The View from Castle Rock - Alice Munro

Typically, I read the newly crowned Nobel Laureate, during November or December, if they aren't in my familiarity zone. I did not have to do that for a Saramago or a Llosa or Mo Yan as they weren't new to me when they were chosen for the award. But as for the current laureate,  I haven't read any book of Alice Munro, barring a couple of stories published in New Yorker. For various reasons, the customary reading (of Nobel Winner) has split into the new year, and on a collective suggestion and a group reading choice,  The View from the Castle Rock, was decided.

Being the first writer  known only for writing  'short stories', to be a Nobel Laureate, it did attract a higher attention and expectation. The inside Cover specifically mentioned it as 'stories'. The book, however, is a progressive narrative of her own family, spanning over three centuries and two continents. As they say, one can always look at sources closed to us for inspiration, hence the vast number of 'autobiographical' or 'semi-autobiographical' writing in literature field . Alice Munro does exactly that, looking back at her family's history , from her great great grandfather to her step mother in a captivating, touching collection of stories.  The book read like a novel to me, than a collection of short stories. A seamless narrative , chronologically progressed, albeit not in continuous sequences, leaving gaps in the story, space and time. 

From the small Islands of Scotland, Alice starts her tales, of survival, of migration to greener pastures, intricacies of family connections and incidents and anecdotes. Set in two parts, part one,  the family's journey from Ettrick Valley in Scotland to North America, and part two in the new lands and the later generations of her family. I personally liked the initial parts The back yard search for the clues and stories about the ancestors, few prolific ones, and the threading of these various anecdotes into a seamlessly woven story form was marvelous. I am not as enthused in the later part ( especially towards the end) , where the narration tends to be a bit disjointed. A bit of triviality takes over. The later part has a lot more personal experiences and more autobiographical in nature. The first part is more adventurous, the quest for hints and connecting dots, bringing few interesting characters of the Islands. The plan and the dream of the new land, the metaphorical "View from the Castle Rock" to the new world.

This is one of my first reading of Munro and I was talking about this being a progressive stories as in novel vis-a-vis a collection of short stories. I argued that a random reading of one of the stories in the middle, probably will have a lesser impact, as against reading these stories as a collective. I was told that she tends to play along these lines and the narration often breaches the boundaries of the novel and short story.  Characters , places and events apparently pops up repeatedly in the other collections as well.

I would look at the two parts separately. Part one, largely based on the snippets of information she gathered during her visits and from various mentions in the old documents. She stich together a compelling story, enriched with beautiful imagery, characterisation ( build up from the data available) and fixing the missing links. This part which has more fictional element is fabulous, and a creation of a worthy hand. The second part, largely autobiographical and contemplative has lesser amount of fictional element, but more of internalisation of her own life and observations. The energy of her ancestors is derived into the later part, but these two remain different and in contrast in many aspects.

The terrain and the place has a large part of participation in her stories. These stories are all of limited scale and scope. Largely around relationships, confined within the family or short extensions in a few cases. There is a sense of intimacy, a closeness, a dependency of mutual existence. The gradual demo graphical and geographical changes in the landscape , minute observations of the changes in the living conditions et all are carefully handled through the stories.  Beautiful passages, meditative, emotionally deep story telling and fabulous control over language makes this a great read.

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The View from Castle Rock ( 2006 )

Alice Munro

Vintage Books

349  Pages
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Wiki, Guardian, NY Times, Quill & Quire

A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali - Gil Courtemanche

".. talked without stopping, about AIDS, about corruption and about massacres. He repeated what (he) had said a thousand times before...."

The story of every genocide takes the same often narrated path of violence and massacre. The second World War, the balkan conflict or what the world witnessed in Africa. The story of molestation, violence, rape and massacre repeat itself, by merely changing the country or continent. Canadian journalist and writer, Gil courtemanche, brings the world attention again to the gruesome history of the 1994 Rwandan genocide with a powerful, violent and often angry portrayal of the war time Kigali. The writing is hard hitting, it is upsetting and he uses extreme graphic images be its the effect of AIDS, the massacre or the rape of women.

