Un dimanche à la piscine à Kigali

by Gil Courtemanche

C’est avec une œuvre troublante, aux accents céliniens, que Gil Courtemanche fait son entrée en littérature.

Un dimanche à la piscine à Kigali est d’abord un témoignage. Gil Courtemanche nous permet de comprendre exactement ce qui s’est passé au Rwanda, non seulement en ce fatidique mois d’avril 1994, mais depuis l’arrivée des coloniaux européens à la fin du XIXe siècle. Il montre à l’œuvre la force de la haine raciale, la pusillanimité des médias internationaux, l’hypocrisie des services diplomatiques. Il montre comment l’ignorance et la pauvreté contribuent à la diffusion d’une épidémie mortelle, mais aussi que la folie meurtrière des hommes est plus redoutable que n’importe quel virus.

Mais c’est un roman que Gil Courtemanche a écrit, et la littérature arrive à faire ce que le reportage ne pourra jamais: elle donne un visage humain aux bourreaux et aux victimes. Le romancier peut aussi chercher réponse à des questions qui sont hors de portée du journaliste: Comment peut-on vivre après avoir été le témoin d’une telle horreur? Comment peut-on rire et aimer? Comment ne pas succomber au désespoir? Et chacun de nous ne peut manquer de se sentir concerné, car nous sommes désormais les témoins obligés de toutes les horreurs qui sont commises sur la planète.

Au fond, comme toute œuvre littéraire digne de ce nom, Un dimanche à la piscine à Kigali pose la seule question qui compte: Comment mourir et comment vivre?

Genres: Fiction, Africa, Historical Fiction, Rwanda, Canada, War, France

284 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Gil Courtemanche est journaliste depuis 1962.

Jusqu’en 1977, il a collaboré à différentes émissions radio et télé de Radio-Canada telles que Le 60, Métro Magazine et Présent national.

De 1978 à 1980, pour Radio-Canada toujours, il a conçu et animé l’émission L’Événement et a aussi été animateur et scripteur de l’émission Enjeux, tout en étant éditorialiste à la sation CBOT à Ottawa (réseau anglais). En 1978, il a animé et scénarisé le premier magazine d’affaires publiques de Télé Québec, Contact.

De 1980 à 1986, Gil Courtemanche a été animateur, analyste et correspondant pour les émissions Télémag, Première Page, Le Point, à Radio-Canada.

Il a aussi été journaliste pour La Presse et a participé à la conception et à la fondation du quotidien Le Jour.

Depuis 1986 et encore à ce jour, il collabore à diverses publications, notamment Alternatives. Il est aussi chroniqueur en littérature étrangère pour la revue Le Libraire, en plus de tenir une chronique dans le quotidien Le Devoir.

Il a par ailleurs tenu une chronique hebdomadaire sur la politique internationale dans les quotidiens Le Soleil et Le Droit, durant 8 ans. Plusieurs de ses textes sont regroupés dans Chroniques internationales, paru en 1991 au Boréal.

Il a coréalisé la série de témoignages Soleil dans la nuit, trente clips produits pour TV5 Europe-Afrique-Canada, à l’occasion du premier anniversaire du génocide au Rwanda. Il a réalisé et scénarisé L’Église du sida (The Gospel of AIDS), documentaire sur le sida au Rwanda (prix du meilleur documentaire du Festival Vues d’Afrique 1993) qui lui fournira la matière de son roman, Un dimanche à la piscine à Kigali, acclamé aussitôt par le public puis par la critique, et aujourd’hui traduit dans 10 langues et 13 pays. Gil Courtemanche a également produit et réalisé divers documentaires et messages publicitaires sur le tiers monde pour les organismes «Le Cardinal Léger et ses œuvres» et OXFAM-Québec (la lèpre en Haïti, la problématique de l’eau, le développement agricole aux Philippines, le programme de formation d’enfants handicapés en Thaïlande, etc.)

Coréalisateur et scénariste pour Radio Canada et TF1 du docu-variétés Roch Voisine l’Idole (prix Félix et Gémeaux de la meilleure émission de variétés 1991), il a aussi réalisé et scénarisé Kashtin: Le Tambour éternel (Kashtin: The Eternal Drum).

Commentateur pour diverses émissions d’affaires publiques, animateur durant un an de la série The Editors sur PBS, collaborateur régulier au magazine L’actualité (il y a signé divers grands reportages, dont un numéro spécial sur l’Algérie, en 1998), Gil Courtemanche a remporté en 1998 le National Magazine Award for Political Reporting.

D'avril 2008 à novembre 2009, il a été consultant auprès du procureur en chef de la Cour pénale internationale.

Reviews

[Orsodimondo · Rating 3 out of 5]

MILLE COLLINE E UN MILIONE DI MORTI


L’Hotel des Mille Collines, quello della piscina e quello del film Hotel Rwanda. Il Rwanda è chiamato il paese delle mille colline. Mille Collines era anche il nome della radio che incitava all’odio etnico, quella che definiva i tutsi inyenzi (scarafaggi).

Non so dire cosa non mi abbia convinto di questo libro.
Non so se è il fatto che probabilmente Courtemanche non è all’altezza del compito che si è proposto.
Oppure, se dipenda dallo ‘sfondo’, i fatti veri, quello che successe in Rwanda dalla sera del 6 aprile 1994 per i circa cento giorni a seguire, un pezzo di storia al quale in qualche modo sono legato perché me ne sono occupato in vari modi, che per me è difficilmente raccontabile (su questo fatto di puro orrore sono stati realizzati film e libri in gran parte mediocri).


Il film omonimo del 2006 è una produzione canadese, stesso paese di Courtemanche. Ha per protagonisti Luc Picard, Fatou N’Diaye, Céline Bonnier.


Courtemanche era un giornalista televisivo canadese che si trovava in Rwanda un po’ prima che iniziasse il genocidio.
Qui racconta una storia vera, la sua, il suo essere lì per un servizio televisivo sull’AIDS, il suo innamorarsi da cinquantenne di una rwandese diciottenne, Gentille.
Anche gli altri personaggi corrispondono a persone esistenti o esistite, presentate col loro vero nome.

Uno sforzo di verità e documentazione che non va lontano perché il libro di Courtemanche è invece un romanzo: sceglie di scrivere un romanzo invece di un reportage probabilmente per spingere emotivamente di più il lettore a sentire orrore per la violenza.
Ma fallisce.
Sì, credo che, tutto sommato, il problema sia che a Courtemanche manca il talento necessario.


Si gira il film omonimo diretto da Robert Favreau, 2006.

Courtemanche descrive la gente a bordo piscina dell’albergo che lo ospita: sono cooperanti e giornalisti, affaristi e politici, gente di paesi quali il Belgio, la Francia, la Germania, lo stesso Canada.
Accanto a loro i rwandesi parenti dei governanti, e quindi degli assassini.

Mi ha colpito molto come Courtemanche descriva il comandante della forza di pace ONU: ne fa il simbolo della generale indifferenza e ignoranza delle Nazioni Unite e dei suoi dirigenti (per primo Kofi Annan, futuro segretario generale, all’epoca a capo proprio delle missioni di pace!)
Una strana scelta quella di Courtemanche che proprio non capisco e non mi spiego e ha qualcosa di torbido.


Un altro momento del film, con il protagonista Luc Picard.

Perché, in realtà, a capo delle forze ONU c’era un connazionale di Courtemanche, il generale Roméo Dallaire, che tutto fu meno che indifferente e ignorante: fu anzi probabilmente l’unico a capire cosa stava davvero succedendo e sicuramente il primo a segnalarne il pericolo e l’entità. Chiese più mezzi e uomini, promise che avrebbe potuto fermare il massacro: gli tolsero uomini, ritirarono le truppe, e non gli dettero mezzi, neppure il carburante. Fu così travolto e sconvolto dai fatti (disturbo post traumatico da stress) da tentare il suicidio e lasciare anticipatamente l’esercito.
Davvero strano come Courtemanche lo descriva in quel modo, per quanto lo tenga figura secondaria.


Il generale Roméo Dallaire all’Università di Butare (accanto al rettore) nel suo primo ritorno in Rwanda (2004) dopo il genocidio.

[Canadian Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surrounding a pool in an upscale hotel in Rwanda, an eclectic group sits consisting of a journalist, upper class Rwandans, expats and prostitutes. They are removed from what is happening in the city which is rape, violence and murder.

It's 1994 and civil war has began between the Hutu and the Tutsi population. Massacres, brutality and AIDS is rampant. A war rages and whereby much of the world ignores and thereby in its passivity, condones. A country divided by ethnicity and ignorance breeds a military filled with hatred.

Yet, somehow despite this wave of terror, love weaves its way in for Valencourt, a French Canadian journalist and a Tutsi born turned Hutu, Gentille.

Although this work is 'fiction' it is based on an eyewitness account and embellished only to provide humanity to those murdered. I weep for the ignorance that spurned this war on - killing innocent men mercilessly and women who were heinously raped, mutilated and left for dead.

A massacre of 800,000. Humanity at its darkest hour -nearly 50 years after the holocaust, how did the world go blind and silent? Again? 4★

[Andrei Bădică · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Dragostea era singurul sentiment la care nu mai spera și de care se lipsise fără să sufere prea mult. Și uită că ajunsese s-o cerșească."
"-Tăcerea e-un lucru apăsător și sufocant, pentru că nici un cântec de pasăre, nici un zgomot de pași, nici un zvon de cântec sau de cuvânt nu ajunge la tine ca să te îndepărteze de tine însuți. Tu ai dreptate, tăcerea e înspăimântătoare, fiindcă în tăcere nu se poate minți."

[Tea Jovanović · Rating 5 out of 5]

Žila smo ugostili na Sajmu knjiga u Beogradu davne 2004. i imali neobična iskustva s njim... Knjiga ima mučnu temu ali je predivna... Srbija je jedina zemlja gde nije bila hit... Ali nije kasno da svi oni koji su propustili tada da je pročitaju da to sada učine... :)

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

We can all turn into killers, Valcourt had often maintained, even the most peaceful and generous of us. All it takes is a certain circumstance, something that clicks, a failing, a patient conditioning, rage, disappointment. The prehistoric predator and the primitive warrior are still alive beneath the successive varnishing that civilization has applied to mankind. All the Good and Evil of humanity is in our genes. Either one can emerge at any moment, as abruptly as a tornado can appear and destroy everything where minutes before only soft, warm breezes blew.

This was a tough one. A book that appears to have a range of ratings from 1 -5 and even a number of reviews where stars are absent. I feel that I can understand how this comes to be. (For example, the characterization of the Rwandans as being over-sexualized). A national bestseller in Canada and widely hailed by critics and fellow authors alike as something "to be read", but I also wondered(because I'm skeptical) if there was a better book out there to introduce readers to.

"A Sunday at the pool in Kigali" is about the 1994 Rwandan genocide. A subject that I've learned a little about. I watched Shake Hands with the Devil, watched countless interviews with Romeo Dallaire, saw Hotel Rwanda, my students and I had the pleasure last year of a Skype with Tresor, whose father was played by Don Cheadle in that latter movie. My grade 9-10-11 class and I even worked on a long distance project with a Rwandan school. Still I felt myself wavering every time I picked up this book. What exactly did Gil Courtemanche want me to feel?

You see, this cannot be placed in just a "sad" category. Nor can it be downgraded to a "violent" book. A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali oozes with the anguish left in the wake of Belgian colonization, the stench of government corruption, the callous nature of the Western governments that turned their backs on the raging epidemic of AIDS, and the climax of hatred that sets Tutsi against Hutu, neighbors against neighbors, and brother against brother.

Have you ever read a poem so powerful that you knew exactly the emotions that the poet is feeling? I sure know that I have! But many books that I've read, I never really knew what was on the author's mind until I reached their note section at the end. This I believe is what perhaps unsettled me while reading this book. I could feel that simmering, no, furious anger that was rising up from the pages. Because Gil Courtemanche is ANGRY and he wants his readers to know it. As a reader, that scared me, it unsettled me, it made me want to stop reading. But I couldn't. Because in reality, our fear, should never stop us from speaking up against the evil of humanity.

So I'm afraid this became more of a analysis than a review. I do believe that "A Sunday at the pool in Kigali " deserves the readers attention.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." (John F Kennedy)

The pool in the title is at a hotel in Kigali, Rwanda,where Western ex-pats,aid workers,diplomats and UN soldiers congregate to get drunk and fornicate with hookers and is set at the time of one of the human races darkest moments. The story is told in a novel/documentary way and centres around Bernhard Valcourt, a somewhat jaded Canadian film journalist who lives in the hotel supposedly to make a film about AIDS, and a beautiful young waitress Gentille, a Hutu who looks like a Tutsi. Valcourt is in love with Gentille and as she begins to reciprocate his love and their affair flourishes so the country descends into the bitter,feudal chaos of genocide.

For whatever reason Valcourt is in love with Rwanda as much as Gentille and has made many friends both Hutu and Tutsi but it is a country already decimated by AIDS where up to a third of the population is either dead or dying. However,there are also nightly sectarian murders and rapes taking place until the Hutus decide to enact their own 'final solution'.

There are certainly some fairly gratuitous sex and some brutal murders but overall it is not sensationalist but rather matter of fact as the author prefers to let the facts to speak for themselves. This book reveals a myriad of human emotions including love,kindness,friendship, ignorance,anger,hatred,corruption and apathy but most of all a joy of life,a desire to live life to the full whatever the circumstances. They know they are going to die so why not enjoy yourself along the way?

As the country descends into anarchy the reader certainly feels like screaming at the Western agencies who missed so many opportunities to stop the madness before it could really get started but for whatever were unwilling to do so. Thus the book is pretty scathing (deservedly so IMHO)of them and of post-colonial attitudes where black lives are seen as being cheap and of little importance. Perhaps this is just the author's own bias but I fear not.

Now initially I will admit that I struggled with all the names fearing that I would lose track of who is who but I need not have worried as once the action begins in earnest this becomes less important.The writing is succinct rather than flowery.If this book had purely been one of fiction then it would probably be laughable but given that the main premis was rooted in fact makes it all the more harrowing.

This is one of the best books that I've read in a while and deserves a greater audience.

[Precious Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

in some ways this is a 5-star book because it forces down our throats the atrocities so many of our fellow human beings suffered in the Rwandan genocide.

However, I was concerned about the way the African male characters in the book were portrayed. They were almost comically sex obsessed. One man, who is dying of Aids, gets a blow job from a prostitute as his mother watches, presumably unfazed. His own mother then helps remove the prostitute's clothing and observes in silence as her son performs oral sex on the girl. A male Hutu market trader knows he has Aids too and that doesn't stop him having sex with every woman in sight, not caring if he infects each woman with HIV. Later this same man stumbles across his own wife being gang raped at a roadblock. The soldiers order him to have sex with his wife in front of them and the man responds by getting a huge erection and readily having sex with his wife in front of the soldiers. The man is then shot in the back and his wife hacked to death. Almost all of the African male characters in this book are depicted as animals. The African female characters are mainly prostitutes. It reads like a colonlialists' exceedingly dark and frightening fantasy of African life.

That said, this book is apparently based on real-life events and characters. In recording the horror of the events of the genocide and bringing it to a wide audience, the author is to be commended. However, for a view of Rwanda during that period I consider to be more realistic, watch the movie 'Sometimes In April' starring Idris Elba. That movie depicts Rwandans in a way I believe to be more true to reality: they are rather religious, ordinary, well-adjusted people whose lives were utterly shattered by the events of genocide. If Mr Courtemanche's book was all you had to go by, you'd come away believing that all black Rwandans are sex-crazed individuals with no morals and that they are more animalistic than animals. Now, where have we heard *that* stereotype about black Africans before?!! [sigh]

[Tania · Rating 4 out of 5]

The churches became Rwanda's gas chambers.

This is one of the most upsetting and shocking books I've ever read. Because the author share his experiences in the form of a story you get to know all the people, which had an even bigger impact on me than reading the non-fictional account in We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda, which sometimes felt almost overwhelming in its scope. He also writes the most horrific scenes without any sentiment or hysterics. An extremely uncomfortable read, but a reminder of the terrible as well as the courageous deeds people are capable of.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

It might be a good idea to start with a bit of backstory here, since we should all have heard of the Rwandan genocide but that doesn't mean we really understand it. What follows is a hugely simplified history lesson (complete with my personal bias) which you are free to skip over.

---
Rwanda is a tiny fertile inland country surrounded by four larger ones, with a long, relatively peaceful history. First settled by African pygmies called Twa, they were later joined by the farming Hutus. Some time later the Tutsi arrived from the north (Ethiopia, Somalia) with their cattle - tall, lean, lighter-coloured and fine-boned, they were distinctly, physically different from the shorter, squatter, blacker, broad-nosed Hutus, but stability in the country was achieved.

