Cures for Hunger (45 page)

I also tried a more direct approach than writing to the government, and went to a police station in Quebec with his death certificate. The officers on duty told me that they most likely had nothing on file, then checked and appeared quite shocked. Though they said that there was definitely a file and that he'd done a lot, they insisted that they couldn't share the information. Instead, they asked me several questions, as if concerned that I might be like my father. They finally said that I would have to go through the government.

Last, I have occasionally changed some of the characters' details in order to protect their identities, and, for the sake of my brother's and sister's privacy, I have intentionally said little about them except where necessary.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank the following organizations and people for their support over the years: the Anderson Center at Tower View, the MacDowell Colony, the Edward F. Albee Foundation, Ledig House at Omi International Arts Center, the Jentel Artist Residency Program, Canada Council for the Arts, and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec; T. Wilson, Laura Stevenson, J. Birjepatil, Janice Kulyk-Keefer, Judith Thompson, Constance Rooke, Patrick Holland, Harry Lane, Ray Klein, Tracy Motz, James Arthur, Robert Olen Butler, John August Wood, Joanna Cockerline, George Grinnel, Robert Hedin, Heather Faris, Graham Moore, Arthur Moore, Joanne Cipolla, Tristan Malavoy-Racine, Kevin Lin, Leza Lowitz, Greg Foster, Julie Buisson, and Austin Lin. I would also like to thank Mark Anderson for helping translate the quotation from Aristotle's
Politics.
I am grateful to my brother and sister, Marc-André and Ré Lise, for their permission to be included in the memoir, to my family in Quebec for their stories and friendship, and to my mother for decades of encouragement. I am deeply indebted to everyone at Milkweed Editions, especially Allison Wigen for so meticulously coordinating many aspects of the production, and, above all, Daniel Slager, for his enthusiasm, his constant support, and his brilliant and rigorous editorial guidance.

DENI Y. BÉCHARD was born in British Columbia to French Canadian and American parents and grew up in both Canada and the United States. He has traveled in over forty countries and done freelance reporting from northern Iraq and Afghanistan. His articles, stories, and translations have appeared in a number of magazines and newspapers. His first novel,
Vandal Love,
won the 2007 Commonwealth Writers' Prize.

ALSO AVAILABLE FROM MILKWEED EDITIONS

By Deni Y. Béchard

 

Winner of the 2007 Commonwealth Writers' Prize

“Béchard has reinvented the generational novel with innovative brilliance. The book has all the quirky depth of a great HBO series and a line-to-line literary energy that is very rare. This is an enormously impressive debut by a clearly gifted writer.”

—Robert Olen Butler, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

 

“The word ‘masterpiece' is not to be used lightly, but one is tempted in the case of
Vandal Love,
for the scope of its ambition, its originality, and its muscular use of language conjure a young Faulkner, García Márquez, or Steinbeck.”

—Katherine Min, author of
Secondhand World

 

“
Vandal Love
is a lyrical, generational story of a family haunted by God who is not above, but is nature—who is in the chromosomes that make for big and small, strong and weak, who is inside exquisitely cruel and hard journeys, who is the squeak of snow under boots in Québec, or a mosquitoes sweat on a bare, muscled boxer in Louisiana. Reminiscent of Proulx and Doctorow in both sweep and grace of prose, it is hard to believe that
Vandal Love,
so elegant and accomplished, is only Béchard's first novel.”

—Dagoberto Gilb, Author of
Woodcuts of Women: Stories

MILKWEED EDITIONS

Founded as a nonprofit organization in 1980, Milkweed Editions is an independent publisher. Our mission is to identify, nurture and publish transformative literature, and build an engaged community around it.

 

 

JOIN US

In addition to revenue generated by the sales of books we publish, Milkweed Editions depends on the generosity of institutions and individuals like you. In an increasingly consolidated and bottom-line-driven publishing world, your support allows us to select and publish books on the basis of their literary quality and transformative potential. Please visit our Web site (
www.milkweed.org
) or contact us at (800) 520-6455 to learn more.

