I found myself longing to get to the end, then pulling back and hoping it wouldn't come. I expected a trip down memory lane with music and memories intertwined, as the interview suggested, but this novel became so much more than just that. It weaves and flows with suspense, tension, and anguish, like a great mystery or thriller.

Take your time and enjoy "The Song is You." It's the novel you'll treat like a favorite album; you'll be enjoying it over and over again when your ears (and in this case, your eyes) just can't tolerate anything less.

A must. The incredibly talented Phillips has come into his own. The Song Is You is as cerebral as his earlier work, but tender as well. For the first time, he seems to view his characters with a compassionate as well as critical eye. A meditation on creativity, memory, loss and love, it's gentler than his other work, but Phillips hasn't lost his edge. The chapter on Aidan's stint on Jeopardy is priceless.
It's beautifully written, engrossing, and often hilariously funny. Destined to be one of the best books of the year.

I am not sure what attracted me to this book at first, but one reviewer mentioned it was about a guy with his ipod. That is an extremely simple and ignorant way of looking at this novel.

I will not go into recapping the story except to say middle aged Julian has had a very emotional roller coaster of a life when he stumbles in a little club and hears the Irish swan song calls of Cait O'Dwyer, a young and rising musician on the scene.

What ensues is a journey through and with Julian's life and his search to find something "real" to hold onto, hence, his Greatful Dead-like following of Ms. O'Dwyer.

Love of music from Julian's father, especially jazz, truly links the two generations together and like father, like son, music seems to be the only constant true love.

Arthur Phillip's writing might be some of the best this reader has ever read. I found myself re-reading paragraphs due to my astonishment of his use of language and words. He is a remarkable writer and because of the writing I will be looking into his previous book Prague.

I absolutely loved this novel. I rarely write reviews here, but I wanted to for this book in the hope that if you're on the fence about buying this book, this review may be the slight nudge you need to buy it, read it, and love it like I did. And if you love music (of any kind), you would simply be remiss if you don't read this book.

The book begins with the premise that art - especially, music - can inspire nostalgia about people, events, places of the past. But, more specifically, music has the unique power to recall what exactly you were feeling while experiencing those events, people, places. Slowly, the book evolves into a comment on the muse / artist relationship. But as this idea is explored, the reader soon discovers the idea is that the novel is not just about the inspiration behind art - specifically, music - but also how art can assuage pain and hurt of even the saddest, most awful memories. The muse and artist relationship is symbiotic, complementary - but extraordinarily complicated.

What's truly great about this novel, though, is Phillips' writing. From the very first page, you trust him. He's funny, he's passionate, he's affecting. And he renders his characters and their relationships to each other in such real, faithful terms. Even at the times where the plot of the novel and the examination of the characters' thoughts - especially Julian's - begin to strain believability, he gently guides you back to a place where you have no trouble accepting that these are real, extraordinarily sane characters.

If I have one complaint about the novel at all, it's that the writing is a bit dense at the beginning. It takes a few pages to get a handle on Phillips' style, but by about page 45 - with the telling of the hilarious "Incident" anecdote - you know you're in for a treat. And, like I did, you'll probably finish the next 200 pages in about two sittings.

If it's not clear by now, I can't recommend this book more highly. Please, please do yourself a favor and read it.

I have mixed feelings about The Song Is You. I just finished and I don't really feel wowed nor satisfied. The story line is in one aspect frustrating, but in another very creepy - the stalking gets a little uncomfortable, though I think what Phillips is trying to achieve is for the reader to be undecided as to whether or not it's uncomfortable. For me, it was just creepy, so I couldn't really get on board with it. My main complaint, however, is that the whole book is given away in the prologue. Therefore, this story which should be suspenseful, isn't in the least.

However, though I'm not crazy about the story, I really love some of the prose and descriptions, though in some places it's too much. (A 250 page books feels like 500 sometimes, not really in a good way.) The 3rd omniscient works well here, and I enjoy the characters, who are all well-developed. My favorite passage is one description of Cait, from page 30:

"He especially loved how she handled the songs originally sung by men, how she sang the lyric straight (singer wants a girl) and then gleefully, evilly put it over as a blood-red lipstick-lesbian tune, or reversed the pronouns (singer wants a boy) and then she cold vary it, do it as a neurotic girl or raging girl or seductive girl or funny girl. The best, though, was when she kept a man's lyric the same but then somehow turned its meaning around, kept it in his words but put the whole thing in quotation marks, as if she were singing what a man had once sung to her and now she was only recalling it."

