now that i'm about 3/4 of the way through Sunday At the Pool in Kigali I really enjoy reading it. After reading the first two chapters of the novel I was a bit sceptical about it. i was very confused at what was going on at certain moments in the book and with all the foreign names of the people and places so it was hard to follow. but after reading further i began to really get wrapped up in the book. the depressing nature of the book reminds me of Mercy Among the Children, but the sexual content is unlike any book we've read thus far. Gil seems to be extremely interested in sexually explicit content and the intimacy between individuals. the fact that one of the main issues in teh novel is the AIDS epidemic makes the intimacy between individuals in the book even more interesting. Gil is not afraid to discuss the sexual experiences that were going on in Kigali between people he knew and tying in the AIDS aspect of it is crucial. it makes for an interesting look at relationships and sexual content. i'm eager to get to the end of the book to find out what goes on thought i have a feeling i might know...

-wayne gretzky

I will admit, that getting through certian parts of this book wasike pulling teeth from an aligator. It was so damn depresssing I had to eat two Milky Ways and read a chapter from the first Harry Potter just to be able to pick it up again. But now that I'm finished with it, I can enjoy it a little more. The phrases were sing-songy but very graphic without being ordinary. When you're discribing tragedy, it would have been to just bash the reader over the head with the violence and slaughter, but the way he presented it didn't numb me up to anything. Each act was just as heart-wrenching as the last. What also struck me was the langauge used to describe happenings. There was a passive sway to the whoole story...I think Courtemanche reflected that lack of action from all the aid worker, and people who were supposed to be helping, in the language. Thier actions are reflected in the lnaguge use itself. There was a very noticable lack of action words, even when Valcourt started to take some steps it was described very passivily, almost in a dream-like quality. But when there are nice, quite moments between Gentille and Valcourt the same languge is used. This works so well in giving Rawanda a kind of half-surrelist dream, half nightmear quality. Its decieving as well. For example, when Gentille was reading poetry on the porch, or when the two of them are under the fig tree-these type of moments gave me a false sense of hope for them. It's pretty obvious that as a family, they're doomed. But these escapist moments lulled me into this idea that this story could have a happy ending, then the text would snap into the surrounding violence and remind me that there can be no happy ending.

I finished the book and there is something that really bothers me. I do not understand why Valcourt did not take Gentille and his daughter back to Canada to live a happy and peaceful life. I know the reasons for not wanting to leave that he states in the book, but when you think about it, all by himself there was nothing Valcourt could do to help the people in Kigali, but if he had taken Gentille and his daughter back to Canada he would have at least saved two lives.

"If you knew you were human, and if you knew I was human, then you would not have killed me."
--translation of the sign on a genocide site in Rwanda

just wanted to share that with you guys, i think it speaks for itself.

This book was emotional, factual, and humbling as I read it and learned for the first time about the accounts of the Tutsi masacre in Rowanda. It is too true that media is in control of what we know and what we dont know in the world around us. 800,000 deaths over ten days is unfathemable to any American. I loved Gentille's character. I think it was her that evoked the most respect, devotion, and admiration from me as a reader. Like we talked about in class, it killed me that bernard did not take her back to Canada for what seemed to be selfish reason. People from Canada wanted to be anywhere but and I guess for bernard that meant staying in Rowanda. As upsetting as that aspect of the novel is, it gave me a real sense of what was going on throughout the world. Everyone was looking somewhere else for identity. I really appreciated this novel as it educated me, inspired me, and made me look at humanity from the inside out. Will humanity ever change? I think it will, but not without action.

This book was emotional, factual, and humbling as I read it and learned for the first time about the accounts of the Tutsi masacre in Rowanda. It is too true that media is in control of what we know and what we dont know in the world around us. 800,000 deaths over ten days is unfathemable to any American. I loved Gentille's character. I think it was her that evoked the most respect, devotion, and admiration from me as a reader. Like we talked about in class, it killed me that bernard did not take her back to Canada for what seemed to be selfish reason. People from Canada wanted to be anywhere but and I guess for bernard that meant staying in Rowanda. As upsetting as that aspect of the novel is, it gave me a real sense of what was going on throughout the world. Everyone was looking somewhere else for identity. I really appreciated this novel as it educated me, inspired me, and made me look at humanity from the inside out. Will humanity ever change? I think it will, but not without action.

I almost feel badly for choosing this as my submission for the recent Canadian novel assignment, it's so difficult to read, especially because you know things like that actually happened, and no one did anything about it until it was too late. I'm glad I read it, as it was well done, and interesting to take on a different perspective of the genocide.
I don't know how I feel about literature representing an event like this, however. I think there are many things a fictional novel, especially one written by a reporter, can offer, but I think there is something missing from it that only a true, personal account can give you.