 

 

Milkweed Editions, a nonprofit publisher, gratefully acknowledges sustaining support from Maurice and Sally Blanks; Emilie and Henry Buchwald; the Bush Foundation; the Patrick and Aimee Butler Foundation; Timothy and Tara Clark; Betsy and Edward Cussler; the Dougherty Family Foundation; Julie B. DuBois; John and Joanne Gordon; Ellen Grace; William and Jeanne Grandy; John and Andrea Gulla; the Jerome Foundation; the Lerner Foundation; the Lindquist & Vennum Foundation; Sanders and Tasha Marvin; the McKnight Foundation; Mid-Continent Engineering; the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts; Kelly Morrison and John Willoughby; the National Endowment for the Arts; the Navarre Corporation; Ann and Doug Ness; Jörg and Angie Pierach; the RBC Foundation USA; Pete Rainey; Deborah Reynolds; Cheryl Ryland; Schele and Philip Smith; the Target Foundation; the Travelers Foundation; Moira and John Turner; and Edward and Jenny Wahl.

THE EDITOR'S CIRCLE OF MILKWEED EDITIONS

We gratefully acknowledge the patrons of the Editor's Circle
for their support of the literary arts.

 

Mary and Gordy Aamoth
Kari Baumbach
Maurice and Sally Blanks
Noah Bly and Becky DaWald
Tracey and Jeff Breazeale
James Buchta and John Wirth
Emilie and Henry Buchwald
Robert and Gail Buuck
Timothy and Tara Clark
Barbara Coffin and Daniel Engstrom
Libby and Tom Coppo
Kristine Cosgrove
Richard and Susan Crockett
Betsy and Edward Cussler
Kathy and Mike Dougherty
Julie DuBois
Charles and Zabel Geer
Martha and John Gabbert
John and Joanne Gordon
Ellen Grace
William and Jeanne Grandy
John Gulla and Andrea Godbout
Elizabeth and Edwin Hlavka
Joel Hoekstra and Eric Jensen
Linda and Jack Hoeschler
Richard Ihrig
Constance and Daniel Kunin
Jim and Susan Lenfestey
Allen and Kathleen Lenzmeier
Adam Lerner
Harry J. Lerner
Dorothy Kaplan Light & Ernest Light
Sally Macut
Chris and Ann Malecek
Charles N. Marvin
Sanders and Tasha Marvin
Robert and Vivian McDonald
Mary Merrill and William Quinn
Alfred P. and Ann Moore
Elizabeth Moran
Chris and Jack Morrison
Kelly Morrison and John Willoughby
Grace and Joe Musilek
Wendy Nelson
Ann and Doug Ness
Christopher Pearson & Amy Larson
Patricia Ploetz
Margaret and Dan Preska
Peter Rainey
Deborah Reynolds
Marcy and Bob Rinek
Cheryl Ryland
Jörg and Angela Pierach
Daniel Slager and Alyssa Polack
Larry Steiner
Moira Turner
Edward and Jenny Wahl
Kathleen and Bill Wanner
Margot Marsh Wanner & John Wanner
Jamie Wilson and David Ericson
Eleanor and Fred Winston
Margaret and Angus Wurtele

Interior design by Connie Kuhnz
Typeset in Anziano
by BookMobile Design and Publishing Services
Printed on acid-free 100% postconsumer waste paper
by Friesens Corporation

© 2012, Text by Deni Y. Béchard

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles
or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner
without prior written permission from the publisher:
Milkweed Editions, 1011 Washington Avenue South, Suite 300,
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55415.
(800) 520-6455
www.milkweed.org

 

 

Epigraph from the Penguin publication,
The Subject Tonight is Love:
60 Wild and Sweet Poems
by Daniel Ladinsky. Copyright © 1996 & 2003,
Daniel Ladinsky and used with his permission.

 

 

Please turn to the back of this book for a list of the
sustaining funders of Milkweed Editions.

 

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Béchard, Deni Y. (Deni Yvan), 1974–

Cures for hunger : a memoir / Deni Y. Bechard.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

eISBN : 978-1-571-31862-6

1. Béchard, Deni Y. (Deni Yvan), 1974—Childhood and youth. 2. Authors, Canadian—21st century—Biography. 3. Fathers and sons. I. Title.

PR9199.4.B443Z46 2012
813'.6—dc23
[B]

2011041003
CIP

 

This book is printed on acid-free paper.