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Cures for Hunger: A Memoir
Growing up in rural British Columbia, Deni Béchard believes his charismatic father is infallible. Wild, unpredictable, even dangerous, André is worshipped by his young son, who believes that his father can do no wrong.
When the boy discovers his father’s true identity — and the crime sprees and prison sentences attached to it — his imagination is set on fire. Before long, he is imagining himself as a character in one of his father’s stories. At once attracted and repelled, Deni can’t escape the sense that his father’s life holds the key to understanding himself and to making sense of his own passions, aversions, and motivations.
Eventually he finds himself snared in the controlling impulses of his mysterious father and increasingly obsessed by his father’s own muted recollections of the childhood he’d fled long ago — his birth to a poor family in the Gaspé, his hunger for excitement and a better life, his crimes spreading out from Quebec to the American west, his identity as ephemeral as the wind.
Cures for Hunger is a gripping memoir of a young man’s quest to understand the hunger that burns for the unattainable, the story of the heart of a boy looking for the soul of a man and the darkness that he finds within.
When the boy discovers his father’s true identity — and the crime sprees and prison sentences attached to it — his imagination is set on fire. Before long, he is imagining himself as a character in one of his father’s stories. At once attracted and repelled, Deni can’t escape the sense that his father’s life holds the key to understanding himself and to making sense of his own passions, aversions, and motivations.
Eventually he finds himself snared in the controlling impulses of his mysterious father and increasingly obsessed by his father’s own muted recollections of the childhood he’d fled long ago — his birth to a poor family in the Gaspé, his hunger for excitement and a better life, his crimes spreading out from Quebec to the American west, his identity as ephemeral as the wind.
Cures for Hunger is a gripping memoir of a young man’s quest to understand the hunger that burns for the unattainable, the story of the heart of a boy looking for the soul of a man and the darkness that he finds within.
366 pages, Hardcover
First published April 27, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
March 10, 2024
A very interesting memoir. The author, Demi, was from an incredibly dysfunctional family. Demi was forced to figure out the meaning of life on his own.
He had awful role models, especially his father. So, the book shows the circuitous route he took while growing up
Unique writing and a quick read that I enjoyed.
He had awful role models, especially his father. So, the book shows the circuitous route he took while growing up
Unique writing and a quick read that I enjoyed.
April 15, 2013
Book Review: Frey Fest 2013 author, Deni Bechard’s, “Cures for Hunger: A Memoir”. This book was huge, not in length, but in themes. I guess all memoirs are, our lives don’t follow just one path or theme, but we explore ourselves in many different ways. “Cures for Hunger” is boy-to-man story, a father-and-son story, a cross-country adventure store, a love of literature and a path-to-acceptance (or not) story. My favourite themes where the love of literature and father-and-son, but both also aggravated me to no end (another reason to love them!). Some of Deni’s lines actually made me break my cardinal rule of never turning a page down, but I wanted to remember them for this review.
“It had never occurred to me that I could rebel only against those who refused to accept what I was. Since my criminal interests didn’t anger him, they seemed innocent, whereas the literature my mother had encouraged was questionable. I realized he’d probably never read a novel. What was it like to be someone who’d never finished a last page, never experiences that amalgam of fullness and loss, satisfaction and longing?” p.147
I couldn’t imagine being one of those people, to not read for pleasure. Pick up “Cures for Hunger” for pleasure! -Kathy
“It had never occurred to me that I could rebel only against those who refused to accept what I was. Since my criminal interests didn’t anger him, they seemed innocent, whereas the literature my mother had encouraged was questionable. I realized he’d probably never read a novel. What was it like to be someone who’d never finished a last page, never experiences that amalgam of fullness and loss, satisfaction and longing?” p.147
I couldn’t imagine being one of those people, to not read for pleasure. Pick up “Cures for Hunger” for pleasure! -Kathy
February 11, 2012
Deni Y. Bachard's early childhood in British Columbia was filled with a Tom Sawyerish adventure filled lifestyle that most boys could only dream of. His idol during this time was his father Andre, a no nonsense, rough around the edges French Canadian whose shady past was always only a step behind him. After a shocking split between his parents, Deni's new life with his mother in America leaves much to be desired. His inner battle between the two worlds he cherishes has him constantly guessing which path to take. Only through choosing his own way does he discover that the life he always wanted is far from the life he truly needs.
May 12, 2012
I got this book through the firstreads sweepstakes.
This book is awesome! It's not the type of book that I would normally choose...but the writing was incredible, as was the story. Deni creates his childhood and young adult world for us in perfect detail; not givinig or leaving out too much. His journey to understand himself through his father's life is both understandable and really very sad. You end up feeling very sorry for Deni the child as you see him growing into a character not unlike his father. And yet we are also able to root him on to becoming the strong individual who self-advocates...even though at times this means being cold towards his family, much like his father was.
In short, this was a very well written, poignant story about a boy growing into a man and seeing how his father has both helped and hindered him along the way.
This book is awesome! It's not the type of book that I would normally choose...but the writing was incredible, as was the story. Deni creates his childhood and young adult world for us in perfect detail; not givinig or leaving out too much. His journey to understand himself through his father's life is both understandable and really very sad. You end up feeling very sorry for Deni the child as you see him growing into a character not unlike his father. And yet we are also able to root him on to becoming the strong individual who self-advocates...even though at times this means being cold towards his family, much like his father was.
In short, this was a very well written, poignant story about a boy growing into a man and seeing how his father has both helped and hindered him along the way.
March 17, 2013
I don't usually read memoirs but I've liked everything by Bechard that I've read and this did not disappoint. Seventeen years in the making it is the story of Bechard and his father, a French-Canadian from the Gaspesie peninsula of Quebec. A poignant and honest narrative. As he described his father Andre, I found myself thinking repeatedly, "I've known men like that." I've known men for whom a show of tenderness was perceived as a weakness, men whose frustration and disappointment leave the threat of rage always just below the surface. So beautifully written. And Bechard's grandmother's maiden name was Duguay. I wonder if we are related...
September 21, 2018
Interesting story but doesn’t tie much together or have much of a point. A bit pointless to someone other than the author. Sadly, he seems set adrift and I hope he doesn’t follow his fathers (and uncles) path of depression. I’d like to know more about how his siblings (and mother) feel and how they were affected by all of this. It seems his mother tried her best. He makes no real mention of his relationship with his siblings.
November 26, 2012
much profanity in the first half of the book. i was reccommended this book by a friend and nearly stopped reading when i was yet through the first chapter. but it drew me in and im glad i read it. a heartbreaking story that makes u appreciate family and friends. a good read if your ready to look past the profanity.
Want to read
July 26, 2012I was quite enjoying this book, the writing was engaging but I have since misplaced it and cannot finish!! I must track it down to read to the end.
July 3, 2012
I think i might have liked this book if it had been edited down by about a third. I'm incredibly impressed that someone could remember their childhood in such minute detail.
December 31, 2022
2.5/5
"Remèdes pour la faim" relate les mémoires de Deni Béchard et de la relation ambigüe qui existait entre lui, son père et le passé de ce dernier.
Si le thème central est intéressant, notamment grâce au fait que le paternel ait été un braqueur de banque, une partie non-négligeable du livre aurait pu être escamotée (en bon gros 300 pages), améliorant le rythme de l'ouvrage. Au lieu de ça, c'est une longue suite de rendez-vous manqués, de récits de bataille fantasmés ainsi que d'ivrognerie de la part des personnages secondaires qui ralentissent considérablement un récit déjà lent.
Les plus
- Le Québec qui demeure un sujet sous-exploré dans la littérature contemporaine américaine.
- Les 100 dernières pages.
Les moins
- La lenteur chronophage du récit.
- Les détails superficiels.
