MEMOIR: 'Cures for Hunger'

Near the end of this somewhat coolly written memoir, Deni Béchard reminds us of a useful maxim: "The repeated telling of any story separates it from the original event and gives it a life of its own."

Béchard has been telling and writing stories since he was a child, and is the author of a novel, "Vandal Love," already released in Canada and published this month in the United States, also by Milkweed. He was born in British Columbia of an American mother and a Québécois father who, in his earlier years, lived a secretive life of serious crime. As a young boy, Deni suspected something was awry about his father but he wasn't exactly sure what. He knew André -- as his father was called by his wife and all three of their children -- was a big risk-taker, often racing trains in his pickup with young Deni in the passenger seat. He'd suddenly turn onto a crossing road, stop on the tracks and turn off the engine. As the train barreled toward them, furiously blasting its horn, André would act as if his truck wouldn't start until the last moment, when he'd finally turn on the engine and race off the tracks.

While Deni was first terrified by these actions, soon he became accustomed to them and began looking forward to giving himself similar thrills. Yet he never became entirely comfortable with his father and his difficult ways.

There was a constant, growing tension between Deni's parents, who eventually split up, with his mother moving with all the kids to Virginia. André was a tough guy who wouldn't hesitate to get in a bloody fight to prove his point; he acted evasive and odd around police; and, despite being a businessman who operated Christmas tree lots and later owned and ran fish markets in Vancouver, he had a strong antipathy toward financial institutions.

And then, as a teenager, Deni learned why: André robbed banks.

Like many memoirists, Béchard wrote his book to help him reconcile many of the deep emotional and divisive issues that he and his family experienced; the first draft of this book was written 17 years ago, just months after his father's suicide (which we learn about on the book's first page).

"Cures for Hunger" is a sad story in which a son attempts to learn about a mysterious father who failed to appreciate his son's desire to write, finish school and find his own way in life. Toward the end of André's life, though, father and son, while not fully reconciling their troubles, seemed to have found some calm understanding. For Deni Béchard, it was his telling of these stories that gave him peace, which in turn gives us insight into growing up in the midst of a truly unusual family.

Jim Carmin is a member of the National Book Critics Circle who lives in Portland, Ore.