Family secrets and lies come spilling out slowly in this tale of a man who learns that there was more to his father only after the latter dies. It's an interesting juxtaposition of Canada and Lebanon and a lesson on how the past can shape the future. A good read.

A well-written and nuanced novel about a son investigating the puzzling death of his Lebanese-refugee father, only to fall into a labyrinth of conflicting histories. Every character rings true and the story is immersive. After I turned the last page I wished that there was more, but that's just a sign of a great book. A magnificent read.
Thank you, Netgalley for the e-review edition.

I'll admit that this one took me a few tries to get into before I really found the groove, but once I did it was a compelling read. High on the literary fiction list, it won't be for everyone but will certainly start conversations.

The Only Café is a plot-driven novel that scrutinizes the enigmatic character, Pierre Cormier, and his silent and secretive past—a past, which incurs his involvement in the Sabra and Shatila massacre of September 1982 during the Lebanon civil war.

With his company amidst a political controversy and the news of his health deteriorating, he leaves behind his ex-wife, his pregnant wife, and his grown son, Cyril, to find solace in the solitude of a boat drifting off the shores of Cape Breton, originally his hometown after finding refuge in Canada before his move to Toronto to pursue a prestigious career in law.

His vacation soon becomes a long-term absence that designates him as a missing person; a loss that his son, Cyril, has not been able to readily mourn.

With journalistic savvy, Linden MacIntyre, baptizes his main character into the threshold of newsroom politics, awarding him an internship and a six-month contract to delve into the modern complication of the history of the Middle East as he concurrently investigates the facts of his father’s mysterious life—and death.

The novel is cryptic in design to insinuate the involvement of events by both Pierre Cormier and his unknown and complicated friendship with a man named Ari from The Only Café. Together, the communal atrocities of war appear to them in memory and conversation, a confessional that unloads the mysteries of guilt and affirmation in the way that those who suffer the trauma of war must experience.

And as the story unfolds, answers become less apparent, if only to complicate fact and perspective—both catalyst and responsibility of those involved in civil war in Lebanon—and the truths that haunt an enigmatic and absent father and provokes and propels his hopeful son.

If you are looking for a book that shares the nuances of male friendship, journalistic propaganda, and historical, political warfare, as well as quest-like journeys through memory and its correlation to identity, you’ll enjoy what The Only Café has to offer.

It is a book that testifies to the acceptance of loss and a lack of answers that can and does surround those we love and may never fully know. And testifies to the brutality and ramifications of war and the drive for survival in lieu of its sometimes necessary, yet guilt-ridden violence.
***
Characters: 3.5 stars
Plot: 3.5 stars
Language/Narrative: 3.5 stars
Dialogue: 3.5 stars
Pacing: 3.5 stars
Cover Design: 3 stars
***
Zara's Overall Rating: 3.5 stars

Cyril Cormier grew up in Toronto with a Lebanese refugee father and a mother from Cape Breton. They divorced when Cyril was young, and he didn’t see much of his father Pierre, who was a successful corporate lawyer with a new, younger wife and infant son. During an international scandal at the mining company where he worked, Pierre went missing under suspicious circumstances – there was an explosion on the boat he was living on, and his body was never found.

Five years after Pierre disappeared, one of his bones is found and he is finally declared dead. When the will is read, Cyril and the rest of the family discover that Pierre included an unusual request – instead of a traditional funeral, he asked for a “roast” to take place at a bar in Toronto’s east end called The Only Café. There is also a mysterious name on the guest list, “Ari”, that none of the family had ever heard Pierre mention.

At the time his father is declared dead, Cyril is interning at a national newsroom (likely modelled after the CBC) that is working on a documentary about homegrown terrorism. When Cyril’s Lebanese background is discovered by his bosses, they ask him to bring a personal perspective to the war on terror. Cyril decides to investigate the events that led to his father’s death, and the first step is meeting with the mysterious Ari. Cyril discovers that Ari was an Israeli soldier who met Pierre in Lebanon in the 1980s, during the Lebanese civil war.

Cyril suspects that Ari can answer questions not only about Pierre’s past but also about whether his father is truly dead. Soon Cyril’s personal investigation intersects with the larger story of terrorism at the newsroom, and there are surprising connections to his friends and colleagues. The deception stretches from the present day back to the Lebanese massacres of September 1982, and the plot is grounded in these historical events, bringing the current political climate in the Middle East into sharp focus.

The Only Café is a slow-paced mystery with both historical and contemporary relevance. It demonstrates how history is constantly repeating – with different forms of terrorism always in the background and bubbling up to the surface over time – and it puts a personal spin on the stories we often hear from a distance. There is plenty of dialogue to keep the story moving forward, although there perhaps could have been more inner contemplation and character development. There are constantly shifting perspectives, which were sometimes confusing and overly complex – there are only so many health, family and work dramas that one person can go through, and they really didn’t add that much to the story. But despite my issues with the novel, the writing was powerful enough to continually draw me back in to this complex and timely story of family secrets and their effects on global events.

I received this book from Random House Canada and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I will be formally posting on this, but for now I'll include what was written on my Goodreads page (I also post to the #50BookPledge and Riffle and I'm on Litsy) I will provide the link to the Literary Hoarders site once full post is written and published.