During colonial expansion, when European countries and Britain were carving up Africa between them, Germany claimed Rwanda. After the First World War, Belgium took control. It was around this time that the colonial interlopers made certain assumptions about the superiority - physically and mentally - of the Tutsi over that of the Hutu because they look more "white", affirmed by the Bible and the Church, and a race-based divide was created.

After decades of growing animosity, the feelings of hatred and injustice between the majority Hutus and minority Tutsi escalated, finally exploding into the infamous massacre of 1994 in which an estimated 800,000 people were killed. While the two groups raped, maimed and killed each other in brutal, animalistic fashion, the French, Belgian and Canadian ambassadorial parties and troops pulled out, and those Rwandans who have been accused of instigating the genocide were given safe haven in France. The only ones left were a few journalists and the UN peace corps, which was forbidden to intervene.

The Rwandan genocide, only 16 years old, is an unbelievable example of just how far we will go to take advantage of others, and far we will run to avoid and deny the consequences. The affluent West is just as much to blame for what happened in Rwanda as the ones who wielded the machetes, if not more so. It is a microcosm of what happens when you pit one race against the other simply because of superficial differences - differences that can mean a good job, respect, and success for one group at the expense of the other. As much as you deplore the outcome and the genocide itself, you have to at least understand where they were coming from.

---
A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali is based on true events and the stories of people who were there, fictionalised and told mostly from the perspective of a Québécois journalist, Bernard Valcourt, who was invited to the country to help get a national TV station up and running. Living at the Hôtel des Mille Collines in the capital city of Kigali, Valcourt wiles away his time by the pool watching a beautiful young woman, Gentile, who works at the hotel and writing in his journal. The hotel is mostly full of Québécois and Belgium businessmen, aid workers and diplomats, and Rwandan prostitutes. One in three Rwandans had AIDS at this time, though the government denied - and still denies - there's a problem. Valcourt is a cynical man, an athiest, who has fallen in love with the country as well as Gentile.

Gentile is a Hutu, but she looks like a Tutsi. This is because her great-grandfather, upon learning that his children would always be second-class citizens on account of their ethnicity, set about to marry his offspring to Tutsi neighbours. In a land where everyone is having sex with everyone else, shy Gentile is used to being ogled and desired for her beauty, but it is Valcourt she loves: the one man who never stared at her body or tried to get her into bed.

As their relationship becomes something precious and permanent, tensions in the country only grow worse. Road blocks and vicious killings become more common, with mutilated bodies lying naked in ditches. Even when some of his friends are killed, both Hutu and Tutsi, Valcourt doesn't want to leave Rwanda. He can marry Gentile and take her with him to the safety of Canada, but he hasn't given up on the country. His naïve decision to stay and help and record what's happening seals the fate of Gentile.

When I reached the end of this harrowing narrative, Courtemanche switches to present tense to tell us where Valcourt and Gentile are now, what happened in the intervening years, and it was at this point that it really hit home. They were REAL PEOPLE. As long as the story masqueraded as fiction, told in third person past tense, you could get through it. Those last two paragraphs, though - those are unavoidable. Undeniable. And in those last two paragraphs, the simple act of reading them does honour to these witnesses, to all the people in the story, the people who loved and laughed and died, sometimes horribly. There's so much respect in those last two paragraphs, it was the perfect way to end it, and also the most gut-wrenching. It completely undid me.

A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali gets criticism for the style in which it is written. I'm torn, myself. It is told in a rather cold, distant, journalism style, a style heavy on narrative with a broad omniscient perspective that has alienated some readers. I don't deny that it does have that effect, or that it sometimes had that effect on me, but I found it all the more powerful for it. There are two points to make: one, that the writing style allows you to read it without becoming seriously depressed or a blubbering mess; and two, that its very coldness makes it all the more forceful and real. I wouldn't be able to respect the book if it was at all dramatic or self-indulgent. And it would be so easy to create that kind of story. And so wrong. It is hard to get close the characters, to really understand them - especially the Rwandans, who are coming from a much different cultural background and attitude - and to not feel somewhat spoon-fed. But it is also a story put together from many stories, told by a journalist who knows how to utilise the journalistic style to chilling effect.

This is not a story for the faint-hearted. It is brutally honest, chillingly unapologetic. The scary thing is, nothing has been embellished. The interesting thing is, how Courtemanche enables us to understand, to not just see the surface of things and judge and condemn it from our lofty moral heights, but to bring us down to our knees in the dust and blood and make us give a shit, to feel their fear and their hatred, their love and their loyalty. It's a highly politicised novel, and many of the Rwandan characters in the novel know exactly what's going on and why. You get this fatalistic impression that they don't want to stop it, like it's boiling past the point where things can calm down without lancing the wound first. What a horrible analogy!

It's politicised in a local and an international context, and some readers might find it too heavy-handed. Honestly, there's no room for subtlety when it comes to this kind of economics and the rape of a country. From the doctor who is excited to use all his dying AIDS patients to further his career on the international stage, to the foreign bureaucrats who don't want their golf interrupted by the case of one of their own murdering a prostitute, to how the world sat back and did nothing while these people brutalised each other, or tried to prevent it from happening in the first place.

Valcourt takes us on a tour of the hospital, and shows us what the economic policies of the World Bank and IMF do at the ground level. There's nothing black-and-white here, no "these people are evil, that's all there is to it". It would of course be so much easier if it were that simple. It's easy to hate Hitler and call him evil, but considering what hate can lead to, it's better to understand both the bigger picture and the finer details, because if you don't understand why something like a genocide happened in the first place, how on earth can you prevent it from happening again? How can you make the world "a better place"? How can you right an injustice?

Further reading:
Dallaire, Roméo: Shake Hands With the Devil The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda
Hatzfeld, Jean: Machete Season The Killers in Rwanda Speak
Klein, Naomi: The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
Lewis, Stephen: Race Against Time: Searching for Hope in AIDS-Ravaged Africa

[Jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5*
I found this book difficult to get into and some of the writing didn’t sit well with me. The book is written by a Canadian journalist who re-visited Rwanda in the immediate aftermath of the genocide of the 1990s (he had left Rwanda just before the genocide). The author sort of writes himself into the story (which details the lead up to and the actual genocide) as a Canadian journalist who falls in love with a much younger Rwandan woman, Gentille. I felt like for much of their relationship, Gentille looks up to the author’s character as such a more clever and amazing man compared to her which sort of gave me white saviour vibes. Also, I felt like there were some negative stereotypes of black man portrayed in this book too. The author, a white man, also uses the n-word which didn’t sit well with me.
However, the last few chapters of the book, which detail the horrendous genocide that occurred in Rwanda were shocking but interesting. The book is based off eyewitness accounts the author gathered when visiting Rwanda post-genocide so I don’t know if the things I have just complained about were actually based on fact. Also, reading the preface to the book I found out that many of the author’s friends were murdered in the massacre and the book’s dedication tried to honour them.
Overall, this is a long review because I have conflicting feelings about the book, i didn’t really enjoy most of it though- hence the low rating.

Also there was serious ‘women written by men’ vibes as points :/

[Elizabeth]

A sad and noble effort to bring the events of the genocide in Rwanda to a Western reading public; the dedication moved me almost to tears when I looked at it again after finishing the book. And yet for about three quarters of the novel it pretty much left me cold. The characterization was just not convincing or deep enough; the omniscient narrative voice was distanced and stiff, though this may have been a translation problem (it was written in French originally); there didn't seem to be any motivation for ANYONE, good, bad, young, old, male, female, sympathetic or otherwise, other than sex, which got boring after a while; and the overlying plot was so reminiscent of Thomas Keneally's "Towards Asmara" (developing African nation at war, sympathetic white journalist falls for local girl who ends up dehumanized, lots of people get killed in horrible ways). But. But. Towards the end, when the REAL horror got going (and there had been horrible things going on all along), it became quite gripping. I liked it better, having finished it, than I did most of the time I was reading it.

And of course I knew next to nothing about Rwanda before I started, which is a good reason for having read it... but I wish I felt, afterward, that I knew a bit more about Rwanda for having read it. I will remember the horrible imagery, since that was what was described so vividly, more than I will remember the somewhat generic character representations of the tragic victims Courtemanche longs to immortalize.

[Missy J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rwanda, the land of a thousand hills. For a long time, I didn't want to read this book, because I knew the subject was painful. This book is written from the perspective of a Quebec Canadian journalist (Bernard) working in Rwanda. He lives in a luxurious hotel in the capital city of Kigali (hence, the title "A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali"), illuminating the absurdity of class difference, racial difference and on top of it all, the international "responsibility" of allowing a genocide to happen in the 20th century.

The book is filled with a wide range of personalities and very graphic and coarse language is used, which struck me immediately. The reader is a witness to how Bernard falls in love with Gentille, a Tutsi waitress of the hotel, and how he is weighing in on the possibilities of entering into such a relationship. As they fall in love, they also start making plans about the future, considering living abroad or in Rwanda. There were signs before the genocide happened that something wasn't right, but they decided to believe that the international community wouldn't let a holocaust reoccur. The ending of the book is quite tragic, a mixture of life and death, just as most Rwandans are actually a mixture of Hutu and Tutsi, thus, rendering the goal of ethnic cleansing completely pointless.

[Mary Soderstrom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some 800,000 people massacred in three months, most by machete-wielding neighbors: that was the horror which began 20 years ago today in Rwanda. The conflict was ostensibly between ethnic groups, the majority Hutu and the minority Tutsi. But lines were blurred since many moderate Hutus were killed and anyone who has looked closely at the history of the African Great Lakes Region sees that the groups were often related and their differences were used by European powers to divide and conquer.

Gil Courtemanche's Sunday at the Pool in Kigali tells the story of people caught up in the conflict in an extremely affecting way. He first went to Rwanda at the beginning of the 1990s to work on a film about AIDS in the region, but decided he must write something about the genocide when it occured. His first idea was a book of straight reporting, but he was persuaded that novel would convey the tragedy better, and probably reach more people. The result--first published in French but a winner of several prizes in English translation--was made into a successful film, A Sunday in Kigali, but the novel is much better. It is painful reading, but well worth the sorrow it might bring.

Like so many others, I was deeply troubled by what happened in Rwanda, and looked around for something I might do to help or understand. What I discovered quickly was that Rwanda has a twin, Burundi, where the same sort of conflict had been going on for decades. The year before the outbreak of the Rwandan genocide, a massacre which escaped the attention of the outside world also killed thousands. After much reflection and quite a lot of library research, I ended up writing a novel about a Canadian politician who goes missing in 1997 in Burundi when on an international fact-finding mission to the camps set up to shelter refugees.

The Violets of Usambara took eight years to write. Published in 2008, I did a blog explaining the book's background and the trip I took to East Africa to research the novel. The trip, funded by a generous grant from the Conseil des arts et lettres du Québec, was life-changing for me and, I think, was money well spent by the Quebec government's arts agency. The novel, I'd like to think also, explores the motivations of people who want to make the world a better place. They may fail but they are admirable in their attempts

[Richard Moss · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book that sat on my shelf for a while; its reputation based on reviews at the time of its publication in 2003.

I would say it has not aged well, but actually some of the criticisms I have of it do echo some of the more negative views of it from the time.

But let me start with its qualities. It is a heartfelt attempt to document the horrors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, and it does skewer the role of Colonialism in creating the conditions for disaster, and the inadequate response of Western powers and the UN. By highlighting foreign culpability, it does avoid being a chronicle of domestic savagery.

That sentiment comes from personal experience. Courtemanche spent time as a journalist in Rwanda and the novel's main protagonist Valcourt is a thinly-disguised alter ego. Many of the supporting characters are also based on people he knew, and you can feel his anger and pain.

There is then power in that authenticity and there is some good writing here. The massacres when they come are gut-wrenching, although it's worth pointing out that Courtemanche didn't witness them as he had left the country before the genocide. He did though - like Valcourt - make a documentary about Aids in Rwanda, and there is some powerful material here about its impact. At its very best the novel has echoes of Graham Greene.

But the deep flaw is the main female character. Valcourt's love interest - Gentille - is a waitress in the hotel where he's staying. Officially she is a Hutu, but fatally with "Tutsi features."

She is based on a real character, but Courtemanche not only idealises Gentille, he also objectifies her. One sentence about her "pointed breasts" would have been one too many, but there are several here. A white middle-aged man's fantasy about a relationship with a young Rwandan makes uncomfortable, and unconvincing reading.

The sex scenes are risible and Gentille is given no voice of her own until far too late. She is also hopelessly sentimentalised.

It is only 15 years on from its publication but I find it hard to believe these problems would see A Sunday at the Pool In Kigali get such praise today.

The real shame is that Courtemanche's misjudgment over the heart of the story deflects from the more truthful and effective parts, but for me it was impossible to get away from the flaws.

[Hugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard-hitting fiction on the Rwandan genocide that will stay with me for many years. Highly recommend.

The story is based around Valcourt, a French journalist in Kigali at the time of the Rwandan genocide. It is grounded in non-fiction but being a fiction lets Courtemanche ellaborate on the human side of this horrendous tragedy. The initial script states that the names of victims and those who committed atrocities have not been edited, although some parts have fiction-esque elements.

The writing and translation is top-knotch and empathetic. The sweet love between Gentille and Valcourt is contrasted to the brutal reality of living in kigali this time: one of routine rape and murder. That such beauty can come from such depravity is itself heartwarming and while this book's overarching story is one of traumatic, tragic and senseless loss: the starcrossed lovers lend a humane tragedy arch to the story that would otherwise be missing.

When relaying the numbers dead or missing in any conflict, and especially one as terrible as this genocide, the human story can be lost. This book means it will never be lost and shows that each number has a story, life and love that deserves to be remembered.

I found the narrative discussing what a Hutu or a Tutsi particularly interesting as Courtemanche exposes the flawed logic of a system that defines what people are and then eliminates them without actually understanding that definition or what that creates.

The disgust at the role of aid agencies and the UN with their concern for their own people while abandoning Rwandans to their deaths is clear to see. Lessons for the moment and future abound.

[Sonja Arlow · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually started reading a more factual, journalistic account of the aftermath of the Rwanda genocide,We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families : Stories from Rwanda (sure to be one of my favourite books) but I was curious about how these facts would be portrayed in a novel which is essentially a love story – thus the reading and finishing of THIS book first.

Even though the book has been translated from French into English none of the power and gripping descriptiveness, which is normally lost in translation, seem to be present here. The story was beautifully laid out if at times uncomfortable for various reasons.

The novel is built around Bernard Valcourt, a Canadian journalist who came to Rwanda to establish a television network for education purposes, and shows how his life and those around him is affected with the unrest and violence leading up to the horrendous genocide in April 1994. It focuses on the raw emotions, violence, corruption and sexuality of the people of Rwanda which inevitably lead to death, fear, Aids and an almost complete eradication of the Tutsi tribe.

The story also showed just a little bit of hope, the love these people have for their country and how they find joy in the face of such staggering odds knowing beforehand that they will probably die.

[Czarny Pies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sunday at a Pool in Kigali is an excellent book to read today while Canada is campaigning for a seat on the United Nations Security council. The problem with Canada as Courtemanche points out in this novel is that Canada loves to appear important on the international scene but then fails in abject manner whenever it is given an important international assignment.

In the view of Courtemanche and several other Canadians who were in Ruanda at the time, the genocide could have been averted had the various international observers and diplomats present forcefully demanded that their home governments provide the necessary military force to enforce a peace during the early stages of the crisis. Canada had a large number of officials attached to various agencies present in Ruanda who were aware of the seriousness of the situation. Unfortunately, they chose to minimize the magnitude of the looming crisis rather than exposing it in its true light and vigorously urging strong measures from the Western governments. All in all Canada has much to be ashamed of for the way it acted in Ruanda and all Canadians ought to be aware of Courtemanche's arguments.

Sunday at a pool in Kigali is however more than a political indictment of the author's country. In the novel Courtemanche also tells the heart-rending story of how his own selfish actions prevented him from saving the woman he loved from a horrible death at the hands of the Hutus. I heartily recommend this book to anyone who cares about human suffering.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

TW: mention of sexual violence in this review

SPOILER WARNING (one scene is described)

I'll admit off the bat that I didn't actually finish this book. I couldn't finish it. I read about two thirds and then gave up. So this review is based on what I did read.

It is excruciatingly obvious that this book is written by a man. There are no female characters with any substance in the book. The male characters are described in terms of their inner thoughts and personalities whereas the female characters are only depicted through the male gaze by describing their bodies or their perceived sexuality. There are no interactions between male and female characters that don't centralize around sex or the sexualization of the female body.

Also, it felt very clear that the book was written by a white author; the Rwandans in the book (which are, you know, most of the characters) feel somehow 'othered' - their blackness and experiences within their own country are described as something foreign and - at worst - something feral or animalistic. Finally, there were very gruesome scenes of violence (both sexual and not) which just felt unnecessarily detailed whilst simultaneously being written with unnerving casualty.

The absolute worst part for me was a rape and torture scene, in which a man finds his wife in the streets, already raped and gruesomely tortured. He is then forced to rape her too while his wife's torturers watch, knowing they will both be killed afterwards. He whispers to her while he rapes her that at least they will die in ecstasy. I couldn't tell while reading this if it was Courtemanche himself or the character he wanted to portray who was SO misogynistic that he didn't understand that being raped by her husband (after having been raped and tortured just previously) is in NO WAY pleasurable. If it was Courtemanche himself who didn't make this connection, I'm disgusted. If it was the character he wanted to portray, then I would like to know why nearly all the Rwandans he wrote about were violent, misogynistic, sex-obsessed and self-absorbed men whilst the main character, a white Canadian like the author himself was (albeit also sex-obsessed) an apparently kind and gentle man.

I wanted to read this book because I wanted to know more about the Rwandan genocide and Rwanda's recent history, and this book had gotten good reviews. But I realize now that I should have looked for something written by a Rwandan instead.

[Israa · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a difficult book to read through. Difficult because the events are so depressing. Never have I read a book with more graphic images of brutal scenes. I have to say that the book is very effective in conveying a memorable (fictional but not) account of the Rwandan genocide. As the saying goes, it is humanly possible to mourn the deaths of one or two or three but not of thousands. The author introduces you to a character then a few scenes later you find that this character that you formed a bond with is brutally murdered. I have to say, however, that despite the incidents being tragic, Valcourt's hope for Rwanda fills the reader with some of the same hope. I cannot say I enjoyed reading this book but it was definitely eye opening. The one thing that confused me, however, was Valcourt's relationship with Gentille. Why did the author not show us a clear (and predictably highly emotional) reaction when Valcourt thought his wife and daughter were murdered? Why did Valcourt not leave the country and take them with him? Why did he not fight harder for Gentille? But I understand that a love story in the midst of a genocide might not be exactly an ideal one so perhaps that was the intent of the author...to show that even the most beautiful of feelings cannot be properly manifested during an event as brutal as a genocide.

[chucklesthescot · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was just complete rubbish for me. Endless drivel about the obnoxious cast of characters who are just hanging around this swimming pool. I didn't like any of these people so I couldn't bring myself to actually give a damn about their stories. It was difficult enough to focus on turning each page as my mind kept drifting off into wondering what the postman was going to bring me. My pain did not last long and this went straight in the bag for the charity shop.

[Michele · Rating 5 out of 5]

Forgot this was true while reading it. Was so impressed with the balanced human view of the Rwandans that it portrayed. Their view of the inevitably of death versus the clean portrayal of the genocide, I loved this book.

[Kim Q. · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Rwandan Genocide was a complex, brutal, seething moment of human failure and hatred. A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali, by Gil Courtemanche, is a sordid, vapid, pathetic attempt to sexualize the narrative. Gil fails to write with any depth or nuance to the events of the Genocide - his obsession seems to be sex, and no female character is able to escape his wrath. In one particularly horrific example, Courtemanche writes of two characters being murdered, who choose to have sex WHILE BEING KILLED. All women in his so called novel are either idealized virgins, or sexually obsessed whores; even those who do not work explicitly in the sex trade become prostitutes for no other reason than Courtemanche wishes to write about heaving breasts and "secret sex." Perhaps most egregious of all, the entire point OF the genocide - the Tutsi and Hutu history - is ENTIRELY ERASED. Courtemanche will occasionally vaguely allude to the racial disharmony, but seems to place the blame solely on the Rwandans, who inexplicably all believe and espouse European viewpoints (a historical note: while this was an aspect of the genocide, certainly, Courtemanche makes it clear that he believes that Africans are inferior, and believe themselves to be.) White Savior Complex is in full effect, and yet Courtemanche disdains the Canadian forces (known as UNAMIR) as racist, bumbling fools.

Courtemanche clearly does not know his history. He glosses over the tinder that set this fire, but waxes "poetically" about sex, about how the "hero" of the novel sees through the seething stupid and hatred of Rwanda, about sex, about sex, about sex. People get HIV/AIDs, and have more sex, and then die, or they are philosophical about the events brewing, and then die. The twisted history that leads up to the true Rwandan Genocide becomes obscured, obfuscated, and lyrically vapid. Courtemanche writes as if he is single handedly exposing the truth of Rwanda, but offers no substance, no depth, no intrigue. As a scholar of the Rwandan Genocide, I found myself so enraged by this book that I found myself disappointed the author had passed, so I could not lambast him personally.

Please do yourselves a favour and ignore this trash. "We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families," (Phillip Gourevitch), "Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak," (Jean Hatzfeld), and "The Antelope's Strategy: Living in Rwanda After the Genocide," (Jean Hatzfeld) are fantastic alternatives to understanding Rwanda, and utilize actual Rwandans to tell the story. For a comprehensive understanding of the Rwandan Genocide from someone who experienced the slaughter, Gen. Roméo Dallaire's "Shake Hands With the Devil" continues to be both my personal favourite, and an immensely powerful read.

A Sunday at the Pool In Kigali is nothing by a white power fantasy, disguised as empathy.

