Review | Mama Cormier

…a book that all bookclubs should read

I loved the book Beartown so much that I went on to read the following two books in the series. Beartown is a book that can stand on it’s own but if you love the characters you’ll want to read more. The interesting thing about this book is that it is about a junior hockey team in northern Sweden and not something that I would gravitate to. I’m not a huge hockey fan but I do enjoy watching Olympic hockey.

The story involves flawed characters and a community who get caught up in their devotion to a hockey team. Unlike Backman’s more lovable characters in A Man Called Ove and Anxious People the people of Beartown reflect a more realistic community and how making a bad decision has negative consequences that can ruin people’s lives. Backman has the ability to write thoughtfully and make us feel empathy for his characters. The novel is full of suspense, conflict and passion for a game.

If you belong to a bookclub I can see some great discussions come from this novel. The pressure we put on our children to be the best, drinking underage, rape, the roles of women vs men, parenting, the importance of sport in our communities, social and cultural prejudices, and homophobia are just a few areas for discussion.

I loved all the books so much that I decided to draw a map of the two fictional towns, Hed and Beartown and the forest that separates them in northern Sweden. This is how I imagined the map. to look like.

6195-B6-F1-B767-408-B-B3-DC-E43-B181853-DE

C799732-E-9142-4-BC5-B3-A1-8-A39-D78-E15-BB

0-D5-AAE36-6-DD8-499-E-BEFB-A303463689-CE

A99339-E0-85-F7-406-C-B4-C7-854-C3-CDA647-D

…..a great concert featuring Jens Lindemann

On Thursday of this week I had the pleasure of attending the third concert of a series, Music in the Afternoon, put on by the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto. I didn’t know what to expect. I only knew that the featured artist, Jens Lindemann, played the trumpet. It turned out to be my favourite concert to date.

The concert started with a piano and trumpet duet. Jennifer Snow (who is also Jens’ wife) appeared on the stage and began to play. From the back of the auditorium the unmistakable sound of the trumpet joined in. Slowly Mr. Lindemann made his way to the stage while he played.

Even though the concert started on a serious note, we quickly learned of Jens Lindemann’s fun side. Born in Germany, he introduced himself with a heavy German accent. He asked the audience if there were any other Germans amongst us and I quickly raised my hand. I had no idea that I would be the only other German born person to raise her hand and he immediately asked me, in German, where I was from. I told him Frankfurt and he told us that he came from an area close by. There were two other German speaking audience members but they were from Austria and he made a joke that with one German and two Austrians we had a party. I was nervous that he would ask me more questions in German but he moved on to talking about Tim Horton’s and all of a sudden his heavy German accent disappeared and he spoke in a natural ‘Canadian’ voice. The audience loved it.

I should have known that he was putting us on because I had read that he came to Canada as a baby. He was raised in Edmonton and studied at McGill University and The Juilliard School. He’s won numerous awards as a celebrated soloist around the world and in 2014 he received The Order of Canada.

For most of the show Lindemann was accompanied with a piano, bass and drums. Apparently it was the first time in the WMCT’s history that a drum set appeared on stage. The ensemble was made up of the celebrated and talented musicians of Kristian Alexandrov, Mike Downes and Ted Warren. We were treated to a range of musical styles from classical (Bach and Debussy) to Jazz (Duke Ellington), Tango (Piazzola) and contemporary composers (Sting, Alexandrov).

The show ended softly just like it started but Lindemann featured his pianist, Kristian Alexandrov, with a number that he composed himself. Kristian’s Prayer brought tears to my eyes. At the end Jens joined in with a lovely rendition of What a Wonderful World. I bought Prayer from iTunes and I was able to find a video on YouTube of Kristian and Jens performing What a Wonderful World at McGill, four years ago. Enjoy!