A Good Death

July 27, 2009
French-Canadian Courtemanche opens his flawed second novel (after Sunday at the Pool in Kigali
) with a vivid portrait of the narrator's father at dinner with his large family on Christmas Eve struck dumb and feeble by rigid Parkinson's and stuffing himself with food. André, the narrator and eldest child, confesses he has never loved his father, a tyrant he unabashedly compares to Stalin. Flashbacks reveal a violent and domineering but insecure man who jealously once claimed the prize-winning walleye André caught in a fishing competition. As the evening progresses, André concludes that his father is better off dead, but it is impossible to tell whether the idea of patricide by gourmandism, proposed as a joke that ultimately becomes part of a plan, springs from a benevolent change of heart or from Oedipal rage. The story plays out mostly in André's head, through summary and analysis rather than drama, and the lusty, repellent father is the only character who truly comes alive on the page as the novel heads toward its shocking conclusion.

Starred review from September 1, 2009
Nine surviving adult children and their families gather for the traditional Christmas Eve dinner at the home of their fragile, ailing parents. Though he's dying of Parkinson's and the aftereffects of a devastating stroke, the patriarch continues his lifelong reign of terror. His saintly, long-suffering wife, imbued with a serenity that baffles her children, is worn out from caring for his physical needs while running interference with her brood of offspring, in-laws, and grandchildren and trying to maintain the appearance of a close-knit family. With Andre, the eldest child at 59, who is engaged to the much younger, solidly centered Isabelle, Canadian author Courtemanche beautifully captures the conflicted dynamic of a dutiful child who has never loved his father, desperately needs to please his loving mother, and can only survive by maintaining emotional distance from the whole messy swamp of lifelong familial grievances and entrenched behaviors. VERDICT This follow-up to the brilliant "Sunday at the Pool in Kigali" (2003) beautifully compacts the big issues of aging, dying, and duty into scenes of resentful devotion, cheerful fatalism, and intimacy held at arm's length. Highly recommended.Beth E. Anderson, Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2009
In a short but potent narrative, Courtemanche distills the heartbreaking essence of watching an elderly parent fail. Andr' has always hated his tyrannical father, whom he compares to Stalin. But now his once formidable father is in the grips of Parkinsons disease. As his father struggles to speak and to control his movements, Andr' cant help but feel a profound sorrow over his fathers infirmity and his mothers endless worry over her husbands deteriorating health. Over the course of the Christmas holidays, Andres siblings gathers in Quebec, both to engage in the holiday rituals and to grapple with whats to be done about their father. Torn between strictly following the doctors orders on diet and giving into their fathers desire for his favorite foods, one of the few pleasures remaining for him, they loudly argue over what constitutes a good life. In a radical departure from his political novel about the Rwandan genocide, A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali (2003), Courtemanche eloquently parses some of lifes most difficult questions.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)