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In Singing, He Composed a Song
John is the teenage terror of his northern industrial town. With his friends, James and Simon, he is a disciple of depression and ennui. His world is a haze of smoke and heavy metal, anchored by poverty. Every day he steps closer to the edge. When an altercation at school leads to a bad encounter with the police and involuntary commitment to a psychiatric ward, John finds himself alone in the hospital Quiet Room with time to think, to reflect on who he is, how he got here and how to move forward—whether he wants to or not.
John is a successful musician. Music is his passion, his solace and the place he belongs. Looking for the lyric in the noise, he sifts through his life, through layers of experience overlapping like chords. He searches for himself in his psychiatric records, in the voices of his friends, his teachers, the cops, his doctors and in his own memories. Rearranging the layers into some sort of music, he tries to find a true account of himself.
In Singing, He Composed a Song is a masterful experimental novella that blends poetry and fiction, past and future, word and image, to radically question how language and authority intertwine to shape the ways we view ourselves. It finds the music—however dissonant—that can’t be held behind steel doors or hidden in the pages of your file.
John is a successful musician. Music is his passion, his solace and the place he belongs. Looking for the lyric in the noise, he sifts through his life, through layers of experience overlapping like chords. He searches for himself in his psychiatric records, in the voices of his friends, his teachers, the cops, his doctors and in his own memories. Rearranging the layers into some sort of music, he tries to find a true account of himself.
In Singing, He Composed a Song is a masterful experimental novella that blends poetry and fiction, past and future, word and image, to radically question how language and authority intertwine to shape the ways we view ourselves. It finds the music—however dissonant—that can’t be held behind steel doors or hidden in the pages of your file.
88 pages, Paperback
Published September 15, 2021
11 people want to read
About the author
Jeremy Stewart
7 books14 followersJeremy Stewart's latest book is an experimental novella called "In Singing, He Composed a Song," (University of Calgary Press 2021).
Stewart is the winner of the 2014 Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry for Hidden City (Invisible Publishing). Stewart is also the author of (flood basement (Caitlin Press 2009). His work has appeared in Canadian Literature, PRISM International, filling Station, Open Letter, Geist, and elsewhere.
Stewart lives in White Rock, British Columbia with his partner and their children. He once dropped a piano off a building.
Stewart is the winner of the 2014 Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry for Hidden City (Invisible Publishing). Stewart is also the author of (flood basement (Caitlin Press 2009). His work has appeared in Canadian Literature, PRISM International, filling Station, Open Letter, Geist, and elsewhere.
Stewart lives in White Rock, British Columbia with his partner and their children. He once dropped a piano off a building.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 20, 2021
A powerful look at the damages caused by labels.
How did the book make me feel/think?
“IN SINGING – HE COMPOSED A SONG” is a lyrically beautiful, experimentally dark, short book hitting heavy themes.
John is a child, 15-years old. Gifted. Disturbed. Not from entitlement. Those tasked with looking out for him judge him because of where (?) he’s from, watching him through a clouded lens. He’s labelled. The labels adhesive is unbreakable. He’s institutionalized, deemed a hazard to himself and to others. He’s just a child. We’ve all appallingly whispered gossip about those like him we’ve encountered in our lives. The labelling for him and those like him follow them throughout life as rumours like a violent tornado swirled only a few steps behind. He doesn’t have a chance.
My mum was labelled an unfit mother by religion + community. Her label was slapped firmly on her when she was forced to birth me in a place of disgrace, sanctioned by religion, where the unfit mothers (out of wedlock) gave birth, only to have their babies ripped out of their arms and then adopted out or sold—if the babies survived. The mums were to be fixed to become marriageable. The babies were never to be spoken of again.
I found out by accident, at age 43, my mum, who I had watched die when I was 27, wasn’t my birth mother, and my birth mum, the one labelled unfit, had hung out in the background of my life, playing a different role.
In 2016, alongside my birth mother’s deathbed, my mum told me, the night before they were coming to take me away, she pleaded with my mum(grand) to keep me. My labelled unfit mum lived with the burden of the secret her whole life—my entire family did. And I have now lived with the label of being a child whose birth brought shame, ever since.
A label’s adhesive is corrosive. It eats away at those of us who’ve been labelled, following vehemently behind.
For me, when I mention my story to others, I am often met with, “It was the times” or “A lot of people were adopted” or “A lot of people come from screwed up families.”
“Shut up” would be kinder.
“IN SINGING – HE COMPOSED A SONG” is a powerful look at the damage labels cause. For those of us who are labelled, how could we ever be, okay?
WRITTEN: October 20, 2021
How did the book make me feel/think?
“IN SINGING – HE COMPOSED A SONG” is a lyrically beautiful, experimentally dark, short book hitting heavy themes.
John is a child, 15-years old. Gifted. Disturbed. Not from entitlement. Those tasked with looking out for him judge him because of where (?) he’s from, watching him through a clouded lens. He’s labelled. The labels adhesive is unbreakable. He’s institutionalized, deemed a hazard to himself and to others. He’s just a child. We’ve all appallingly whispered gossip about those like him we’ve encountered in our lives. The labelling for him and those like him follow them throughout life as rumours like a violent tornado swirled only a few steps behind. He doesn’t have a chance.
My mum was labelled an unfit mother by religion + community. Her label was slapped firmly on her when she was forced to birth me in a place of disgrace, sanctioned by religion, where the unfit mothers (out of wedlock) gave birth, only to have their babies ripped out of their arms and then adopted out or sold—if the babies survived. The mums were to be fixed to become marriageable. The babies were never to be spoken of again.
I found out by accident, at age 43, my mum, who I had watched die when I was 27, wasn’t my birth mother, and my birth mum, the one labelled unfit, had hung out in the background of my life, playing a different role.
In 2016, alongside my birth mother’s deathbed, my mum told me, the night before they were coming to take me away, she pleaded with my mum(grand) to keep me. My labelled unfit mum lived with the burden of the secret her whole life—my entire family did. And I have now lived with the label of being a child whose birth brought shame, ever since.
A label’s adhesive is corrosive. It eats away at those of us who’ve been labelled, following vehemently behind.
For me, when I mention my story to others, I am often met with, “It was the times” or “A lot of people were adopted” or “A lot of people come from screwed up families.”
“Shut up” would be kinder.
“IN SINGING – HE COMPOSED A SONG” is a powerful look at the damage labels cause. For those of us who are labelled, how could we ever be, okay?
WRITTEN: October 20, 2021
June 25, 2023
I started this book a month ago and didn’t get very far, for no particularly reason. And when I picked it up and restarted it from the beginning today I absolutely loved it. The different components are layered together so well. And the book tells a powerful story.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews