My Phantoms

Last updated

My Phantoms is a 2021 British novel by Gwendoline Riley, first published in the UK by Granta. The novel is Riley's seventh.

Contents

Summary

Bridget Grant is a vegan and a scholar who lives in London with her boyfriend, John. From the age of 14 she is estranged from her father who she recalls from custody visits as a bullying, attention seeking man. His own twin sister does not attend his funeral and advises Bridget to do the same.

Bridget has an equally difficult with her mother, Helen 'Hen'. In adulthood they only communicate around birthdays and Christmas. Though Bridget's mother repeatedly boasts about her active social life she struggles to make friends. Bridget keeps the details of her own life careful separate from her mother.

Reception

My Phantoms was met with wide praise. According to Book Marks , the book received "rave" reviews based on 13 critic reviews with 10 being "rave" and 3 being "positive". [1]

In a review published by The New York Times , Lidija Haas compared Riley to Anton Chekov and Mary Gaitskill. [2] CBC praised the novel as "a bold, heart-stopping portrayal of a failed familial bond". [3] The Guardian also praised the work as a "devastating, quietly brutal novel". [4]

Related Research Articles

<i>Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason</i> (novel) 1999 novel by Helen Fielding

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason is a 1999 novel by Helen Fielding, a sequel to her popular Bridget Jones' Diary. It chronicles Bridget Jones's adventures after she begins to suspect that her boyfriend, Mark Darcy, is falling for a rich young solicitor who works in the same firm as him, a woman called Rebecca. The comic novel follows the characteristic ups and downs of the self-proclaimed singleton's first real relationship in several years. It also involves many misunderstandings, a few work mishaps, and an adventure in Southeast Asia involving planted drugs and Madonna songs.

<i>Bridget Joness Diary</i> 2001 romantic comedy film directed by Sharon Maguire

Bridget Jones's Diary is a 2001 romantic comedy film directed by Sharon Maguire and written by Richard Curtis, Andrew Davies, and Helen Fielding. A co-production of the United Kingdom, United States and France, it is based on Fielding's 1996 novel of the same name, which is a reinterpretation of Jane Austen's 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice. The adaptation stars Renée Zellweger as Bridget Jones, a 32-year-old British single woman, who writes a diary which focuses on the things she wishes to happen in her life. However, her life changes when two men vie for her affection, portrayed by Colin Firth and Hugh Grant. Jim Broadbent and Gemma Jones appear in supporting roles. Production began in August 2000 and ended in November 2000, and took place largely on location in London and the home counties.

Lauren Slater is an American psychotherapist and writer. She is the author of nine books, including Welcome To My Country (1996), Prozac Diary (1998), and Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir (2000). Her 2004 book Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century, a description of psychology experiments "narrated as stories," has drawn both praise and criticism. Criticism has focused on Slater's research methods and on the extent to which some of the experiences she describes may have been fictionalized.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heather O'Neill</span> Canadian writer (b. 1973)

Heather O'Neill is a Canadian novelist, poet, short story writer, screenwriter and journalist, who published her debut novel, Lullabies for Little Criminals, in 2006. The novel was subsequently selected for the 2007 edition of Canada Reads, where it was championed by singer-songwriter John K. Samson. Lullabies won the competition. The book also won the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and was shortlisted for eight other major awards, including the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Governor General's Award and was longlisted for International Dublin Literary Award.

Gwendoline Riley is an English writer.

<i>The Sense of an Ending</i> 2011 novel by Julian Barnes

The Sense of an Ending is a 2011 novel written by British author Julian Barnes. The book is Barnes's eleventh novel written under his own name and was released on 4 August 2011 in the United Kingdom. The Sense of an Ending is narrated by a retired man named Tony Webster, who recalls how he and his clique met Adrian Finn at school and vowed to remain friends for life. When the past catches up with Tony, he reflects on the paths he and his friends have taken. In October 2011, The Sense of an Ending was awarded the Booker Prize. The following month it was nominated in the novels category at the Costa Book Awards.

<i>How to Be Both</i> 2014 novel by Ali Smith

How to Be Both is a 2014 novel by Scottish author Ali Smith, first published by Hamish Hamilton. It was shortlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize and the 2015 Folio Prize. It won the 2014 Goldsmiths Prize, the Novel Award in the 2014 Costa Book Awards and the 2015 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction.