- Le manque de rythme.
- La monotonie de la vie de l'auteur.
"Remèdes pour la faim" relate les mémoires de Deni Béchard et de la relation ambigüe qui existait entre lui, son père et le passé de ce dernier.
Si le thème central est intéressant, notamment grâce au fait que le paternel ait été un braqueur de banque, une partie non-négligeable du livre aurait pu être escamotée (en bon gros 300 pages), améliorant le rythme de l'ouvrage. Au lieu de ça, c'est une longue suite de rendez-vous manqués, de récits de bataille fantasmés ainsi que d'ivrognerie de la part des personnages secondaires qui ralentissent considérablement un récit déjà lent.
Les plus
- Le Québec qui demeure un sujet sous-exploré dans la littérature contemporaine américaine.
- Les 100 dernières pages.
Les moins
- La lenteur chronophage du récit.
- Les détails superficiels.
- Le manque de rythme.
- La monotonie de la vie de l'auteur.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 20, 2019
Yes, this is Béchard's memoir, but the protagonist of the story is Béchard's father, and Béchard's own quest to find out who his father really was, where he came from, and what drove him to be both a violent criminal and a loving family man. Overblown writing at times, and much of the interesting information comes very late in the telling (as Béchard learned it), but still Recommended.
July 19, 2020
Un peu longuet et répétitif. Je pense qu'on aurait facilement pu enlever la moitié des passages où le protagoniste repart et revient vers son père (à chaque fois qu'il a besoin d'argent). On comprend que c'était une histoire d'émancipation et en même temps de rapprochement entre un père et son fils, et surtout l'histoire d'un père criminel et difficile à cerner du point de vue émotionnel.
December 31, 2020
Quel roman! Il m'aura accompagné une partie de l'année bien malgré moi. Je l'aimais en même temps qu'il me dérangeait, que ce soit avec le personnage du père ou celui du fils. J'ai eu de la difficulté à comprendre l'énergie qui les poussait tous les deux vers l'avant, mais je me suis accrochée et j'ai apprécié.
August 30, 2023
This was one of the most entertaining books I have ever read. The memoir was about his ever changing relationship with his ex-criminal father. Highly recommend, make sure you get the newest version from Milkweed editions.
July 24, 2018
Obsédé par un trou dans son histoire familiale, l'auteur tente de combler ce vide en racontant des histoires pour comprendre son histoire personnelle.
January 24, 2021
3,5
Autant j’ai adoré, autant j’ai trouvé qu’il y avait des longueurs!
Autant j’ai adoré, autant j’ai trouvé qu’il y avait des longueurs!
November 15, 2022
Je suis tombé sur cette lecture par curiosité après avoir écouté le trop bon documentaire Absences, de Carole Laganière. L’histoire est intéressante mais ne fut pas un réel coup de coeur pour moi.
June 15, 2023
J'ai trouvé fascinante, intriguante et émouvante cette histoire d'une relation père -fils. Cependant, il y avait quelques longueurs.
June 15, 2023
Reviewed by Christina Schillaci on www.rowanglassworks.org.
In Deni Y. Béchard’s memoir Cures for Hunger, the reader is introduced to the author as a young boy enamored with his father. The author’s father, André, harbors a wild thirst for danger that burrows in his personality and threatens his family. We see this in the opening scene when André takes his children to sit in his truck over railroad tracks. As the train barrels toward the family, André pretends the truck has stalled until the last possible moment. Antics like this one terrify and thrill his children. Then there is the darker side, the sunken eyes and secrets. After the family’s escape from André—and that’s how it felt, kids packed in the car, speeding across the Canadian border in the middle of the night—Béchard blames his mother for taking him away from his father. In the years leading up to his fifteenth birthday, Béchard discovers pieces of André’s criminal record and resolves to move back in with his father. His hope to quench his fascination with André’s past is shadowed by the realization that his father is not the same man he remembers from childhood.
