I’m reading a big fantasy omnibus, and as is my wont when doing that, I’m reading separate short, short books in between the novels in the omnibus. Because reading several novels in a row in an omnibus is just oddly offputting to me. (But I have no problems reading several novels from the same author in a row otherwise. Go figger.)
Hey! I should tell you my Jandek story.
So, a decade and a half ago (or perhaps even longer ago than that) we were in Rome one winter, and as usual I googled desperately for interesting music in the area. I only found two things (some larger European cities are pretty much dead as far as experimental music goes — unless you know somebody who knows somebody), and the first was Uri Caine (who played in (if I remember correctly) a university lecture hall), and the second was Jandek.
To get a ticket, we went to a clothes store — which was closed. I knocked on the door, and was let in after a while, and then told that the Jandek show was sold out. But he put me on a waiting list, and then I got a phone later that we could get tickets anyway. So we went over, and it turned out that Jandek was going to play in the basement next door. There were about 20 people in the audience, all sitting on crates and whatever — this was a very dusty, dilapidated basement filled with odds and ends.
Then Jandek arrived, sang and played, and it was great.
Such underground music scene.
Anyway, this slender book is good — the texts tend toward being kinda opaque, but they’ve got a nice flow. Things get clearer towards the end. I like it.
The Rays Of Light That Did Not Illumine (2020) by Jandek (4.04 on Goodreads)
