The Song Is You

Zusatztext “One of the best writers in America.”— Washington Post Book World “Enthralling . . . brilliant . . . triumphant.”—Publishers Weekly! starred review “Life is a tragedy for those who feel and a comedy for those who think! and for those of us who try to think and feel! The Song Is You captures the flip sides of life at middle age pretty much perfectly. Arthur Phillips is that rare thing among fiction writers! a wise guy who’s also wise.”—Kurt Andersen “Impossible to put down.”— New York Times Book Review   “Daring . . . [an] incandescent new novel . . . richly human! filled with unexpected grace . . . A burning urgency animates the tale.”— Washington Post   “Phillips’s sparkling prose makes for a seriously fun read.”— San Francisco Chronicle   “This is the kind of novel you wait for! mostly in vain. Now that it has arrived! Phillips takes his place . . . with the likes of Zadie Smith! Jonathan Lethem! and the late David Foster Wallace—twenty-first century authors! in short! who can simply blow you away with what’s happening on their pages.”— Buffalo News   “An ambitious story of love and obsession [that] showcases Phillips’s gift for plumbing the depths of grief and emotional fragility.”— USA Today   “Captivating . . . This book is itself a flowing! lyrical arrangement—the words almost begging to be read (or sung) aloud.”— Elle Informationen zum Autor Arthur Phillips Klappentext Each song on Julian's iPod, "that greatest of all human inventions," is a touchstone. There are songs for the girls from when he was single, there's the one for the day he met his wife-to-be, there's one for the day his son was born. But when Julian's family falls apart, even music loses its hold on him. Until one snowy night in Brooklyn, when his life's soundtrack-and life itself-start to play again. Julian stumbles into a bar and sees Cait O'Dwyer, a flame-haired Irish rock singer, performing with her band, and a strange and unlikely love affair is ignited. Over the next few months, Julian and Cait's passion plays out, though they never meet. What follows is a heartbreaking dark comedy, the tenderest of love stories, and a perfectly observed tale of the way we live now. Leseprobe Chapter One Julian Donahue's generation were the pioneers of portable headphone music, and he began carrying with him everywhere the soundtrack to his days when he was fifteen. When he was twenty-three and new to the city, he roamed the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, claimed it as his discovery, colonized it with his hours and his Walkman. He fell in love with Manhattan's skyline, like a first-time brothel guest falling for a seasoned professional. He mused over her reflections in the black East River at dusk, dawn, or darkest night, and each haloed light-in a tower or strung along the jeweled and sprawling spider legs of the Brooklyn Bridge's spans-hinted at some meaning, which could be understood only when made audible by music and encoded in lyrics. Play on, Walkman, on, rewind and give me excess of it.   Late in the evening of the day he completed his first job directing a television commercial, Julian sat in the fall air and listened to Dean Villerman on his Walkman, stared at Manhattan, and inhaled as if he'd just surfaced from a deep dive, and he had the sensation that he might never be so happy again as long as he lived. This quake of joy, inspiring and crippling, was longing , but longing for what? True love? A wife? Wealth? Music was not so specific as that. "Love" was in most of these potent songs, of course, but they-the music, the light, the season-implied more than this, because, treacherously, Julian was swelling only with longing for longing . He felt his nerves open and turn to the world like sunflowers on the beat, but this desire could not achieve release; ...

Dettagli sul prodotto

• Autori: Arthur Phillips
• Editore: Random House USA
• Lingue: Inglese
• Formato: Tascabile
• Pubblicazione: 23.03.2010
• EAN: 9780812977912
• ISBN: 978-0-8129-7791-2
• Pagine: 288
• Dimensioni: 133 mm x 204 mm x 16 mm
• Serie: Random House Reader's Circle; Random House Reader's Circle
• Categoria: Narrativa > Romanzi