A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali

Rating:
Summary: A Poignant Lament
Review: A beautifully written story, which is more autobiography than fiction, but I suspect no newspaper was interested in this journalist's eye-witness account of a people betrayed in a preventable Holocaust. Cushioning what happened in Rwanda in a work of fiction is the only catharsis Gil Courtemanche could achieve. In his dedication of the book, he names those in real life whom he does not disguise with pseudonyms in the actual story, and as it turns out, the lovely but tragic Gentille was a very real person. Originally written in French, none of this journalist's imagery and lyrical phraseology is lost in Patricia Claxton's English translation. Maybe she even enhanced it.

At first, Courtemanche's description of the Canadian UN Force Commander as the "weak general" angered me for, from today's perspective, it is an unfair judgment, but if I were in this journalist's shoes at the same time in history with the same background knowledge he had then, I too would have been furious at the UN general's apparent ineffectiveness to prevent the genocide of a race, the Tutsis, and their moderate Hutu sympathizers by extremist Hutus that followed. I was in Rwanda in 1994 covering the humanitarian relief program for UNIMIR. I arrived at a time when we finally had a different perspective of this "weak general." The UN refused to give him permission to take action, and he has suffered inconsolable guilt as a result. Nevertheless, this "weak" general risked his life and his career to stay with the people he came to love by disobeying the UN's command to come home once the genocide began. He was told to let the civil war take care of itself. He and his small Canadian Force willingly disobeyed orders and refused to leave, and he telephoned a Canadian CBC broadcaster every night so the News Room could hear the screams as he gave a nightly report. Eventually the Tutsi rebels achieved what the UN did not-overthrew the barbarian hordes orchestrating the genocide-to make it safe for replacement UN Forces to land in Kilgali. Millions of Hutus, fearing retribution, flooded the borders of Zaire and finally grabbed the attention of CNN. By this time, the UN and Canadian Military did not dare court martial the general and his small band of Canadian peacekeepers, who stayed and risked massacre to bring humanitarian relief and eventual retribution. This general was not "weak." His UN masters--particularly the US and France on the Security Council--made him and his UN mission powerless. There's a great difference. Maj. General Romeo Dallaire (whom Courtemanche never names in the story) had courage few military commanders on UN missions have shown today. I feel Courtemanche could have added a footnote, as he does with many historical explanations for what he writes, to clarify his original perception of the "weak general."

Once I read the story I had to leave it until I could deal with the memories in writing a review of "A Sunday at the Pool in Kilgali." The love story of a Canadian foreign correspondent, Bernard Valcourt, and the beautiful Hutu, Gentille, who had Tutsi features and elegance, is set against the societal corruption exemplified by those who gather around the local hotel pool: relief workers, Belgian peacekeepers, Rwandan middle-class, refugees and prostitutes. Here, the middle-aged Valcourt observes the disintegration of society turning on itself, while the adoring love of his much younger amour brings him alive. They plan their wedding in the midst of carnage, but eventually he can't protect her. During an escape attempt, members of the Hutu militia assault him and capture Gentille. In real life, Courtemanche never learned what happened to Gentille, but Valcourt finds her after the genocide ends-a ruined, broken woman dying of AIDS, who begs Valcourt to leave her to die in peace.

The love story takes on a life of its own as Valcourt attempts to explain what is happening to the world around him that's falling apart. There are many passages like these: "Watch out-men are turning into dogs and worse still than dogs and worse still than hyenas or the vultures on the wind making circles in the sky above an unwary herd."

In light of death, Courtemanche emerges a philosopher. The 'white' man tries to teach the African to live, while he waits to die--most often because of AIDS. What the 'white' man fails to realize, he writes, is that you can live only if you know you are going to die. Says one character, Cyprien: "You think we don't value life as much as you. So tell me, Valcourt, poor and deprived as we are, why do we take in our cousins' orphans, and why do our old people die with all their children around them?"

There is much we can learn from the people we marginalize in Africa.

Rating:
Summary: A modern tragedy celebrating our humanity
Review: A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali takes place in the massacre ridden land of Rwanda. It is a modern tragedy akin to Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear and other celebrated works of literature. Courtemanche is brilliant as he constructs the story of a Canadian journalist in Rwanda who falls in love with a local woman whom he cannot have nor can he help. This novel is a celebration of a human life which is destined to a tragic ending but its characters are brave, innocent, and very much alive. Gentille, the beautiful Rwandan courted by the journalist Valcourt. The guilt of the United Nations, the Americans, the Belgians, the French, and the rest of the "civilzed world." All is explored and all is ridiculed for its inaction and its permission for an all out massacre in the nation of Rwanda.

