Louis Rastelli

There is a review of Louis Rastelli’s novel, A Fine Ending, in the Globe and Mail, available online here. Excerpt:

“A Fine Ending reads like a middle-of-the-night yarn from a slightly stoned scribe who has set himself the task of telling everybody’s story - for a laugh or at least a smile. Yet hovering overhead is a powerful metaphysical gravitas heightened by the narrator’s innocence. Evil and death surround him, lives are ruined by drugs and drink, clouds of violence and doom are gathering. Fittingly, the story ends on the last night of the 20th century in a melancholy scene heavy with foreshadowed nostalgia: Something sweet and good is going, gone.” - Marianne Ackerman, The Globe and Mail

A Fine Ending was reviewed in last Sunday’s Halifax Daily News (click to see review). The paper also ran an interview with Louis Rastelli (available here). There is a longer version of this interview available on the journalist’s personal blog, right here.

From the review:

“Louis Rastelli’s debut novel, A Fine Ending, is a captivating tale of a compelling place at a unique time that takes readers on an intimate journey through the twists and turns of la vie boheme…

“Amidst this maniacal milieu, it is only Louis’ affection for two adopted kittens that keep him rooted in the reality of the heart. In fact, the tenderness of those short passages is filled with a melancholia that is not unlike J.D. Salinger’s uber-protagonist, Holden Caulfield. Alas, more Catcher in the Rye than On the Road, Rastelli’s book is over-flowing with the sombre tone of life at the end of the millennium, when some dreams die off as others are born.

“And this is perhaps the author’s greatest accomplishment with the novel; by touching upon the lives of those who inhabit the region - a generation with nothing to gain and nothing to lose - he has successfully painted a timeless portrait of the spirit of bohemia that not only permeates the vibrant and colourful Montreal neighbourhood in which he lives and loves, but would feel equally at home in Greenwich Village, Soho or along the left bank of Paris. And, like the Plateau itself, A Fine Ending shines with both substance and style”

Another review of A Fine Ending has just come out, in Montreal’s free weekly, Hour.

“… an untroubled immortalization of a bygone era in the Montreal underground. There is something undeniably compelling in the openness and innocence of the telling, in the largely non-subjective subjectivity. We feel safe in his story, and therein lies the draw - whatever the faults, A Fine Ending offers a comfy barstool perspective on the times, a cold beer and good company, and that’s always hard to pass up.”

There is now audio on this website, in the form of Louis Rastelli reading a chapter from A Fine Ending, as well as an interview with him that aired on Montreal’s CKUT Radio on Friday, November 23, 2007. Click on the “Audio” page to listen to them, or right-click and “save as” to save them as MP3s.

Louis Rastelli will be signing copies of his novel, A Fine Ending, at Expozine 2007 in Montreal on Saturday, November 24 and Sunday, November 25, 2007, from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. at 5035 St-Dominique (Église Saint-Enfant Jésus, between St-Joseph and Laurier, near Laurier Métro) MAP. Free admission.

In other news, he is interviewed in the Danforth Review regarding his novel and his Fish Piss Magazine. He is also interviewed as part of an article on Montreal’s Mile End district in the Montreal Gazette, which had this to say about A Fine Ending: “Rastelli’s first-person tale of sex, drugs, rock, roll and kittens on the Main, circa the 1990s, is already the talk of the neighbourhood, as his many friends argue over who inspired which particular character.”

Other recent interviews with Louis have appeared in the McGill Daily and the Concordia Link, which has also published a review of his novel (available here.)

He will be interviewed on CKUT Radio on Friday, November 23 between 7 and 8 a.m. on the Friday Morning After show.

A huge article about his novel, A Fine Ending, will soon be available on the website of the Montreal Review of Books.

By the way, the book launch for A Fine Ending was a huge success! A photographer for Montreal’s Nightlife Magazine attended, so photos should be forthcoming. In the meantime, a brief review of the launch is available here.

Finally, keep an eye out on the growing Links page of this here website for more links to past articles, photos and general stuff about Louis Rastelli or his projects!