[Emy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The problem with this book is that it presents both very good elements and very bad elements. So I can't say that I loved it for its informative and moving depictions of Rwanda in the lead up to the genocide of 1994, because there are aspects of this book that I just hated.

First of all, Gentille and Valcourt are supposed to be in love but it is really not shown, only said. And there is something about they came together and how their story is described that just felt very uncomfortable. Added to some other details throughout the book, I can't help but feel that this was written by someone perverted.

I am obviously not talking about the ever-present rapes and brutalities. These are an important part of illustrating the Rwandan society of the time, which is the real strength of the book. You really feel like you are getting a good insight into the reality of what happened in the lead up to the genocide.

So it seems to me that what really works here are the facts on which the story is weaved, in opposition to what has been invented and embellished, which really doesn't work at all.

[Catherine Letendre · Rating 2 out of 5]

Un livre qui, malgré la note du début sur les histoires macabres qu'on va lire du génocide rwandais, parle plus de cul que de mort (en excluant les dernières pages). Comme si ces gens n'avaient qu'une dimension. Pourquoi tous les livres qui racontent l'Afrique ou les Caraïbes ne parlent que de cela? Je n'en sais rien.

Un livre écrit par un homme qui croit que toutes les femmes sont amoureuses de lui. Un homme qui dit être amoureux fou, mais qui fait passer son propre désir de rester dans ce pays au bord du gouffre avant le désir de fuir de sa soi-disant bien-aimée. Un homme qui explique que pour elle, il accepte sa peur et se marie, alors qu'il est divorcé et sait bien que ce mariage religieux ne sera pas valide et que sa jeune épouse n'en saura rien. Un homme qui nous raconte la vie de prostituées qui souvent baisent juste pour le plaisir, gratuitement, pour "le bonheur d'une langue dans l'oreille".
Non mais il faut être vraiment con pour se croire à ce point.

Toutefois, quand cet homme arrête de parler de son nombril et redevient journaliste, ses propos sont mordants et d'un réalisme à donner froid dans le dos.

[Angie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't get into it, so I ended it. The fact that is was compared to Heart of Darkness should have warned me off alone!

[Barb · Rating 1 out of 5]

Interesting novel of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, but the very unnecessarily graphic sex and violence detracts a great deal from the book

[Heather(Gibby) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely stunning novel about the horrors of the genocide in Rwanda.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very raw, very explicit. Not only covers the build-up to the Rwandan genocide, but also the AIDS-epidemic. Even though they are two totally different books, there are some very clear similarities I noticed after reading Baking Cakes in Kigali prior to this one: The Rwandan men are depicted as sex driven beasts; it seems that's all they can think about and they don't give two shits if they happen to infect women with AIDS. Some of them do it deliberately, because "everyone is going to die anyways", either from a machete, malaria or AIDS. I refuse to believe that the first part of this depiction applies to the majority of Rwandan men. Practically all Western men I've met are sex driven, but to this Rwandan extent, making it seem as if this and only this contains their entire personality seems a bit harsh and unrealistic. The lack of caring about dying of AIDS however, I can totally understand in a country where not many people make it over fifty anyways. The brainwashed induced violence, I can understand as well; it's not like that kind of stuff only happens in Africa.

As for the story itself, I first thought it was mainly autobiographical, but then after finishing it, found out that Gil Courtemanche was in Paris during the time of the genocide in 1994. He did meet Gentille, but there was never a love story there. After discovering this, I only got more frustrated about Valcourt refusing to leave Rwanda when shit was already hitting the fan. I believe this was written so to depict the love for Rwanda as a country. Also, if Valcourt had left, we wouldn't have been able to 'see' the genocide from up close. Still, frustrating!

I gave this one 4 stars, because it was so intense and shocked me to the core. The numerous sexual explicities didn't have to be so, well, numerous for me, but I guess when you're going for raw storytelling as an author, you'll get the most of out it when you can.

Highly recommended to people who heard about the Hutus and the Tutsis, but don't really know what was truly going on. Not so recommended to people who don't like/want to read about women getting raped in the most brutal ways. Neither do I, by the way, but if you truly want to know about the horrors that happened, you can't just read about the landscape for 300 pages.

[Tena · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the few books I have not finished and have no intention of ever finishing. It plays into every stereotype of Africa and the white saviour, reluctantly involved in a conflict he neither understands nor cares to understand, all because of his love for a local girl. The Black African men are incapable of feeling compassion or controlling their sexual urges, African mothers are totally fine with prostitutes giving blow jobs to their dying sons while they hold their hand, Black African women want the White Saviour to show the the love of a White men because they have experienced nothing but abuse at the hands of the Black men, White women gasp at the sight of the Black sexuality, waiting to be degraded by them... Oh and a husband gets a hard on after seeing his wife being raped by soldiers and happily goes down on her in front of them. Basically this book is a collection of racist gibberish set against a backdrop of one of the bloodiest genocides in modern history, which serves only to further shock the presumably white reader. Its main focus is the fear of the Black male sexuality, which seems to be driving the force of not just the HIV crisis but also the genocide itself. I have no more patience for these kind of tone-deaf books about Africa. Oh and all this aside, the writing style is appalling. Do not waste your time.

[Marianna the Booklover · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though I've read a lot about the Genocide, there is no way to "get used to" this subject. In his novel, Courtemanche doesn't shy away from realism and harsh observations (both in relation to the events themselves and to the disgraceful reaction of the international community) so if you find it difficult to read about such heavy topics, you might struggle here. The fact that it's a fictionalised account doesn't make it any easier. Still, it's a very good book and well worth reading. More on the blog: https://mariannainafrica.wordpress.co...