The Ties that Bind: Deni Y. Béchard’s Cures for Hunger delivers a powerful bildungsroman about distraught lineage, rootlessness, and the invention of personal identity
5 out of 5 stars
The Ties that Bind: Deni Y. Béchard’s Cures for Hunger delivers a powerful bildungsroman about distraught lineage, rootlessness, and the invention of personal identity
by Evan Giannobile
Deni Y. Béchard’s memoir Cures for Hunger catalogs the search for identity through alienated connections to the past, plucking the resonant and often dark strings which inextricably join the lives of parents and children. Desperate to understand his own motivations and drives, Deni Béchard relies on uncovering the history and true character of his father, Andre Béchard, to help untangle his own identity in a vivid narrative of discovery, longing, and unknown family histories.
Published by the local institution Milkweed Editions, Béchard’s new memoir has been extolled by critics as a hard-earned and honest lyrical exploration into the dynamics of a dysfunctional family and the residue left behind. Having previously won the Commonwealth Prize with his first novel Vandal Love, Béchard now delves into the complicated relationship with his father: a compulsive, criminally-minded, freedom-seeking man who for Béchard had always occupied the fragile space between fear, disgust and admiration. Cures for Hunger is beautifully written and was listed on Amazon Canada as this year’s best nonfiction book, and Milkweed Editions is publishing the first American edition of Vandal Love as well as Cures for Hunger.
Minneapolis all-star band, Lovely Dark, offers a promising and enjoyable, if slightly flawed, debut
Minneapolis all-star band, Lovely Dark, offers a promising and enjoyable, if slightly flawed, debut
by D. Sykes
As a long-time fan of Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo, Travis and Sonia Even’s primary project, I’m compelled to compare them to side-project Lovely Dark–an instinct exacerbated by the new band’s similar thematic obsession with divinity and naturalism. While similar at their core, Lovely Dark is a thoroughly unique sonic experience. Both lyrically and musically, these songs rely on minimalism and graceful delivery to make their impact.
Lovely Dark is what music journalists once referred to as a “supergroup,” back before everyone and their mom was in three different bands. They’re a bunch of musicians from wildly different backgrounds, all in a grip of different groups, some of which have received positive media attention. While Territories has its flaws, the record is an example of talented musicians crafting a coherent and original sound together.
