This memoir was an interesting read, and although as I imagine, most people reading this book would know who Patricia Parr is - I didn't, cause I live halfway across the world, and yet I enjoyed it all the same. (I absolutely and totally only grabbed this review copy because of its amazing play on words in the name.)

I found the author's voice to be calm and soothing, very measured, very lucid. She appears to be a graceful person, she does not belittle herself, but she also does not think the world of her talents either. It was all very sober-minded that way, and that's what made her story very readable for me. Of course, one can't escape feeling like it's a very privileged life, to be able to own multiple homes when your average musician probably delivers pizzas these days to keep their head above the water, but it does appear as though Ms. Parr used her privilege well and gracefully (and also, I think to some extent, there is a generational factor where the Baby Boomer generation lived a very different life to us right now both socially and economically). She comes across as a person I would genuinely like to know, because she seems very sweet. And definitely very accomplished!

I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.

Above parr memoir of a child prodigy by Patricia parr.
In the seven decades that followed, the author went on to have a brilliant and celebrated career as a soloist and chamber music artist. However, like so many child prodigies, she grew up feeling that her parents’ love depended upon her success.Above Parr is her attempt to understand that feeling, to grasp where it came from, and to celebrate the ways in which she has overcome it.
This was strange. There was nothing I could read. I couldn't understand it. 2*. Sorry but confused.

Not having grown up being imersed in the world of classical music, though I did play the piano as a youth, and not having grown up in Canada, I was unfamiliar with Patricia Parr before reading this book, and interviewing her on KKUP for my weekly music show.

What happened to Patricia, in the early part of her life, would be considered child abuse, by today's standards, or at least I hope so. But, as I told her, there are still stage mothers who are out there, trying to get their child to practice enough, to perform enough, to play enough, that they use the gifts that they were born with, and by dang they will become famous. It is not the child driving this desire. As Patricia said in her book, she was playing concerts since the time she was six years old, because she enjoyed it. She thought it was fun to get out there and play the piano for crowds of people, even playing Carnegie Hall when she was, I believe, nine years old.

That part of the book was fascinating, as she looked back at a time that she said, later in the book, she could barely remember, events that she had to refer to from old clippings from newspapers and diary entries.

The second part of the book, with her adult life as a chamber player (chamber music refers to music done by several musicians that would fit in a room or chamber), was a not quite as interesting, though by that time she was, apparently quite famous, and so for people from Canada who were familiar with her work, they might have been more engaged in what she was saying about her later life, and how she felt. I have to admit, she did pick on some interesting things, such as how in one place in Mexico, the piano was put together just before the performance, so she didn't get a chance to even reherse on it before the performance began.

All in all, and interesting look at what happens to a child prodigy, and what is left over from a very difficult childhood.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

I had a hard time getting into this book. Since I did not finish it, I do not intend to publish a review.