Béchard explores what it means to be in limbo between craving a father’s love and being repulsed by his lifestyle. In his memoir, the author appears troubled, wanting nothing more than a strong patriarchal figure as he picks fights at school and writes dystopian fantasies in his bedroom. But his redeeming qualities are limited.
He, like his father, is charming when needed, but selfish, existing only to further himself regardless of his family’s needs. He is impassive, rough, and manipulative. He is a fighter. As André says to his son over dinner at a Greek restaurant, “You’re like me that way.” And it’s true. Béchard marks his adolescent years with a big mouth that spews lies intended to get the attention of the tough kids. He craves to be like his father during his years of robbery.
Béchard’s selfishness seems to be pitted against his father’s, bringing about the idea that father and son are mirror images of each other while still opposing forces. The two exist as foils—characters who emphasize their traits based on the contradictions of the other. Béchard’s driving force is his need for answers while his father runs from questions. Both men are stubborn, boxing with the idea of what the son should become based on what the father used to be. André’s shrewd demeanor threatens to bring his son down by attempting to dupe him into dropping out of school and becoming a boxer, while Béchard wishes to stay in school. André doesn’t want what’s best for his son. Béchard, in turn, mirrors his father by manipulation—he runs away when faced with a choice he dislikes, and then later uses it to threaten André. Despite the fact that his father is nothing more than an angry, aging man, Béchard is haunted by the unanswered questions of André’s past crimes and mysterious family.
The memoir introduces a paternal relationship that is filled with uncertainty. There are fathers who are active in their children’s lives and there are fathers who are not. At first, André is a large component of his son’s life, and then he is out of the picture, and then back in. An unstable father affects his child, and in this author’s case, creates a son that is willing to drop his mother and siblings at any cost if it means finding the father whom he feels abandoned by. Béchard forces us to look closely at the relationship between father and son—how an erratic father who is absent in his son’s adolescent life and then thrust back into it can cause more harm than if he had skipped out altogether.
Although the memoir is successful in showing the tension between father and son, at times there seems to be too much of the tension and not enough of the narrative. There are scenes in which Béchard sits in his bedroom and narrates the pros and cons about his father. Scenes like these do little to further the plot.
As the story moves forward, Béchard is absorbed in André’s crimes with alarming focus, but is then indifferent when André is willing to spill all. Here Béchard displays the idea that the interest he has in his father’s enigmatic past lies in the pursuit of it. This changes when the secrets are ready to be let out because Béchard wants to believe his father is still the dangerous and intelligent man capable of robbing banks and pounding fellow inmates into their graves. André, at first, is mysterious. But as the mystery wears away, sympathy takes its place, something his son is unwilling to give. This change in the plot shows that as the author gets older, he is aware that the similarities he shares with his father are negative ones.
Cures for Hunger exhibits Deni Y. Béchard’s ability to examine an unstable father/son dynamic and the family-fraying results. By pitting the two against each other and comparing their motives, Béchard creates a memoir that showcases a strained but caring relationship and how it develops over time.
In Deni Y. Béchard’s memoir Cures for Hunger, the reader is introduced to the author as a young boy enamored with his father. The author’s father, André, harbors a wild thirst for danger that burrows in his personality and threatens his family. We see this in the opening scene when André takes his children to sit in his truck over railroad tracks. As the train barrels toward the family, André pretends the truck has stalled until the last possible moment. Antics like this one terrify and thrill his children. Then there is the darker side, the sunken eyes and secrets. After the family’s escape from André—and that’s how it felt, kids packed in the car, speeding across the Canadian border in the middle of the night—Béchard blames his mother for taking him away from his father. In the years leading up to his fifteenth birthday, Béchard discovers pieces of André’s criminal record and resolves to move back in with his father. His hope to quench his fascination with André’s past is shadowed by the realization that his father is not the same man he remembers from childhood.
