“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
“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.” - Stephen Clare, Halifax Daily News
“Although Louis Rastelli’s A Fine Ending is written in a smooth, flowing style reminiscent of J.D. Salinger or Jacques Poulin, that doesn’t fully explain the novel’s appeal, which is voyeuristic as well as literary… His unique, insider perspective and matter-of-fact voice are the real draws in this warm-hearted account of an artistic community’s defining years.” - Anne Chudobiak, Montreal Gazette
“Rastelli’s lamplight anecdotes really fulfilled the longtime hunger I’ve had for genuine Montreal affected prose. His pre-Y2K musings were hopeful for the future of a city where we continue to fight against entrenched cynicism.”- Matthew Fiorentino, Concordia Link
“A Fine Ending is exactly that, 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.”- Jamie O’Meara, Hour (Montreal)
“Louis Rastelli was very much a part of the Montreal Plateau scene in the ’90s, that recession era that encompassed the Referendum and the Ice Storm and culminated, or fizzled out, with Y2K. And he was definitely taking notes. The result, part elegy, part celebration, part parallel-universe Friends, is A Fine Ending. It’s an episodically structured novel whose charms may take some time to make themselves felt but whose parts eventually coalesce into a vivid, funny, and touching record of a unique time and place.”— Ian McGillis, Montreal Review of Books
“A Fine Ending is about a community of friends that grows and changes shape through the years, but who remain loyal to one another and their bohemian way of life. It’s about young people fighting to pursue their art when the world wants them to just grow up and get a job. Rastelli successfully re-creates the gritty world of his youth, peopled with earthy characters and exploits that shock and entertain. Though spotted with tragedy, he maintains an upbeat tone throughout the novel.” - Carmen Klassen, Saskatoon StarPhoenix
Available on Amazon
On Insomniac Press
From Chapters-Indigo Online
From Textnet.ca
Also available in Montreal at Monastiraki (5478 St-Laurent), The Word (469 Milton), Concordia Co-Op Bookstore (2150 Bishop), Drawn & Quarterly Bookstore (211 Bernard) and most any normal bookstore.
Illustration by Jean-Pierre Chansigaud.