I loved this book. It was absolutely horrifying. I was horrified not only at the atrocities committed by Rwandans upon other Rwandans, but by myself. I really had no idea what went on. I had some vague notion that there had been a genocide in Rwanda involving Hutus and Tutsis, but that was all. I think what we discussed in class about the danger of fiction is so true. You think after reading this book that you get it. Clearly I didn't, not really, because I didn't go out and find more information. I was like, "Oh god, how horrible" and moved on to whatever other homework I had to do. And I am utterly appalled at myself for that. The book was powerful, but not enough to budge me out of my complacency. I do think that something like this could happen here. We like to think we're more civilized than Africans - I think this is illustrated nicely by something Cyprien says to Valcourt: "In your country you die by accident, because life hasn't been generous and leaves like an unfaithful wife. 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? I'm telling you in all humility, you discuss life and death like great philosophers. We just talk about people who are living and dying. You consider us primitive or ignorant. We're just people who don't have much, either for living or dying. We live and die in messy ways, like poor people." We can afford the luxury of philosophy, because death isn't staring us in the face all the time. But that doesn't mean we're civilized enough to keep ourselves from killing each other. The Rwandans were humans, and so are we. All I can think of is Stanley Milgram's studies after WWII. It's rather amazing (and scary) what people will do under certain circumstances. Nazi Germany could have happened here, the Rwandan genocide could have happened here. We just haven't had the right conditions yet, and hopefully we never will. But we should never be so arrogant as to think we are above killing someone because of the shape of their nose.
That said, I thought this book was very compelling, but I was rather irked by the love story within it. I don't understand why that was in there. Perhaps because readers expect a tragic love story? Perhaps because Courtemanche still fantasizes about this woman? Who knows? Either way, I don't see how we can even call it a "love" story. I know Valcourt says he likes talking to Gentille as much as he likes her body, but if that's the case, why do we have to hear all the time about her breasts? It really seems as if Gentille is just a body for most of the novel, and then at the end her body is destroyed and she is finally allowed her own voice. I guess maybe if we're looking at her as a sort of allegory for Rwanda then that speaks to the landscape and such, but still... I wish she'd at least been a stronger character, instead of succumbing to some aging, lost journalist's lustful fantasies. Maybe he really did love her, and I'm just too cynical to buy the whole love at first sight thing, but their relationship is the one aspect of the book that I really didn't like.

i watched hotel rwanda but never quite grasped how horrible it was for tutsi people specifically women until i read the novel. i just cant believe how horrible it was for people during that time of the massacre. i just am speechless thinking that these people went through this. as for the book, i dont really understand why valcourt and gentille didnt leave when they were given the chance. valcourt should have known that gentille wasnt going to be able to leave but yet he didnt want to leave when given the chance because rwanda was finally his country. wouldnt he rather have had gentille and emerita living with him (in canada) than risk staying in rwanda because he felt a connection.. it amazes me that they didnt leave. i really liked this book. it opened my eyes to the hardships and horrible murders and environment rwandans lived in. i would recommend the book to anyone, specifically for an eye opening learning experience.

This novel really upset me. I had such a hard time reading it. I would pick it up read a little and then I would be so upset that I would have to put it down. I think it made me even more upset to realize these events where real events. I had no idea about any of these events. I don't know why I have never learned about any of this in any of my history classes. It's such an important event in history to learn about.

As others have mentioned, I didn't understand why Valcourt does not leave Rwanda. He really annoyed me and I though he was just being ridiculous. He keeps saying he doesn't want to leave Rwanda because it's his country and in Canada they won't be on equal playing fields. Does Valcourt really think that Gentille is on an equal playing field with him in Rwanda? Even in Rwanda these two characters are not equal. If Valcourt really believed this was his country he would leave with Gentille and his daughter. That way he would have saved at least two people instead of killing everyone he loved. I kind of felt like Valcourt was fake. He would say one thing and his actions would not match his statements. He claimed he is in love with Gentille but he doesn't ever prove his love. This was the main reason I didn't like this novel. I was so frustrated with Valcourt thoroughout.

I just wanted to say although there were somethings that really upset and bothered me in this book i liked it because these are things that actually happen and i was happy that we got to read a book like this because it helped me to open my eyes and be aware of what has been going on in our world that a lot of people tend to ignore. Here we saw innocent people dying horrible deaths, AIDS been passed around like it was a gift of a better life and these people could not have prevent it because as mentioned in the book they rather to die like that rather than die by a Machete.

