Browsing the Bookshelves

This weekend I read Sunday by the Pool in Kigali. It had been creeping towards the top of my "too be read" pile for several weeks. Every time it reached the top I knocked it off the top and slotted in further down the pile, with mixed feeling of guilt and relief. I knew I would not enjoy this novel.

It's a beautifully crafted novel. A compelling story with an almost lyrical quality, engaging, believable characters, and a real sense of purpose from the start. So what's not to like?  A Sunday by the Pool in Kigali is a personal account of the devasting massacre that took place in Rwanda in the early 1990s. With chilling familiarity, Courtemanche tells of rape, mass murder, corruption, cruelty, voilence and international disinterest. It is uncomfortable reading for those, like me, cushioned in the relevate safety and normality of the Western world. It is nonetheless essential. Courtemanche frames his story through the experiences of real people, most of whom were visciously, pointlessly, killed with days of their introduction. He pulls no punches, hides nothing to save the blushes of his readers. The grittiness of his world provides a stark constrast to the musical quality of his writing just as the horrors of humanity are put into sharp relief by the beauty of the conjured Kigali. Read it and weep. I did. Read this book because it's beautiful, because it's horrible and because it will change the way you think the world works.