Reviews: Come Awake and To Antoine
Come Awake, Jon Buller. $10 (MP3) at www.jonbuller.com. Reviewed by Adrienne Funk, EMC Communications Assistant.
Jon Buller has been in the Christian worship music industry for over twenty years, but until COVID-19 he was more focused on pastoring and shepherding a congregation in Vernon, B.C. The pandemic provided a time for him to get back into a musical focus and we find him releasing a new album “with an intentional heart towards hope and encouragement for Christians and the Church in Canada.” Jon’s new album Come Awake includes a varied collection of some well-known and lesser-known covers of contemporary Christian songs, as well as two original recordings.
The covers contain some pleasant surprises in the way of melodic variations and harmonic structures that, while they are unexpected, work to provide added tension and uniqueness to his renditions. All of Buller’s recordings on this album are devoid of traditional drum kit, instead relying on a rhythmic pulse primarily from piano and guitar and, occasionally, hand drums. While the piano parts tend to be rather simplistic, Buller’s use of intricate guitar and bass riffs show him quite proficient and impressive on these instruments.
Buller’s use of intricate guitar and bass riffs show him quite proficient and impressive on these instruments.
His two originals boast lyrics that are entirely biblical. “Blessed,” based almost exclusively on the beatitudes, includes a groovy bass line and an off-beat rhythm with a touch of scat-like vocalizations; you may find it difficult not to tap your toe. “Thankful” has a more folky vibe and includes some impressive guitar riffs and atypical harmonic progressions in the phrase endings. Toward the end the electric guitar features some harder rock riffs, and the female background vocalist presents some melodic phrases that are more of an R&B style; perhaps Jon is attempting a multi-genre fusion in this track, but these interjections may be seen as a bit too eclectic. Regardless, he offers some diverse and impressive styles through this piece that showcase a high level of musicianship.
Overall, if you’re looking for some biblically based worship-style music with some unique renditions of familiar songs, as well as something brand new to introduce to your worship sets, this album is a great purchase.
To Antoine: a novel, E. J. Wiens (Gelassenheit Publications, 2022). 388 pp. $25.69 (paperback). ISBN 9780988099333. Reviewed by Jeff Thiessen, a member of MacGregor (Man.) EMC.
E. J. Wiens’ historical novel To Antoine is about a Mennonite boy from Ukraine who fights on the side of the Nazis in the Second World War. He then makes a quiet life for himself in Paraguay and, later, Canada only to have his involvement in the war come to public attention in his old age. The history of Mennonite interaction with the German military during the Nazi era remains difficult to discuss several generations after the fact and Wiens is willing to tackle it head-on.
On the surface this is a simple coming of age adventure story told through the eyes of the protagonist in his later years. The cast of characters is large but not overwhelming, the story line is compelling, the action moves quickly, and historical context is provided. The format of extended journal entries breaks the text up into manageable blocks without using formal chapter divisions and allows natural transition between the narrator’s memory, events in the present, and his inner thought process as he attempts to explain his own past to himself and others.
It’s clear from the first few pages how the story ends; the narrative tension or urge to keep reading comes from the twists and turns developing toward that conclusion. There are a handful of fully developed characters and a satisfying set of carefully sketched stock actors—the scatterbrained but wise Uncle Knalz, Groote Graete overbearing and benevolent, Eva the beautiful partisan fighter, Ohm Isaac the blind seer, and others. There are two plot twists at the end and enough unresolved questions to keep you thinking about the story after you’ve finished reading.
Will he really go there? Is it possible to portray a dutiful Nazi soldier sympathetically?
At some points the book reads as the author’s response to a dare or a creative writing prompt. Will he really go there? Is it possible to portray a dutiful Nazi soldier sympathetically? How do you write about losing a war or a way of life? Will his character really fall back on rationalizing tropes in his elder years? Surely he will be definitive about either the role of Anabaptist Christian faith or the Russian Mennonite cultural tradition at some point? Wiens is coy to the end on many of these questions although his narrator spends pages exploring ways to justify one reaction or another.
Wiens uses icons and iconoclasm as a thread throughout the story, alternating between the veneration and subversion of image and presentation. As the narrator struggles to come to terms with his own past he tries on various different presentations of his story and how he might explain it to himself, his daughter, his grand-daughter, and others. Those presentations range from iconic veneration to propaganda poster reduction to the defacing of presented versions. As a reader it is sometimes uncomfortable to realize that you have gone along with the narrator in an effort to explain or justify his own past in a reductive way and then find yourself caught up short with him when the justification seems inadequate. The narrator has a complex relationship with a mentor figure to whom the journal entries are addressed. That mentor, Antoine, seems to avoid all the reductive obsession with presentation that is held up for critique through the rest of the novel but is himself flawed in ways that are difficult to reconcile.
To Antoine is a worthwhile read, highly recommended whether you’re looking for a think-piece, an adventure story, Mennonite cultural history, or a probing thematic exploration.