I was surprised at how much I liked this book given that I found the two main characters to be just a little distasteful. Julian, the protagonist, was partially redeemed for me through his great taste in music, and of course - his grief over his loss made it hard to really dislike him. Cait, however, was the portrait of the artist as a young snot. The relationship between Julian and Cait is intriguing enough, especially before they actually meet; and the minor characters are well drawn and interesting. Julian's brother ends up being oddly loveable, and his ex-wife is portrayed as a real human being and not a shrill harpy as so often happens.

There is some lovely writing here, and I definitely recognize a lot of middle aged men in Julian. The use of music as a trigger for emotions and memories helped to tie together the different threads of the story. Overall, the book was interesting and enjoyable, but it didn't really move me deeply. I recommend it to music lovers and to fans of Mr. Phillips' other work. ( )

The central concept of a person experiencing personal grief in middle age and turning to art, in this case music, in some ways functions as a set piece, there to provide Phillips a forum for commenting on love, loss, and expectation. His prose and the way he captures interpersonal dynamics, emotion and sensation, lend the novel heft, not the action or past histories revealed as the plot unfolds.

At the same time, The Song Is You is not a character piece, in that the point does not seem to be understanding any character's personality or motives, or even to focus on the character's interpersonal relationships, so much as it is to examine the pragmatic influence of ideals on the protagonist's everyday life. The novel explores this theme by relating the challenge of relating directly to music, rather than to the musician or various other people involved in making that music. Not that one can't relate to the musicians, too, if the musicians are interesting to you, but the challenge is whether it's possible to relate to the music in itself, to interact with it, and if so, what that would be like. It seems to me that Phillips observes that it's strangely difficult to bring music as an abstraction into one's life without somehow damaging the music or your experience of it. This theme is for me the heart of the novel.

Phillips's protagonist, Julian Donahue, shares my general musical appreciation, both specific artists and the influences shaping his overall taste (1970s and 1980s popular music, 1940s jazz standards, and all that flows from those twin tributaries). I also recognise the connection Julian has to music, how specific songs connect and even narrate experiences, without this link being constrained to just one event or experience, necessarily. In this way, the leitmotif of music is more effective here than it is in Hornsby's High Fidelity, though I enjoyed that, too.

Phillips also has an understated way of weaving musical allusion and lyrical quotations into descriptions, and it is this talent that resonated with me. He does not resort to lists or name-dropping but integrates the story or character at hand to the music, to the extent there were several occasions I could not identify the reference but felt confident there was one. In one instance, Julian's father weaves a quote from a jazz standard into his dialogue [205], and Phillips doesn't call attention to it at all, just as it's likely Julian (at the time no older than 12) doesn't recognise it as a lyric. But we know his Dad would know it, and would use it in conversation in just that way.

I had hopes that Julian and the musician Cait would never meet, even as I enjoyed their distant communications: the novel unfolded in part as a modified epistolary narrative. My wish that the two would never meet was fed largely in recognition of Julian's thrill at discovering a musician, and then fantasizing about successfully influencing that musician in their work. Here is that romantic notion again, not boy-girl romanticism but the notion of ideals and how a person might concretely uphold and become involved in, even contribute to those ideals. The thrill of being recognised / acknowledged by the artist, and in not being a groupie but authentically contributing to those aspects of the artistry which were so impressive to the fan in the first place. The invasive stalker relationship between Julian and Cait is creepy, but it also came across as perhaps inevitable given a premise of (a) exploring the idea of a fan appreciating and also influencing an artist, while (b) delaying as long as possible if not outright preventing the artist and fan from ever actually meeting. For me, this was the core of the story as well as the musical leitmotif, and it led to some disturbing places between the characters in order for that theme to be explored.

The resolution is a bit overwrought and almost anticlimactic from the standpoint of plot, then. From the standpoint of Julian trying to connect to music beyond merely sitting in his head and hearing or thinking of it, though, the resolution seems reasonable. Julian and Cait interact on several levels: as musician-fan, artist-patron, celebrity-groupie, producer-consumer, artist-mentor, artist-colleague. It was apparent to me that Phillips was aware of the dual nature of Julian and Cait as a fairly standard romantic couple, on the one hand, and as an example of an artist (Cait) linked to someone appreciating her art (Julian), and then set out to address how the two perspectives would fit together. On one level, the results are disturbing: the obsession on the part of both characters for each other, and how they reach out to one another. On another level, the developments follow necessarily from one character's intent to to pursue the romantic notion of ideals being taken seriously, rather than merely as wishes or distractions.

After reading the novel, Phillips seems to comment that romanticism is always a bit twisted, perhaps perverted when brought out from the realm of internal experience. The price of admission.

Phillips references the better part of an entire album, (Cait's fictional album Servicing All The Blue Suits) plus her demo and various performances portrayed in the book, including song titles and track sequencing. He quotes liberally the lyrics of several songs, and if anything, the lyrics read better than many lyrics do when divorced from their musical accompaniment. I'm left wondering if the songs wholly exist. Not necessarily recorded, but as more than just the scraps needed to quote in the novel. Did Phillips write or co-write a full album of material? Did he commission someone else to do it? Did he borrow existing lyrics or poetry to create the album? If there literally is nothing more than what is quoted in the book, it's impressive that he leaves the impression there's an actual album he's describing, that he's not merely using stray bits of verse and adjectives in place of actual songs. ( )

Music has always been an important part of Julian Donahue's life. Carrying an iPod filled with thousands of songs, each with special significance, Julian is aware of the ways a song can capture a listener and become an important player in relationships and experiences unconnected to music itself. Although the middle-aged advertisement director's life hasn't gone as planned, and he is separated from his wife, songs offer some consolation to Julian, who feels that "music lasted longer than anything it inspired." One night in a Brooklyn bar, he hears the performance of Cait O'Dwyer, a young rock singer on the verge of stardom, and becomes infatuated with both the musician and her songs. Julian reaches out to her anonymously in the form of career advice, and the two continue to communicate with enigmatic messages.

Through Julian's own history with music and his unusual relationship with Cait, Phillips explores music's ability reawaken moments and emotions from the past. The characters' longing from a distance adds suspense to the story, but with time, it's clear that Julian desires something greater than Cait herself. Of course, with music playing such an important role in the novel, her songs are an impetus for Julian to sort out his life, and ultimately, the story is a testament to the ways music captures the past and affect the future.
(Edited because I started to ramble. I'll sort it out and add more to the review later, so it's more review and less summary.) ( )

Very well written tale of a man's obsession with an up and coming singer following the death of his son and split from his wife. Julian is a talented guy - directing commercials - but he suffers from an inability to remain faithful to his wife Rachel, even though he loves her. He changes when his son is born and then falls apart when he dies unexpectedly. Cait O'Dwyer is a compelling young singer/songrwriter on the cusp of fame when he sees her in a bar. She is as enigmatic as Julian and before a long a very complicated game of cat and mouse ensues. Luckily for both of them, that is all it is. Beautifully written exploration of the complexity of human emotions. ( )

this book either caught me in a bad mood, or it was just bad. I started it with the best of intentions like i do any other book,... but it quickly found a way to irritate me like a handfull of books can. I am not sure if the book was too wordy, the mood too dark.. or maybe it was over my head, because i just did not like this book at all. in fact i was so agitated by it that it sat on my shelf for a very long time before i was able to make a second atempt to finish it.

the only thing i can say about it, was that it gave me lots of reasons to look things up on youtube.. things i never would have thought of looking up before.

seeing that im one of the very few that didn't like this book, im thinking that its me, and not the book, so to be fair, i gave it 2 stars. ( )