SONGS OF NO PROVENANCE

A debut novel from the author of the story collection Rainbow Rainbow (2022).

Joan Vole is a folk singer with one semi-big hit. Her career has stalled out, but she still plays clubs around New York and can still boast a coterie of dedicated fans—mostly women, mostly lesbians. After she sexually assaults one of these fans onstage, though, she gets out of the city as quickly as she can, hoping to escape the ignominy that she knows is coming for her. A job teaching songwriting at a camp for artsy kids seems like the perfect escape. It’s a decent paycheck and the camp’s no-internet policy will give her a place to hide out for a little while. In their short fiction, Conklin has offered tender, funny, heartbreaking portraits of queer people navigating moments of revelation and transition. Joan might well have made a terrific protagonist in a short story; nearly 400 pages of Joan is way too much, though. She is, in short, a real jerk. An obnoxious main character can be fun, but Joan is tiresome and exasperating. An obnoxious protagonist can also provide readers with a kind of release by doing things that we never would (or believe we never would). Joan kind of does this, but…her own favorite form of release is very specific. Joan didn’t just take down her pants and hump the leg of her fan; she also peed on her fan. Urination—urinating in public, refraining from urinating, urinating on others—is what Joan gets off on, and Conklin lavishes a lot of attention and a lot of detail on scenes of Joan peeing. Readers’ reactions to the abundant pee talk will vary, but it’s difficult to assess this book without mentioning it.

A disappointing work from a talented author.