Béchard explores what it means to be in limbo between craving a father’s love and being repulsed by his lifestyle. In his memoir, the author appears troubled, wanting nothing more than a strong patriarchal figure as he picks fights at school and writes dystopian fantasies in his bedroom. But his redeeming qualities are limited.
He, like his father, is charming when needed, but selfish, existing only to further himself regardless of his family’s needs. He is impassive, rough, and manipulative. He is a fighter. As André says to his son over dinner at a Greek restaurant, “You’re like me that way.” And it’s true. Béchard marks his adolescent years with a big mouth that spews lies intended to get the attention of the tough kids. He craves to be like his father during his years of robbery.
Béchard’s selfishness seems to be pitted against his father’s, bringing about the idea that father and son are mirror images of each other while still opposing forces. The two exist as foils—characters who emphasize their traits based on the contradictions of the other. Béchard’s driving force is his need for answers while his father runs from questions. Both men are stubborn, boxing with the idea of what the son should become based on what the father used to be. André’s shrewd demeanor threatens to bring his son down by attempting to dupe him into dropping out of school and becoming a boxer, while Béchard wishes to stay in school. André doesn’t want what’s best for his son. Béchard, in turn, mirrors his father by manipulation—he runs away when faced with a choice he dislikes, and then later uses it to threaten André. Despite the fact that his father is nothing more than an angry, aging man, Béchard is haunted by the unanswered questions of André’s past crimes and mysterious family.
The memoir introduces a paternal relationship that is filled with uncertainty. There are fathers who are active in their children’s lives and there are fathers who are not. At first, André is a large component of his son’s life, and then he is out of the picture, and then back in. An unstable father affects his child, and in this author’s case, creates a son that is willing to drop his mother and siblings at any cost if it means finding the father whom he feels abandoned by. Béchard forces us to look closely at the relationship between father and son—how an erratic father who is absent in his son’s adolescent life and then thrust back into it can cause more harm than if he had skipped out altogether.
Although the memoir is successful in showing the tension between father and son, at times there seems to be too much of the tension and not enough of the narrative. There are scenes in which Béchard sits in his bedroom and narrates the pros and cons about his father. Scenes like these do little to further the plot.
As the story moves forward, Béchard is absorbed in André’s crimes with alarming focus, but is then indifferent when André is willing to spill all. Here Béchard displays the idea that the interest he has in his father’s enigmatic past lies in the pursuit of it. This changes when the secrets are ready to be let out because Béchard wants to believe his father is still the dangerous and intelligent man capable of robbing banks and pounding fellow inmates into their graves. André, at first, is mysterious. But as the mystery wears away, sympathy takes its place, something his son is unwilling to give. This change in the plot shows that as the author gets older, he is aware that the similarities he shares with his father are negative ones.
Cures for Hunger exhibits Deni Y. Béchard’s ability to examine an unstable father/son dynamic and the family-fraying results. By pitting the two against each other and comparing their motives, Béchard creates a memoir that showcases a strained but caring relationship and how it develops over time.
April 29, 2018
Longue brique de près de 600 pages, contenant beaucoup d’introspection, lue dans le cadre du Club de lecture du Fil rouge.
J’ai étiré la lecture sur plus deux mois, entrecoupée de plusieurs autres livres. Il s’agit d’une quête identitaire dense qui prend du temps à digérer. La démarche de l’auteur, à cheval entre l’autobiographie et la thérapie littéraire, est toutefois vraiment intéressante par les thèmes universels qu’elle soulève : secrets de famille, relations père-fils, recherche de sens. Ce ne fut pas un grand coup de cœur, mais je lui lève tout de même mon chapeau pour ce travail immense écrit en deux semaines, et retravaillé pendant 17 ans avant sa publication.
July 24, 2021
3,5 étoiles. Un récit autobiographique intéressant, qui raconte la relation de l’auteur avec son père. On passe de la fascination à la désillusion, et on apprend petit à petit les détails d’une vie assez instable, d’une personne qui ne se satisfait jamais de rien. J’ai bien aimé mais trouvé le livre un peu long..! Mais ça m’a donné envie de lire plus de cet auteur!