I think that this book provides an "entry" into a real life episode of history none of us seem to know too much about- that is, it helps us to relate to something that is otherwise very foreign to our experience. For that it is worth reading, as it provides us with some feeling for the experience, which for me helps when I go to read something else about it. The only other "in depth" coverage of Rwanda I have really registered on my consciousness was an interview with the Canadian UN General who Valcourt had so little respect for. It is interesting to read contrasting accounts of this kind of thing, and it is important to do so. I don't care how many newspaper articles a person reads, there is never enough time to go into the experience, and often the facts are more numbing than the feelings portrayed in a novel. Though it is by no means an exhaustive (though yes it was enhausting!) account, and I'm not saying it gives us "all we need to know about Rwanda" it does help to provide an intertextual relationship with whatever else we may seek to learn.

That said- I've got some issues. As I've said in class, the paternalistic, colonialist m.o. of "our hero" Valcourt really bothered me in this book. His treatment of Gentille as little more than a sex object was revolting, as was Courtemanch's represntation of her experience. I just thought it lacked a whole lot in authenticity. I wished the poetry had been Rwandan, and had been Gentille's gift to Valcourt rather than the other way around. Mostly I wish Valcourt had really investigated himself, learned something and grown, instead of just throwing his press pass around and then deserting Gentille and shackng up with the Swedish doctor in the end.

Still I'm glad we read it.

I think I feel similar to how Stephanie Peake described above. I'm quite upset with myself for not reacting so much to this topic, and this book, as a gateway into such horrific events that really took place. Its shocking how much life in a "safe" environment can create a mental bubble around oneself too. I don't know if this applies to other people's lives, but I find that its really easy to get caught up in the petty things of life, things that really don't matter, and forget all about these important things happening around the world. Books like this are wonderful, because they break that bubble.
I did find this book rather depressing, partly because of the story, and partly because of my reaction to it. However, I'm very glad that it was chosen for our class to read this semester.

It was interesting to learn more about genocide in Rwanda through reading truth this novel. Although the content was extremely depressing, I couldn't put the book down. I learned about the mass genocide in Rwanda earlier this semester in another course and knew that people millions of Tutsis were brutally murdered, but it was completely different and more personal reading about the killings when you felt like you knew the characters. Reading this book definitly gave me a new perspective. I'm really glad our class selected to read this novel. It is something that everyone should know about and we don't here about it enough in Western culture.

I agree with the other comments in that some scenes got pretty graphic, especially towards the middle and end of the novel. I think such descriptions were needed, however, as they didn't stray from what actually happened. As was discussed in class, I think the fact the book almost "personalized" the genocides in Rwanda with a handful of characters reinforced the impact of the autrocity. Instead of just hearing about random bombings or statistics on a news program, the novel allowed for the reader to experience the genocides firsthand through the eyes of Valcourt and Gentille. Overall, with some quams with Valcourts decision making and motives (like his half-hearted attempt to save Gentille) I found the book gripping and powerful to the end.

When I first read this book, I found it to be so shocking that I basically read it all the first night I had it. I too have watched Hotel Rwanda, but I don't think that all the information and facts really sunk in when I watched it. I wasn't able to comprehend the events and the death numbers until I read the book and had the genocides became "personalized". I am still frustrated that Western culture has not learned more about this. I agree with Eve that reading a novel on the topic can be more affecting than reading a dozen news articles. I was also interested in how the AIDS epidemic was portrayed in the novel. I feel that is another issue that I have not been made very aware of (although I do have an understanding of the statistics and what is happening), and for that I feel guilty. Yes, I agree that this book had some problems with the actions of the characters, but I think it did accomplish one thing; it opened the eyes of the readers to the effects of atrocity, murder, and disease, and hopefully gave them a desire to become more aware of world events.

i had mixed feelings about this book.
i respected the fact that it didn't needed to censor a lot of the things that were happening during this period of time in Rwanda. the author was very straightforward with a lot of the detail, and he made the politics rather clear.
however, the relationship between Valcourt and Gentille made me think twice about this novel. I didn't like the fact that he wouldn't take his love and their adopted child out of the country before it was too late. i didn't like it when they were to told to turn away from Kigali after having visited Gentille's father. Despite the warnings, they went back into the city. the final straw, however, came when Valcourt found Gentille again in the marketplace. He just left her there. He just turned away. Later on, he moved in with another woman and adopted another child.
but this was his wife! he just left his wife there, alone and depressed. sure, she wasn't the same as she once was nor would she ever be, but she was still his wife.
this relationship of theirs was the one thing that didn't sit right with me in regards to this novel.

I had never really known what happened in Rwanda until we read this book. I hate to say this but I felt that I was in some way ignorant because of the fact that I just wasn't even really aware. This book was incredibly depressing and I found myself having to put it down at times because of how detailed and gruesome it was, but I still think it was one of the best books I've ever read. After reading this book, I had conversations with friends who weren't aware of how incredible this genocide was. I am very pleased that this is the book we ended up reading and I have recommended it to others since having read it.