My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hello, I'm Sarah Pascoe. And I'm Cariad Lloyd. And we're weird about books. We love to read. We read too much. We talk too much. About the too much that we've read. Which is why we created the Weirdos Book Club. A space for the lonely outsider to feel accepted and appreciated. Each week we're joined by amazing comedian guests and writer guests to discuss some wonderfully and crucially weird books, writing, reading and reading. and just generally being a weirdo.
You don't even need to have read the books to join in. It will be a really interesting, wide-ranging conversation, and maybe you'll want to read the book afterwards.
We will share all the upcoming books we're going to be discussing on our Instagram, Sarah and Cariad's Weirdos Book Club.
Thank you for reading with us. We like reading with you.
This week's book guest is My Phantoms by Gwendolyn Riley. What's it about? Bridget Grant has a distant relationship with her mum and sister, which slowly unravels as the book goes on.
What qualifies it for the Weirdos Book Club? Well, who doesn't love a brittle and distant female narrator? In this episode, we discuss Ferrante Fever, Albert Camus and his hot pants, mothers Shekhov and Jackie Weaver. Trigger warning, we do talk about malicious behaviour from the father. Today we are talking about a book we've tried to talk about twice. We've read it three times. Yes, this is our third reading. So it does say something right at the beginning about the strength of this writer and the writing that I've read it three times and don't resent a single... A single read, a single moment of it, a single page.
I would agree. So we're talking about My Phantoms by Gwendolyn Riley. But also My Phantoms.
But also My Phantoms. But also My Phantoms by Gwendolyn Riley.
I picked it up for the third time and I thought, oh, here we go. I started reading it and thought, God, I could just read this whole thing. I love it so much. It's so good. And do you know what? It's light.
It's a light.
It's floating through, yeah. I mean, it's such a powerful book considering the weight of it. She gets so much in this fucking book.
What is 'My Phantoms' by Gwendoline Riley about?
Yeah. I was wondering, in terms of places to start, and there are so many, if we should start with Ferrante fever.
The tiny thing I wanted to say was that in 2004, in an interview in 3AM magazine, she was referred to as more like Camus in Hot Pants. What the fuck? I know. I just had to get that out there. In 3am? In magazine, 3am magazine. Is that the sun? I don't know. I just found the quote.
So 3am is like, is that page in the sun?
Yeah.
But I don't think it... And this is from 2004? 2004.
She was referred to as more like Camus in Hot Pants and it struck me... And more like Camus in Hot Pants than what? Yeah.
The camo in trousers. The camo in hot pants.
Camo in a rain jacket. Okay, but you wanted to talk about frantic fever.
Now all I can picture is Albert Camus probably had hot pants.
He was French. Basically, she is a pretty woman and she writes great books. So obviously when she first appeared, everyone went, she's so pretty. Was she wearing hot pants a lot? No, I don't think so. Let me try. I mean, can I just refer that I made that note a long time ago when we were supposed to do this book. And all I did was write down. So I will try and find it now. It's not fresh research. No, it's not fresh research. I actually picked the book up off the shelf. I was like, fuck, what did I do with all that research? And it was just waiting for me. And I thought to myself, well, damn, pass me. Yes.
that's good okay what did you want to talk about the reason i wanted to start frantic fever because there are lots of points that i could jump in it but i think it's a really good example of how this book uses specifics to speak to the dissonance and disconnect that can exist between a parent and their child and that's the podcast you're listening to smoking a cigarette
Okay, no, 3am is a website, like an arty website. Okay. So it's not the sun.
This says a lot to that quote that I thought it was.
Gwendolyn Riley's Brit Lit's Camu and Hot Pants tells HP Tinker why she still works in a bar.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:03–1:57
2
What is 'My Phantoms' by Gwendoline Riley about?
1:57–5:11
3
What is 'Ferrante Fever' and why is it significant?
5:11–9:13
4
How does the book portray the relationship between mothers and daughters?
9:13–19:54
5
What insights does the book provide about parental dynamics?
19:54–22:19
6
How does the narrator's father influence her character?
22:19–29:41
7
What themes of abuse and neglect are explored in the book?
29:41–36:18
Speakers
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