May 25, 2012
Deni Béchard has crafted a revealing book in its truest sense. You will not be able to keep from reflecting on your relationships to your parents, their relationships to each other, to their parents, regardless of whether they were bank robbers, hippies, fishmongers or none of the above. The story he tells here is unique and he beautifully renders time and place down to scents and sounds and silence. You have been where he has been, tasted the food, walked among the Christmas tree orchard, lived in the trailer park. And yet, no matter how different his story is from yours, you will know it personally, deeply, from your own experiences.
He begins with an end, with his father's suicide, and with his decision not to attend the funeral. The language is spare but not sparing. "My father died in a house empty but for a single chair." This is his opening salvo. He continues a few paragrpahs later "But for a few phone calls, the death passed uneventfully, a quiet ending to a life that had spanned so much of North America, a childhood on the Saint Lawrence, in Gaspésie, and a poetry of names in his twenties: Montreal, the Yukon, Alaska; Montana, Las Vegas, Tijuana; Miami, Los Angeles."
The rhythm of his sentences is like a drum song calling up the spirits of the dead, slow and sharp moving to urgent and rolling.
Here he describes a telephone conversation with his father. We are late in tale and his father's suicide, we know, is nearing.
"I wish I could hear him tell this again, not those easy crime stories in dim restaurants, the chairs upside sown on the tables and the two of us the last in the place, but the way he tried to paint his power as he let his friend off. He spoke of a man so afraid, so uncertain of what the world had given him, that when he stopped and let the static hum along the phone line I wasn't sure who he was describing."
That quiet emotional intensity is replete throughout. As much as this book makes you think, makes you question, makes you angry, frustrated you will not want to put it down. It also has recollected joy and moments of comic relief, some of them arising from the tensest moments in the book - the father playing chicken - with both his young sons in the pick-up - with a freight train. The author being sent, as a teenage boy, with a bat to collect money owed his father.
A small complaint is that his mother is not as well known, in fact, feels barely known. This story is layered in generations, all on his father's side, all unknown yet pulling on the young Deni as he tries to find himself in his father and in opposition to his father. That is more than enough for one book and he handles it with grace and lyricism. Still, his mother is vital to the story and while we meet here and speak with her, her complexity means that without her own book she will remain mostly unknown to us. When he does give her to us he evocative. There is depth even in the tiniest snippets.
"One morning he came out of the house wearing a sports jacket, a briefcase in his hand. Our mother sat on the steps, watching us play. Wind rustled the leaves of the tree near the porch, casting a shadowed map of branches and sunlight across his face. He tugged at his sleeves, and she looked up. I watched, sitting on my bicycle, one foot on the ground, and she laughed. It was a laugh of pleasure and surprise, be he flushed and walked to the truck and got in."
I highly recommend this book, for the story, for the language, for the sheer poetry of how they come together and set you on your heels.
He begins with an end, with his father's suicide, and with his decision not to attend the funeral. The language is spare but not sparing. "My father died in a house empty but for a single chair." This is his opening salvo. He continues a few paragrpahs later "But for a few phone calls, the death passed uneventfully, a quiet ending to a life that had spanned so much of North America, a childhood on the Saint Lawrence, in Gaspésie, and a poetry of names in his twenties: Montreal, the Yukon, Alaska; Montana, Las Vegas, Tijuana; Miami, Los Angeles."
The rhythm of his sentences is like a drum song calling up the spirits of the dead, slow and sharp moving to urgent and rolling.
Here he describes a telephone conversation with his father. We are late in tale and his father's suicide, we know, is nearing.
"I wish I could hear him tell this again, not those easy crime stories in dim restaurants, the chairs upside sown on the tables and the two of us the last in the place, but the way he tried to paint his power as he let his friend off. He spoke of a man so afraid, so uncertain of what the world had given him, that when he stopped and let the static hum along the phone line I wasn't sure who he was describing."
