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A review by chylu
Phantom by Susan Kay
5.0
This was a firm favourite in my teens, but I hadn't read it since I was about 20, and as I recently saw ALW's Phantom in London again, I thought I'd have a stroll down memory lane.
I was surprised to find the prose in the "Madeleine" section weak, but then as the POV moved on to Erik, Nadir, and so forth, it picked up, so my guess is it's simply that Madeleine's voice is rather more simple and childish than the others. Which makes sense, given her character's selfishness. I found the writing overall not as spectacular as I remembered from my previous readings, but I think this is because Erik as a character has always been so fascinating and tragic to me, and Kay has done a wonderful job of giving him a concrete past and reasons behind everything he did in his later years. Her research is excellent without being overwhelming with the historical details as I find historical fiction is often guilty of (getting bogged down in details where half a page is spent describing the stitching on a piece of fabric, for example).
As other reviewers have said, the book is unputdownable though Christine's section raises eyebrows. Obviously that's the part of the story most know, or know something of, and Kay has put her own intriguing spin on it... and I agree with previous reviewers who've said that Christine is a whinging, spineless wishy-washy character who seems hugely unworthy of Erik's intense love. I kept this in mind while rereading, but it occurred to me that Erik knew this as well... not that she's unworthy, but that she *is* an inane little girl lacking backbone and confidence. But -- she looks just like his mother. That's the key... he probably isn't seeing her as the most magnificent woman ever to be born, but she represents *all* women to him, really, and most importantly, his mother whose love he so badly wanted but never received. I think looking at it from that angle makes the Christine section, and Erik's behavior in it, easier to swallow.
The end still chokes me up, so I'm glad to have reread it, and am sure I'll read it again. This is a perfect example of the sort of fiction that blows my mind with how deeply it makes me feel for a character who sprang from imagination. It'd be easy to see this as indulgent fan-fiction, had Kay not put such extensive work into filling in the gaps with imagination and details that stay with you long afterwards. But this is easily one of the saddest stories I've ever read.
I was surprised to find the prose in the "Madeleine" section weak, but then as the POV moved on to Erik, Nadir, and so forth, it picked up, so my guess is it's simply that Madeleine's voice is rather more simple and childish than the others. Which makes sense, given her character's selfishness. I found the writing overall not as spectacular as I remembered from my previous readings, but I think this is because Erik as a character has always been so fascinating and tragic to me, and Kay has done a wonderful job of giving him a concrete past and reasons behind everything he did in his later years. Her research is excellent without being overwhelming with the historical details as I find historical fiction is often guilty of (getting bogged down in details where half a page is spent describing the stitching on a piece of fabric, for example).
As other reviewers have said, the book is unputdownable though Christine's section raises eyebrows. Obviously that's the part of the story most know, or know something of, and Kay has put her own intriguing spin on it... and I agree with previous reviewers who've said that Christine is a whinging, spineless wishy-washy character who seems hugely unworthy of Erik's intense love. I kept this in mind while rereading, but it occurred to me that Erik knew this as well... not that she's unworthy, but that she *is* an inane little girl lacking backbone and confidence. But -- she looks just like his mother. That's the key... he probably isn't seeing her as the most magnificent woman ever to be born, but she represents *all* women to him, really, and most importantly, his mother whose love he so badly wanted but never received. I think looking at it from that angle makes the Christine section, and Erik's behavior in it, easier to swallow.
The end still chokes me up, so I'm glad to have reread it, and am sure I'll read it again. This is a perfect example of the sort of fiction that blows my mind with how deeply it makes me feel for a character who sprang from imagination. It'd be easy to see this as indulgent fan-fiction, had Kay not put such extensive work into filling in the gaps with imagination and details that stay with you long afterwards. But this is easily one of the saddest stories I've ever read.