Overall, if you love music you may be interested in this, but be warned it's not really a love story. The end drops off too abruptly, and we never find out what happens to half the characters. I needed about 50 more pages at the end and 50 less at the beginning.

I was intrigued by the premise of The Song Is You, the latest offering by Arthur Phillips, the bestselling author of Prague: the power of music, its ability to invoke emotion and bring to mind memories, both the good and the not so good.

Julian Donahue is a 40-something director of commercials in Manhattan. Julian inherited his love for music from his father, who lost his leg in the Korean War. Before his deployment, he attended a Billie Holiday concert at the Galaxy Theater, where he met his future wife. The concert was recorded and released on vinyl, and Julian's father can clearly be heard calling out to Miss Holiday to sing "I Cover the Waterfront." After he loses his leg, it's Julian's mother who pursues Julian's despondent father into marriage.

Flashing forward 50 years, Julian fills his iPod with the tunes that chronicle his life-music that recalls for him the important memories of his life: his past loves, the day he met his wife-to-be, the day his son was born.

The story picks up shortly after the tragic death of his three-year-old son, victim of a virus diagnosed too late. Separated from his wife, the depressed Julian finds little solace in work and no escape in the casual sex in which he indulged during the early years of his marriage, prior to the birth of his son.

Then one night at a club, he sees Cait O'Dwyer, an Irish singer in an emerging rock band soon to release their first CD. Initially, he views her with his director's eye and leaves, for the bartender to give to her, a series of cartoons with captions on several coasters, ideas on how she can improve her stage presence.

Thereafter he becomes known to Cait and her band mates as Cartoon Man, and the two trade text messages and email, never meeting. Julian quickly becomes Cait's muse, as evidenced by lyrics written to him that appear on her Web site; yet he comes to fear his growing obsession as that of an adolescent.

Arthur Phillips is a writer of no small amount of talent, and he comes with solid credentials. Winner of the New York Times Notable Book (Prague) and the Los Angeles Times Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, The Washington Post calls him one of the best writers in America. The Song Is You is ambitious, the plot elaborate but, in places, unconvincing.

Phillips tries to paint Julian as a sympathetic character. The reader is expected to admire him for giving up his philandering ways, to become a better husband, after the birth of his son.

The plot features events that are as unlikely as faster-than-light travel. Cait writes and posts to her Web site lyrics that invite Julian to help himself to the key to her apartment, which she has left for him under the mat. He subsequently lets himself in when he knows she is not home.

Julian eventually follows Cait to Europe, where her band tours several cities, and her star is on the rise. Their cat and mouse game ends on the final night of the tour with Julian waiting for Cait, naked in her bed, while Cait waits for Julian in his bed.

While some readers may view Julianfs fixation on Cait, more than half his age, as the great love of his life, it is what it is: the midlife crisis of a mostly unlikeable protagonist who plunges headlong into stalking the object of his obsession.

Phillips' writerly talent is evident. His narrative is sharp, his dialogue witty. Yet the characters, with the exception of his brother Aidan, fall flat. His estranged wife, Rachel, is weak; her insistent love for Julian, despite the pain he has caused her, will leave many readers rolling their eyes in disbelief.

Despite Phillips' credentials, I found this, his fourth novel, a disappointment.

J. Conrad Guest for The Smoking Poet

Just as with his first novel, Prague, the appeal of this book is Arthur Phillips' broad ranging mind (he's a former Jeopardy champion) and keen insight into human nature. In this work, he applies a somewhat biological reductionist approach to portraying romantic obsession ("all of this vain heartbreak that we cling to as important or tragic would one day be revealed... for what it is: just behavior"). While this could easily stifle any notion of romance, the story is brought to life with a compelling story line: a middle-aged man obsesses over a beautiful young singer, and anonymously becomes her muse by offering the detached advice which she so craves but can't otherwise find from her adoring fans.