That quiet emotional intensity is replete throughout. As much as this book makes you think, makes you question, makes you angry, frustrated you will not want to put it down. It also has recollected joy and moments of comic relief, some of them arising from the tensest moments in the book - the father playing chicken - with both his young sons in the pick-up - with a freight train. The author being sent, as a teenage boy, with a bat to collect money owed his father.
A small complaint is that his mother is not as well known, in fact, feels barely known. This story is layered in generations, all on his father's side, all unknown yet pulling on the young Deni as he tries to find himself in his father and in opposition to his father. That is more than enough for one book and he handles it with grace and lyricism. Still, his mother is vital to the story and while we meet here and speak with her, her complexity means that without her own book she will remain mostly unknown to us. When he does give her to us he evocative. There is depth even in the tiniest snippets.
"One morning he came out of the house wearing a sports jacket, a briefcase in his hand. Our mother sat on the steps, watching us play. Wind rustled the leaves of the tree near the porch, casting a shadowed map of branches and sunlight across his face. He tugged at his sleeves, and she looked up. I watched, sitting on my bicycle, one foot on the ground, and she laughed. It was a laugh of pleasure and surprise, be he flushed and walked to the truck and got in."
I highly recommend this book, for the story, for the language, for the sheer poetry of how they come together and set you on your heels.
August 8, 2022
Deni Bechard's s memoir is an astounding odyssey of personal grappling and growth. A young boy, in British Columbia, realizes his only real interests in school are literary and artistic. His spiritualist mother is encouraging. Yet his middle-aged, barely literate, ex-con father—a wholesale/retail guy who solves problems in his business life with his fists—intrigues him. Deni's dad thrills him with fast, reckless car rides and true stories of his earlier days as a criminal, who for years had robbed banks and other targets in scattered localities in North America.
Deni meticulously narrates this wild story. Things progress to where his mother flees with early-teenage Deni (and his brother) with the hope of living a quieter and less threatening life down in rural Virginia. Deni winds up angry and filled with resentment for his father. But after some petty crime of his own, and some effort to expand his horizons via hitchhiking, he re-establishes contact with his father—traveling back to Canada where he’ll work in his father’s business for a stretch while earning the money needed to set out on his self-directed path.
His dad makes fervid attempts to goad Deni into becoming a hardass and to forego any education beyond high school, something Deni can’t accept. Deni endures the tensions, wanting to learn everything his father has never told him about his impoverished past, in order to understand this deracinated, driven man and himself—to delineate the truth. He doggedly pursues this knowledge while actually metamorphosing into a writer.
I’ve read few autobiographies or memoirs as completely gripping (and literary) as this one! I recommend it.
Deni meticulously narrates this wild story. Things progress to where his mother flees with early-teenage Deni (and his brother) with the hope of living a quieter and less threatening life down in rural Virginia. Deni winds up angry and filled with resentment for his father. But after some petty crime of his own, and some effort to expand his horizons via hitchhiking, he re-establishes contact with his father—traveling back to Canada where he’ll work in his father’s business for a stretch while earning the money needed to set out on his self-directed path.
His dad makes fervid attempts to goad Deni into becoming a hardass and to forego any education beyond high school, something Deni can’t accept. Deni endures the tensions, wanting to learn everything his father has never told him about his impoverished past, in order to understand this deracinated, driven man and himself—to delineate the truth. He doggedly pursues this knowledge while actually metamorphosing into a writer.
I’ve read few autobiographies or memoirs as completely gripping (and literary) as this one! I recommend it.