Okay, so this wasn't my favourite MacIntyre. It happens right? With his most recent before The Only Cafe - Punishment - I raced through it, glued to the pages, left begging for more. The Only Cafe? Meh, I felt sometimes like I was on a hamster wheel, going round and round the wheel with the same thing seeming to happen over and over again. Whereas normally I'm having a hard time peeling my eyes away from MacIntyre's stories, this one I struggled to pick it up. I just wasn't compelled to reach for it. Unusual, yes.

I just found this one was fairly simplistically written and heavy, heavy on dialogue. The "mystery" aspect to it was fairly easy to figure out as well. I'm not worried, I'm certain he'll come back with another one that will knock my socks off. :-)

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for sending the ARC. Appreciated as always.

Pierre Cormier had been a Phalangist militiaman during the Lebanese Civil War before arriving in Canada as a refugee. Twenty-five years later at The Only Café in Toronto, Pierre met Ari, a mysterious man who had worked in intelligence for the Israeli Defense Forces and was, Pierre believed, in Lebanon during the civil war and involved in the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre. Then, after a major scandal involving the mining corporation for which he worked as a lawyer, Pierre disappeared, presumably dying because of a propane tank explosion aboard his boat.

Five years later, Pierre is finally declared dead. His son Cyril, an intern at a national newsroom, is conducting research for a documentary on domestic terrorism but also ends up looking into his father’s secretive past and his death. He tracks down Ari to find out what he knows about Pierre and his disappearance.

In the first part of the book, the author deliberately obfuscates. This evasiveness and the narrative’s different timelines (Pierre’s Lebanese past; Pierre’s final weeks; Cyril’s present) leave the reader feeling confused. MacIntyre seems to want the reader to feel how Cyril feels since he knows little about his father and even less about events in Lebanon during his father’s life there. The reader gains clarity as Cyril does.

I knew little about the Lebanese Civil War and so did some research especially into the Karantina, Damour, and Sabra and Shatila massacres. Because of my lack of knowledge, I was often confused. A historical timeline with some brief explanatory notes would have been really helpful. (i.e. Karantina was a predominantly Palestinian Muslim slum district in mostly Christian east Beirut controlled by forces of the Palestine Liberation Organization; in 1976, Karantina was overrun by militias of the right-wing and mostly Christian Lebanese Front, specifically the Kataeb Party (Phalangists), resulting in the deaths of approximately 1,500 people, mostly Muslims. The Damour massacre was a reprisal for the Karantina massacre. Damour, a Maronite Christian town, was attacked by Palestine Liberation Organisation units. Part of its population died in battle or in the massacre that followed, and the remainder were forced to flee. The Sabra and Shatila massacre was the killing of civilians, mostly Palestinians and Lebanese Shiites, by a militia close to the Kataeb Party, carried out virtually under the eyes of their Israeli allies.)

Sometimes I felt rather overwhelmed by trying to keep the politics straight. Occasionally, it is also difficult to determine who is speaking because there are long stretches of dialogue with no indication of the speaker. There are also events that take focus away from the main storyline. For instance, what is the purpose of including Cyril’s on again/off again romantic relationship?

A more significant issue is the portrayal of Cyril. He is an intern who knows little about domestic terrorism and the radicalization of youth, yet he is chosen to be part of a team working on a documentary on the topic. He “became quickly lost as the discussion shifted to Syria and its potential to cause havoc in Lebanon,” but he’s told, “’I hear you’ve made a strong impression’”?

A major theme is that the past is never dead: “The past is never dead as long as there is memory. Memory is the afterlife, both hell and heaven.” Cyril is told that “’there is no distinction between what’s historical and what’s contemporary.’” Events in the novel certainly bear this out. Pierre’s fate, for example, is a direct result of events in the past and Cyril’s life has certainly been impacted by the past his father could not escape or totally forget. On a broader scale, current events often have their nascence in long past events.
There is a great deal in this novel; in fact, sometimes, it seems that there is too much. It is a book I should probably re-read because I think there is much I missed. There is mystery and suspense, but not a conclusive ending. Considering the book’s theme, such an ending is appropriate. I recommend the book but with the suggestion that the reader first read a bit about the Lebanese Civil War.

Note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.

I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, Linden MacIntyre, and Random House Canada in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for sharing your hard work with me.

This is a very intense read, based on truths buried in rhetoric in a Middle East westerners cannot know nor understand. Linden MacIntyre comes very close to making it real for us. This is a book I would read again after a period of digestion, and would share with my loved ones. Thank you.

Another fabulous read from Linden MacIntyre. Lovely that the real "Only Cafe" features in the book - it adds weight and legitimacy to the story by rooting it in real life Toronto, even as the story stretches back to Lebanon, Cyril is an engaging protagonist, and MacIntyre keeps the suspense in high gear, even as he creates a story with depth and real stakes.

I had mixed feelings about this book. I found it a bit hard to follow, and cannot rate it highly. However, reading the author's notes and considering the author's background, the book was better explained. I guess my confusion is only natural, everyone living through similar times would also be confused (at best) or suffering from PTSD. I will not be posting a review on Amazon or other sites because of my less than enthusiastic opinion.

Thanks to NetGalley for an opportunity to preview this book. A family mystery from Toronto to Cape Breton to Lebanon. The characters and well developed and the interaction is slowly and tightly woven together. Some of the massacre scenes are somewhat gruesome. A great read. Recommended.