Songs of No Provenance
What was supposed to be a chill gig turns into a lurid exhibition from which an indie musician fears she may never recover in Lydi Conklin’s lush novel Songs of No Provenance.
To escape the reality of what she’s done, Joan drives to Virginia and the summer camp that invited her to teach songwriting. She had turned them down, but now it is the only place for her to lie low and hope her transgression passes unremarked. Running away also provides Joan a clear opportunity to reassess her relationships with herself and her music.
There are no easy answers. The book questions what it means to be accountable for one’s actions and inactions and who is allowed to claim harm, impact, and forgiveness. Its exploration of queerness and kink is messy. Queerness, as articulated by Joan, defies simple explanations and refuses to be contained by labels. Her kink is presented in matter-of-fact terms, but it is also a source of shame.
Joan is the headliner in the book; everyone else is a supporting act. The tight focus on Joan is almost claustrophobic but necessary. The story homes in on her contradictory nature. She is by turns frustrating and endearing. Her depth of emotions terrifies her; she avoids feeling even as she stews in her feelings, exorcising the biggest through song and kink. There’s a tender balance between uncomfortable encounters, startling self-awareness, and Joan’s aching need to be seen but not perceived—an impossibility, as she discovers, as to be known in complete honesty and loved anyway is a release as good as, or better than, any she’s had with nameless randoms in bathrooms.
Songs of No Provenance is an astonishing novel, without artifice and unflinching in its presentation of its subject in her full humanity.
Reviewed by
Dontaná McPherson-Joseph
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
