A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali (2000)

A difficult book to review, although not difficult to read. But its difficult to review because you sympathise with Courtemanche's obvious burning anger (particularly to bluecaps) and his desire to immortalise some of his Rwandan friends, as he says, "blown away in the maelstrom" and his need to tell a story of people and not of statistics. But righteous anger does not neccesarily make good fiction - not everyone is Zola.

So while the characters are brought to life beautifully - and are you think, drawn pretty directly from life - and some of the descriptive and atmospheric scene setting is truely beautifully and some scenes, such as the death of Modeste, extremely funny despite their pathos, for me the fiction doesn't really work. Dont get me wrong, I am not doubting the realism or the graphic violence - just as a story it doesn't quite work for me. Characters are created, simply to be killed off shortly thereafter. The love story of Valcourt and Gentille is not explored in enough depth - is Valcourt really in love, or does he want to help Gentille, or does he not know? Its not explored. Is Gentille grateful for a potential exit, genuinely in love with Valcourt, or simply caught up in a whirlwind of events she cant control? Its not explored. And the ending, without giving it away, is forced and feels like an afterthought

So although its moving, poignant, evocative and a tremendous feat, for me it doesn't quite work. But very well worth reading non the less - less we forget ( )

When I was in university, I took a few classes on Third World Politics and attended a conference on African nations by the Mennonite Central committee. I also watched films like Hotel Rwanda, Shake Hands With the Devil, and Journey into Darkness. I thought I had a pretty good handle on what happened in Rwanda. I thought I could fathom the violence, and understand the victims.

And then I read A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali.

Gil Courtemanche’s novel is horrifying in its honesty, and a terrifyingly memorable read. It is a story of humanity, violence, brutality, betrayal, and love. Not only love between human beings, but also the love that one can have for one’s homeland.

The central plot revolves around Bernard Valcourt, a Quebecois journalist, and his Hutu lover, Gentille. Their relationship develops as Rwanda sinks into violence. The more serious their relationship becomes, the greater the horror in Rwanda. Their relationship is doomed as soon as these two meet, but, as a reader, one can’t help but hoping everything will be alright for them.

This book is infused with sex, is much like Leonard Cohen’s Beautiful Losers. Despite the horror of AIDS and death, the characters still want to make love, and still want to, for the most part, worship the human body. The characters live in the present, and don’t allow the fear of illness or death to interfere with procreation. Some critics might denounce the sexual content as drawing attention away from genocide, but I feel that the sexual nature of this novel only enriches it.

Essentially, A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali is a tragedy based off of a real-life tragedy. I think the novel does an excellent job of humanizing the events, and at recreating the tension before the genocide occurred. If you have any interest in modern Africa, then read this novel. I promise, you won’t regret having done so.

4.5/5 ( )

Rwanda 1994:Genocide: every Tutsi man, woman and child targeted for murder. In the collective imagination, Rwanda's Hutu-Tutsi conflict conjures up images of cruel barbarity: the crunch of machete into bone; the smash of hammer and club through human skull; the putrefying bodies piled along the roadsides; bloated corpses floating down rivers; jam-packed churches set on fire; victims tossed alive onto piles of burning tires lining mass open pits. The mass of Rwandan Hutus were incited to the genocide to come by the Hutu Power radio station, the Hutu Power leaders using the broadcasts to coerce every Hutu into complicity in the genocide, the object being that every pair of Hutu hands be steeped in Tutsi blood. Spurred on by Hutu Power broadcasts and led by examples of Hutu militia massacres at countless roadblocks, the Hutu people of Rwanda - with machetes, knives, hammers, spears, clubs studded with nails and any other murderous weapon that came to hand - rose to the call to kill the "cockroaches", their friends, neighbours and workmates. Churches, where thousands of Tutsis fled for sanctuary, became the largest slaughterhouses.

Set in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, in the days preceding the genocide, A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali is a searing indictment of the inaction of the international community - the finger of accusation pointing at the Belgians and French - turning a blind eye to the appalling massacre of the helpless Tutsi minority population who were abandoned to certain annihilation. The novel is a stylishly written blend of fact and fiction, a combination of love story and powerful political reportage giving a terrifying and convincing portrayal of Rwanda in turmoil. Gil Courtmanche confronts the tragic spread of Aids and the genocide that ravaged Rwanda in a bloodbath that snuffed out 800,000 Tutsi lives - and those moderate Hutus who refused to participate - over a period of a hundred hellish days as the West stood around twiddling its thumbs. The scathing moral voice of Courtemanche denounces the hatred, sexual culture, powerlust and global apathy that brought Rwanda to its knees.

Based in the upmarket Hotel Des Milles Collines in Kigali, a house of refuge for many wealthy-connected Tutsi's targeted for murder by Hutu death squads, Bernard Valcourt, a Canadian journalist on assignment in Rwanda to produce a film documenting the Aids epidemic, falls for Gentille, a Hutu waitress at the hotel, often taken for a Tutsi. There is a sense of impending disaster in the air, pressure building, as Valcourt and the hotel's clientele of international officials, aid workers, expatriates, prostitutes, UN soldiers and a group of upscale Rwandan residents play out the days prior to the genocide around the hotel swimming-pool in a Kigali on the brink of becoming a mass Tutsi killing ground. Valcourt is aware that doom is fast approaching and his sword of truth exposes government corruption, police cover-ups, UN officialdom that blocked the seizure of massive arms cachements (that would later be used in the slaughter), inaction by impotent UN forces, and a heedless media. Recommended! For deeper insight, try Philip Gourevitch's classic account of the genocide, We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families

An excellent read, although not a cheerful story. Describes the genocide in Rwanda thru the eyes of a Canadian journalist. ( )

This was an extremely powerful book, which I might have liked more if I hadn't also read An Ordinary Man. The detatched narrative of the main character seemed appropriate for the horrors that he described, but I felt almost as if the journalist who wrote the book wanted to write a journalistic report, but decided instead to overlay it with a romance plotline. I found the entire love-story plotline to be over the top and sort of distracting from the story of the country and the other people involved.

The book traces the story of a Canadian journalist who falls in love with a young Rwandan waitress at his hotel. Just as their love story is unfolding, the genocide begins. Rather than leaving, they try to stay, choosing to ignore the warning signs that violence is brewing.

The book does add interesting facts to the perspective on the Rwandan genocide given by An Ordinary Man. But if you were only going to read one book about the genocide, I'd definitely recommend An Ordinary Man instead. ( )