May 5, 2016
Plutôt long à lire et pénible dans les redites, mais pas au point que j'abandonne la lecture, que j'ai trouvée intéressante et émouvante le plus souvent. J'ai trouvé que l'auteur abuse un peu de la bonne volonté et de l'attention de son lecteur; au moins le quart de son récit aurait pu être tronqué, car on a vite fini par comprendre la vie criminelle du père du narrateur, pas besoin de multiplier les anecdotes se ressemblant toutes! Par ailleurs,touchante analyse de la relation père-fils, l'amour que le fils a pour son père, tout en devant rester sur ses gardes pour ne pas en réveiller la colère. La découverte du pouvoir de la narration chez le fils, aussi, ainsi que de sa vocation d'auteur. Fascinant parcours du père qui a renié ses origines gaspésiennes à cause d'un père trop dur, et qui a préféré embrasser le Canada anglais pour faire sa vie.
June 5, 2013
This is a book I received through Goodreads and which unfortunately I left unread for a considerable time before picking it up to read.
The book is identified as a memoir although the author notes that at various times he had considered writing it as a work of fiction. I thing it would have worked as either.
The memoir is in essence the story is of the relationship between a father and a son and of the son's attempts to learn of his father's life especially he period before the son was born.
Although I knew nothing about the author prior to this book, I found the recounting his life, and in particular the stories he learned from is father to be fascinating and like the son I found myself wanting to learn more about the father.
Definetely worth a read.
The book is identified as a memoir although the author notes that at various times he had considered writing it as a work of fiction. I thing it would have worked as either.
The memoir is in essence the story is of the relationship between a father and a son and of the son's attempts to learn of his father's life especially he period before the son was born.
Although I knew nothing about the author prior to this book, I found the recounting his life, and in particular the stories he learned from is father to be fascinating and like the son I found myself wanting to learn more about the father.
Definetely worth a read.
August 21, 2013
Cures for Hunger is a memoir by Canadian novelist Deni Bechard that tells the story about his relation with his father, André, whose mysterious past is gradually revealed: where he was born (Quebec) and why he served time (bank robbery).
Bechard himself was born in British Columbia, and his mother was an American from Virgina. His mother and father separate, and young Deni's conflicts increase, by geography, nationality, criminality, as well as by the very different temperaments of his parents. His father's stories are also problematic for the young boy: how much should he believe, what is truth, what is fiction, what is being hidden?
Bechard himself was born in British Columbia, and his mother was an American from Virgina. His mother and father separate, and young Deni's conflicts increase, by geography, nationality, criminality, as well as by the very different temperaments of his parents. His father's stories are also problematic for the young boy: how much should he believe, what is truth, what is fiction, what is being hidden?
July 26, 2013
Enjoyed.
I readbthia book in French and was impressed by the translation.
It was done for sure by a French Quebecoise who respected the style, the slang etc.
The book is a good memoir full of details.
However, at one point I found it a bit repetitive. Maybe it could have been cut by 20-30% and we would not have lost the essence of the text, the story, the feelings etc.
Do I recommand? Yes but not to everyone ...
I readbthia book in French and was impressed by the translation.
It was done for sure by a French Quebecoise who respected the style, the slang etc.
The book is a good memoir full of details.
However, at one point I found it a bit repetitive. Maybe it could have been cut by 20-30% and we would not have lost the essence of the text, the story, the feelings etc.
Do I recommand? Yes but not to everyone ...
May 7, 2012
I got into this one pretty good for it being a memoir. Béchard definitely writes a good one, coming at it from the point of the still mysterious lingering questions as opposed to the reflection that has everything wrapped up in a neat little bow. He manages to convey his own sense of urgency in the memoir-ic quest and it really made it much more interesting for me.
June 3, 2013
This book conjured up memories of a friend.'s father who was a larger than life figure and made all of our parents seem so dull and prosaic, we did not realize until years later the chaos he caused in the lives of his children. Like all great memoirs we are taken into another world while simultaneously considering our own. A very worthwhile read.
June 30, 2012
A memoir of a boy who grew up with a bank robber for a father. He does a nice job of describing his mixed feelings regarding both his parents, as well as his changing views regarding what he would like to learn from them.
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