<i>The Mothers</i> (novel) 2016 novel by Brit Bennett

The Mothers is a debut novel by Brit Bennett. The book follows Nadia, a young woman who left her Southern California hometown years ago after the suicide of her mother and is called back to attend to a family emergency. The Mothers, released on October 11, 2016 by Riverhead Books, received critical acclaim and was a New York Times bestseller. A film adaptation is being produced by Kerry Washington's production company Simpson Street.

<i>The Silence of the Girls</i> 2018 novel by Pat Barker

The Silence of the Girls is a 2018 novel by English novelist Pat Barker. It recounts the events of the Iliad chiefly from the point of view of Briseis.

Ashley Audrain is a Canadian writer. She is known for two novels, The Push (2021) and The Whispers (2023), which were each published as part of a high-profile contract.

<i>My Sister, the Serial Killer</i> 2018 novel by Oyinkan Braithwaite

My Sister, the Serial Killer is a 2018 thriller novel by Nigerian writer Oyinkan Braithwaite. Braithwaite's debut novel was originally published in Nigeria as an e-book with the title Thicker Than Water in 2017 before being released in the United States by Doubleday Books on November 20, 2018.

<i>Girl, Woman, Other</i> 2018 novel by Bernardine Evaristo

Girl, Woman, Other is the eighth novel by Bernardine Evaristo. Published in 2019 by Hamish Hamilton, it follows the lives of 12 characters in the United Kingdom over the course of several decades. The book was the co-winner of the 2019 Booker Prize, alongside Margaret Atwood's The Testaments.

Candice Carty-Williams is a British writer, best known for her 2019 debut novel, Queenie. She has written for publications including The Guardian, i-D, Vogue, The Sunday Times, BEAT Magazine, and Black Ballad, and is a contributor to the anthology New Daughters of Africa (2019), edited by Margaret Busby.

<i>Trick Mirror</i> 2019 essay collection by Jia Tolentino

Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion is a 2019 book by American author Jia Tolentino. It contains nine essays about topics including internet culture, marriage, scams, and contemporary feminism.

<i>Girl in White Cotton</i> Novel by Avni Doshi

Girl in White Cotton is the debut novel by Avni Doshi, an American writer of Indian origin. Doshi wrote the novel over the course of seven years. It tells the story of a troubled mother-daughter relationship in Pune, India. The novel was first published in India in August 2019. It was published in the United Kingdom under the title Burnt Sugar in July 2020.

<i>Klara and the Sun</i> 2021 novel by Kazuo Ishiguro

Klara and the Sun is the eighth novel by the British writer Kazuo Ishiguro, published on 2 March 2021. It is a dystopian science fiction story.

<i>Dept. of Speculation</i> 2014 novel by Jenny Offill

Dept. of Speculation is a 2014 novel by American author Jenny Offill. The novel received positive reviews, and has been compared to Offill's later work, Weather.

<i>Queenie</i> (novel) 2019 new adult novel by Candice Carty-Williams

Queenie is a new adult novel written by British author Candice Carty-Williams and published by Trapeze, an imprint of Orion, in 2019. The novel is about the life and loves of Queenie Jenkins, a vibrant, troubled 25-year-old British-Jamaican woman who is not having a very good year. In 2023, Channel 4 announced that Queenie had been made into a television drama, created and executive produced by Carty-Williams and set to air in early 2024.

<i>The Friend</i> (novel) 2018 novel by Sigrid Nunez

The Friend is a novel by American writer Sigrid Nunez published by Riverhead Books in 2018. The book concerns an unnamed novelist who adopts a Great Dane that belonged to a deceased friend and mentor.

<i>The Promise</i> (Galgut novel) 2021 novel by Damon Galgut

The Promise is a 2021 novel by South African novelist Damon Galgut, published in May 2021, by Umuzi, an imprint of Penguin Random House South Africa. It was published by Europa Editions in the US and by Chatto & Windus in the UK.

References

  1. "My Phantoms". Book Marks . Retrieved 16 January 2024.
  2. Haas, Lidija. "Can We Escape Our Parents or Are We Fated to Become Them?". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
  3. "My Phantoms". CBC. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
  4. Preston, Alex. "My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley review – broken familial bonds". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 May 2023.