Hotel des Mille-Collins, at the centre of Kigali is the nerve-centre of the actions in Rwanda. Apart from hosting the UN peace keeping soldiers, it is also the point of action for various Global organisations, working in Rwanda, like the UNICEF, Red Cross, French and Belgian embassies, the rich expatriates and the high class prostitutes. Bernard Valcourt, a Canadian journalist ( an alter ego of the writer), comes to Kigali to set up the television station in Rwanda with the help of Canada. Widowed, and his daughter now married and settled, he accepted the assignment to escape his boring life. The telecast project is perpetually delayed, and he and his crew are now opened to the world of another epidemic that is creating havoc in Africa - AIDS. Focussing his camera and his journalistic intuition, he and his team set about filming some of the victims and their last days. Though he made several friends amongst the victims and was able to film some of the touching scenes of their last breath, his documentary did not receive the attention neither in Rwanda, nor to the rest of the world.

Death and sex are two companions in the street. Scores are dying of AIDS, and the rest are victims of the violence. Machette clad predators on prowl for their victims, so are the prostitutes carrying deadly HIV virus.

The build up for a potential show down between Tutsis and Hutus were already evident. There are sporadic incidents of violence and arson. With most of his friends belongs to the minority Tutsi community, his attempt to bring justice to those affected were received with no enthusiasm from the ruling majority, and he was often warned with dire consequences. His diplomatic immunity , being a Canadian did not help him, and his attempts to get the international attention to the crisis, about to explode had no success, barring a small publication based out of Belgium. As one after other of his friends being killed by a meticulous planned genocide by the Hutu majority ( a plan very similar to what we had seen in the extermination of Jews in the first half of last century), Valcourt continue to work on his capacity.

The crisis blow up with a full scale action of murder and mass migration of Tutsis after a political crisis resulted in the murder of the President, the country goes into chaos. Anarchy rules and the foreigners are rescued to the nearby countries. Valcourt, now in love with a local girl Gentille, a Hutu with the physical features of Tutsi, refuses to leave and plans for his wedding. The Rwandan crisis now turns into a war after the Tutsi rebel regroup (with the help of Uganda) and return the favour. Now the exodus is from the Hutu quarters and no one is safe in the streets any more. In an attempt to flea , Valcourt and his wife was stopped and she was detained for not having the valid identity papers. Few pages of notebook, reveals the fate of her post separation.

"This novel is a novel. But it is also a chronicle and eye witness report." asserts the writer. Most of the characters and places are real and their 'real names' are used confirms the preface. While the theme is the genocide, he turns the mirror to the world community at large. Rwandan history until the second half of 20th century marred by Belgian rule , who spread the seed of hatred among the Tutsis and Hutus. They continue to supply arms to the warring factions ( Machettes from China the granades and firearms from French continue to enter the country by dubious means). Even at the height of the sectarian conflict, the UN peace keepers, the French or the arrogant Belgian soldiers refused to intervene. To the western world it was a news in the inner pages of the newspaper. The cry for help fallen into deaf ears, until late into the conflict. Though the peace was restored after a long time, the scars remain intact, albeit subdued and hidden.

Immediately after reading the book I watched the movie 'Hotel Rwanda' again the same night. Incidentally both claims to be based on real characters. Events in both, the book and the movie are happening at Hotel des Mille - Collins. Both happening at the same time and through two different perspective. While the movie, restricts its focus on the 1994 genocide ( a week to 10 days probably), the book has larger canvas, including the AIDS epidemic and the initial build up of the violence. Movie appealed in the visual sense, but the book seems to have been much more deep into the conflict, through the personal experience.

Very disturbing and haunting tale of violence with some graphic description of the rape, violence and death. It is difficult not to get carried away in such a tale, and he maintain a commendable restrain in his narrative. Anger, frustration, helplessness and cynicism influences the writing, despite his attempt to be im-passionate. The thin line between fiction and non-fiction often smudge. A very important recount of one of the dirtiest events of human history and not necessarily a literary phenomenon.

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A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali (2000)

Gil Courtemanche ( translated from French by Patricia Claxton 2003)

Canongate

258 Pages
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Guardian Review, Montreal Mirror, Mostly Fiction, Good Reports