Some strange craving for symmetry compels us to want our heroes to rise and to fall. A simple rags-to-riches story may catch the eye at first. But ultimately the words “lived happily ever after” are not only unbelievable (does anyone live happily ever after?) but boring as well. What truly grips — in literature, films and reality, too — is a life that swoops up and down like a roller-coaster. The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune not only reveal character. They also define it.
Which is why, seven months after that heartstopping moment when she opened her mouth on Britain’s Got Talent and silenced the cackles of the nation, Susan Boyle still holds us enthralled. Had the bulky 48-year-old merely won the damn thing,