Disappointingly, this page-turner, while not unraveling as badly as Prague, ultimately falls flat at the end. While the author craftily builds a narrative line leading to the Julian's (the main character) ultimate reconciliation, the clean ending seems almost tacked on, Hollywood-style, as an afterthought to tie up loose ends in a way that contradicts Phillips' remarkable gift for articulating complexity. To Phillips' credit, the finale eschews sensationalism in favor of a useful moral, but somehow the build is insufficient to make the transformation in Julian appear genuine; it's as if the outcome is chosen because there are simply no other options left. Interestingly, one of Phillips' most remarkable salvaged marriage vs. new start arguments comes less than halfway through the book (far too soon), as Julian's wife muses, "life could be better when reassembled from damaged, familiar shapes, rather than frittered away endlessly looking for something new."

The other major flaw is that while Phillips does a remarkable job of making this work accessible, the dialogue between characters is unrealistic- it's as if *every* character is part Arthur Phillips, wordy & overly cerebral.

These flaws do not mean this book isn't worth reading. As a treatise on obsession and pop culture, this may not have the broad appeal of High Fidelity, but this is more than compensated for by depth of insight. For example, he describes the delicate art of authenticity in projecting emotion on stage ("sing only what you can feel, or less") as it applies to a delicate equilibrium a gifted singer strives to maintain ("Two months ago, she was raw and unblended; tonight she was reasonably effective; someday very soon she would be in danger of marbling over into a slick cast impression of herself"). Throughout this work, Philips tries to put a finger on things we might think can't be measured- and succeeds brilliantly.

I've only read two of Phillips' works and have been disappointed twice, as if by a brilliant chess player with a less than brilliant end game. But, I have reason to hope he'll yet write a novel which does justice to his remarkable talent.

This fourth novel by Arthur Phillips (2009) is more introspective than his other very good novels I have read: Prague (2002) and The Egyptologist (2004). Beginning in New York in the 1950s, the prologue (the overture) describes a performance by Billie Holiday and a soldier's infatuation with her magical stage presence and voice. The transcendent effects of music are pursued in the novel through the life of the soldier's son in New York. Julian is drawn to the performance of an Irish rock singer who, in his mind, produces the same experience his father had with the famous jazz singer.

The novel is organized by seasons that progress from winter through spring, summer, and fall and are written like the movements of a symphony. Julian has fantasies of being a facilitator of the art inherent in Cait's voice. But, in his mid 40s, Julian is also a realist and wants his appreciation of her talent to be free of his personal desires. He communicates with Cait cryptically and from afar giving tentative advice about the expression of her talent.

Cait begins to view Julian has her muse rather than as another fan seeking something from her. This illusion tempts her to separate from her personal muse and divert her attention, energy, and finally love from her music to Julian. For Julian, Cait is the embodiment of artistic talent, the creator of magic, the muse revealed. He is inspired by her, desires her, and is willing to sever his ties with his work and family to possess her. He hesitates at first but becomes willing to ruin himself and Cait's art to fulfill his fantasy.

This interesting novel is difficult to read in the winter section. But like a symphony, the novel unfolds in structure, content, and theme. The theme, transcendent experiences becoming illusions that are pursued obsessively to their premature ends, is explored with great talent by Phillips. He shows readers that our desire to capture our fantasies destroys their future, and we can retrieve lost illusions only fleetingly and with regret. I recommend this novel and give it a four star rating.

This is one of the best books I've read in a long while. I finished it on a plane and I cannot get it out of my head. I've never read anything by Arthur Phillips before (although I remember when his last book came out and I was working at Barnes & Noble) but I definitely will seek him out again.

This is a book about music, how songs remind us of a certain moment or how hearing the right song at the right moment can convince us to act or not to act. This is a book about love, both falling in and out, and trying to find your way once your life seemingly falls apart. This is also a book about insecurities when your dreams start coming true...or when they don't.

I had a little trouble starting the book but I'm beyond glad I gave it a go. Phillips packs a lot into each page, so while I read the bulk of the book quickly, I didn't feel as if I were flying through it. If you like good fiction, read this book. And then tell me when you do so I have someone to discuss it with!

I simply could not put this book down. As a music lover and reader, it was stellar. The turns of phrase, the powerful story, it all adds up to one of the best books I've ever read.