This book is both a celebration and condemnation of life. One leaves it heartbroken but optimistic, bitter but moved. It is classified as fiction but the sin of allowing such a massacre to occur is spread deep into our souls. This book will open your eyes to a world which is deeply imperfect and the locusts will feast.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant and Evocative
Review: A wonderful book which contains some of the best dialogue and exchanges ever about the difference between blacks and whites and the hatred that eats into people. Very descriptive and evocative, this book gives voice to the legacy of colonialism, human relationships, politics and love. What I liked most about it was the honesty, all the characters were inspiring in their own way but we were also aware of their weaknesses, and were able to accept that is what makes them whole as a person. It doesn't try to make excuses for anything but offers an acute observation of life that only a few people who take the time will be able to notice. In spite of the brutality that ensued, there was genuine friendship, caring, courage and bravery which allows humanity to be redeemed. My favourite characters are Emerita who was full of life and daring, Valvourt, who was very self aware esp of his weaknesses, Gentille noble and beautiful and the personal growth which love creates in her, and her father and cousin who lamented the destruction that would descend when friends and relatives killed one another. A must-read and important reminder that 'Never Again' does not mean anything unless the international community ensures the promise is kept.


Rating:
Summary: So You Think You're World Travelled and Educated....
Review: After reading this book, I realized how naive we all are. This book is a frank portrayal of the Rwandan tragedy - a human tragedy - and how poverty, AIDS and famine bring out the best and worst in us all. We are them. They are us. It is a love story as well as a political and historical primer.

This book should have made the NY Times best seller list based on the amazing love story alone. The historical events in Rwanda are a bonus to readers (you actually learn something while you are being otherwise entertained). A must read. You won't put it down once you start, and you will buy more copies to share with others.

Rating:
Summary: An important book about the genocide in Rwanda
Review: Bernard Valcourt is a somewhat cynical Canadian who lives in a hotel in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. As a kind of an development aid worker he tries to set up a television channel and make a movie on AIDS. On Sundays he sits at the side of the swimming pool and writes down what he sees: pompous Rwandans, ex-pats whose lives are centred on booze and cheap sex. He falls in love with the beautiful Gentille, a Hutu woman who is build as a Tutsi, and together they see how Rwanda changes into a hell in which people are butchered by their neighbours simply because they are or appear to be Tutsi ("cockroaches" as they are called by the militant Hutu faction) or just because the military guys are drunk and feel like slaughtering somebody. They see how friends and acquaintances around them die, but refuse to believe that total madness will break out. In the end they stay too long.

This book is described by the author as a documentary rather than in novel, in which he wants to draw attention to the almost forgotten genocide (and also describes the spread and consequences of AIDS, another mass killer). At the time of the genocide I was in neighbouring Tanzania and even there we did not have an idea about the extent of the slaughter in Rwanda. A gruesome book that is very important, well written and it explains very clearly what happened in Rwanda in 1994.

Rating:
Summary: fluent and moving
Review: Courtmanche has managed to carve a literary gem with `A Sunday at the pool in Kigali'. The title itself is the first evidence of the writer's meticulous craftsmanship; it is an unassuming title, referring to time spent at a pool, and on a Sunday at that- customarily, a day of rest- thus successfully creating an impression of time spent leisurely and carefree. This seemingly serene setting comes in direct contrast with the seething volcano that is the Rwanda which he describes later on through images of violence and brutality. The writer punctuates the entire story with such contrasts, aiming at creating greater dramatic effect. The choice of this title is also an indirect, albeit a clear criticism, at the stance kept by the Western powers when faced with the unfolding of the Rwandan tragedy: it is as if he is summing up the activities of the Western development officials based in Rwanda and more precisely, what they viewed their role to be whilst in Rwanda- to spent their days around the pool, feeding their vanity, financial and sexual needs.

Courtmanche is successful in telling the story of the massacre and in presenting the contribution of all the actors involved in the Rwandan tragedy, through the tale of a moving love story, which ironically concerns the story of a White and a Black Rwandan. They represent the human idealists, who against all odds, have a completely different take on life and on their fate, than their respective compatriots: the White is not only interested in his sexual gratification when he sees a Black Rwandan girl, he falls in love with her; he does not take the first chance to flee Rwanda upon smelling danger- he `feels' Rwandan and decides to stay in `his' land. She does not see him only as a passport to escape her miserable destiny by becoming his mistress and thus possibly having the chance to leave Rwanda to go to a `civilised' Western country- in her state of half-literacy, she comes across as sharp and astute and correctly assesses the behaviour of the White towards her: he is genuinely interested in her because of who she is individually, and not of what she can be used as by a White male, given that she is a Black Rwandan. This is a first for her- for this, she falls in love with him. Effectively, this couple represents hope, an essential ingredient in one's attempt to cope with human failings and tragedy.

`A Sunday at the pool in Kigali' is a fictional work based on real-life events. It is made all the more poignant and moving, due to the fact that the writer has direct, personal experience of the events in Rwanda and is thus better able to make up a story which accurately reflects the formidability and frightfulness of the Rwandan genocide. Courtmanche dexterously interweaves the personal story of the two main protagonists with the political life of Rwanda, giving us images and tastes of Rwanda- its people, its problems (AIDS, corruption, underdevelopment, political/ tribal rivalry, lawlessness), its natural beauty, its disgruntled and incompetent ex-colonial rulers, all told in a lucid, easy and non-superfluous manner. It is not meant to be a historical account of what happened and it shouldn't be treated as such. It is more of a personalised perspective and outpouring, based on the writer's experience whilst stationed in Rwanda. The novel deserves attention for its literary merits and for being one of the few novels hitherto that brings to the fore the Rwandan genocide.


