Book Review: The Song is You by Arthur Phillips - Page 3

Phillips maintains control of his whirlwind plot until the final storm breaks. At times, the coincidences and fateful moments he relies on to keep the music going are a bit much, but the elegance of the narrative draws the reader in deeper at every stage. Perhaps most admirable is the novelist’s ability to weave a story that is simultaneously humorous and dramatic, dreamy and melancholy. This is a hard balance to achieve, but Phillips gets it just right.

I am reminded of those iPod playlists — so central to the unfolding of The Song of You — where the moods shift and the keys change, but (if they have been constructed with the right vision) the overall effect is cumulative not atomistic. Certainly this is a book that goes into my favorites list, flagged for frequent repetition on random shuffle. I now wait to see what our author, like the rock and jazz stars he describes so well, will do for an encore.

Article Author: Ted Gioia

Ted Gioia is a writer and musician. He is the author of Delta Blues, The History of Jazz and, most recently, The Birth (and Death) of the Cool. You can follow Ted Gioia on Twitter at www.twitter.com/tedgioia.

Visit Ted Gioia's author page — Ted Gioia's Blog