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Book Notes - Arthur Phillips ("The Song Is You") - Largehearted Boy

In his own words, here is Arthur Phillips' Book Notes essay for his novel, The Song Is You:

The Song Is You is a novel about playlists, about the shuffle mode, about the song that reminds you of the time, of the girl, of the kiss, of your child and of you as a child, of your dad, of the epiphany and later, when you realized that epiphany was stupid… No, the song doesn’t remind you of those things—that’s too rational—the song removes you, shoves you back there—maybe against your will—before you can hit the skip button.

And it’s a novel about the desire to be taken away by music, the fantasy that music can fix everything you’ve broken, that a pretty Irish girl singing in a Brooklyn bar somehow has all the answers to life’s questions.

The book is full of songs, of course, and these eight play critical roles:

3) “The Boy with the Thorn in His Side” – The Smiths

I generally feel that what happened in Manchester, England, between about 1982 and 1992 is on a par with Renaissance Italy or the legend of Paris in the ‘20s. A ludicrous number of highly talented people inspired each other, competed with each other, cooperated with each other, and laid down the foundations for culture that still matters today. Parents! Teach your children! The Smiths! New Order! Happy Mondays!

This song appears in the book sung a cappella by a woman listening to it on her iPod, that foolish moment where you assume because you can’t hear anybody else, they can’t hear you. She’s sitting in the dog park in Brooklyn (the big one in Dumbo), while Julian spies on her. It’s creepy and loving at the same time, if you know what I mean. Unless that makes me sound stalkery.