Rating:
Summary: We can all turn into killers, even the most peaceful of us."
Review: Every Sunday afternoon in Kigali, Rwanda, the pool at the Mille-Collines Hotel is a gathering spot for government workers, wealthy Rwandans engaged in various trades, aid workers, journalists, foreign visitors, and enterprising prostitutes, who gather to drink, exchange news, gossip among themselves, and participate in the "vaguely surrealistic play being acted out at the pool." The pool is, in many ways, a microcosm of life in Rwanda, illustrating the pressures and competing interests among various facets of society, all wanting to protect what they already have, and, they hope, to increase their power, influence, or wealth.

Using the real names of these real people, Gil Courtemanche, a former journalist in Rwanda himself, boldly recreates the problems which tear apart the fabric of society and lead to the genocide of almost a million Tutsi people in 1994. He exposes the corrupt government of Rwanda, the venal politicians, the self-serving Belgian security service, the ineffective public prosecutor, the weak Canadian general and the UN functionary who refuse permission to seize huge arms deposits, and the French, who not only sell arms to the terrorists but train them to be more efficient. Adding to the problems is the AIDS epidemic. Yet somehow, within this environment, a Canadian in his forties finds a fragile and beautiful love with a Rwandan in her twenties. Bernard Valcourt is a Radio Canada producer setting up a TV station in Rwanda. Gentille is a waitress at the hotel, a beautiful young woman who approaches Valcourt, begging him for help. A Hutu by birth, she looks like a Tutsi-tall, pale, and fine-featured, and no one, including Valcourt, really believes her Hutu ethnicity. Then the genocide begins.

Courtemanche's lyrical nature imagery and poignant love story are in sharp contrast to the horrors of the torture and genocide of Tutsi men, the rape and mutilation of their women, and the maiming of their children. He is brutally honest and graphic in his depiction of the cruelties, telling a powerful story which has received little attention, especially in fiction. The AIDS epidemic and its devastation, as seen in stories of Valcourt's friends, add further darkness to this sad, continuing saga. Atrocity gains a human face here, and love takes on new meaning and value. Though some readers may question Valcourt's actions at crucial moments near the end of the book, no one can question Courtemanche's courage in telling this story and in naming names. Mary Whipple

Rating:
Summary: There are better books on the subject of Rwanda
Review: Having come so highly recommended from friends as well as numerous reviews comparing the work to Camus and Greene I was thoroughly disappointed. As a novel of fiction the book is very average as historical fiction it is very weak.

That said, I recommend both Philip Gourevitch's We Wish to Inform You as well as LGen Roméo Dallaire's Shake Hands with the Devil, although if you are to read but one I suggest the former.

Rating:
Summary: Well-written account by a soulless journalist
Review: I had mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, the author portrays racial attitudes, the nature of violence and propaganda that led to the Rwandan genocide, and, for most Westerners, odd Rwandan values with respect to death and disease, exceedingly well. You have to understand the history of the country from colonial times to pre-genocide antagonism between Hutus and Tutsis, sentiments towards mortality and sex (the author uses some jaw-dropping examples to illustrate some rather stark differences), and foreign nationals' eagerness to exploit tensions or blithely ignore them, if you have any hope of understanding how close to 1 million people could be butchered in cold blood by their compatriots over the span of a few months. To this end, Courtemanche writes skillfully and chooses incidents that leave indelible images in the reader's mind. (Many are horribly gruesome, but there is no point is sugar-coating something as horrible as this)

That said, it's almost impossible not to loathe this man. (SPOILER AHEAD) First, his courtship of a woman younger than his daughters, and, because of her ethnicity, in perpetual danger, smacks of exploitation, no matter how artfully he dances around it. And most sickeningly, he ignores his wife's pleas to leave as racial tension mounts (friends are murdered around him, and Gentille is given her fair share of warnings of what will happen to her), and refuses to evacuate them from Rwanda. He knows, as a white man, he is in no danger. He complains that he is bored by his native Canada, and would miss the lush Rwandan landscape terribly if he were to leave it. But to not think of the lives of your own wife and adopted child? When he offers that he always knew he would lose her, it makes you almost want to scream.

I'm glad I read this book for the personal account of the horrible, inhumane tragedy that befell the Rwandan people, including the author's wife Gentille and child (they were real people), but, frankly, I wish I had rather read something similar written by someone not so devoid of humanity. The thought that my purchase put more than a penny in Gil Courtemanche's bank account makes my stomach turn.


Rating:
Summary: This book is purient garbage, don't waste your money
Review: I was in Kigali before and during the war. I saw the massacres first hand. This book absolutely disgusts me. It is nothing more than a very badly written, factually very inaccurate, attempt to make money on the backs of the dead. Do not waste your money. There are many well written books about the genocide, such as We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch or the new one by General Dallaire, who was the head of the UN Peacekeeping Force. Shake Hands with the Devil : The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda