Broken Glass [Paperback]

Alain Mabanckou (Author), Helen Stevenson (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 18, 2010

Alain Mabanckou’s riotous new novel centers on the patrons of a run-down bar in the Congo. In a country that appears to have forgotten the importance of remembering, a former schoolteacher and bar regular nicknamed Broken Glass has been elected to record their stories for posterity. But Broken Glass fails spectacularly at staying out of trouble as one denizen after another wants to rewrite history in an attempt at making sure his portrayal will properly reflect their exciting and dynamic lives. Despondent over this apparent triumph of self-delusion over self-awareness, Broken Glass drowns his sorrows in red wine and riffs on the great books of Africa and the West. Brimming with life, death, and literary allusions, Broken Glass is Mabanckou’s finest novel — a mocking satire of the dangers of artistic integrity.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Set in a sad-sack Congolese bar called Credit Gone West, this ingeniously satirical novel by Congolese poet and novelist Mabanckou (African Psycho) creates a microcosm of postcolonial African experience through the tales of sodden bar patrons. Broken Glass, a 64-year-old former teacher who renounced a conventional life for the drinking life, jots down his and others' stories in a notebook given to him by the bar's owner, Stubborn Snail, because the days when grandmothers reminisced from their deathbeds was gone now. Broken Glass endures ribald tales by unsavory regulars such as Pampers, a frequenter of the sex district who lands in jail, only to be sexually abused by the inmates. Another fixture, Printer, recounts the convoluted tale of his travels in France, where he married a gorgeous white woman, moved to a Paris suburb well away from negroes, and then discovered his wife was sleeping with his visiting son. Mabanckou moves fluidly from story to story, stringing sentences together without periods and settling into a pleasing prose rhythm. Literary allusions (Holden Caulfield has a cameo) and gentle ironies punctuate this wickedly entertaining novel. (June)
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From Booklist

A man known as Broken Glass is a regular in Credit Gone West, a run-down bar in the Congo; the bar's owner, aka the Stubborn Snail, selects him to record the stories of the bar's other sodden, down-and-out habitués. That slight premise is all Mabanckou needs to spin a raucous tale of the regulars, the bar, corrupt and inept government, and life in Trois-Cents, an impoverished district of an unnamed city. The regulars' stories, and Broken Glass' own story, are all self-serving explanations of their failed lives, by turns tragic, funny, and sometimes spectacularly vulgar. Mabanckou's prose suggests the drunken ramblings of men who think they're virtuous and unique, perhaps even fantastic. Literary allusions lace these ramblings. But it is the author's sense of humor—and he can find humor in even the most tragic or vulgar circumstances—that makes Broken Glass a memorable and successful novel. --Thomas Gaughan

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Soft Skull Press (May 18, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593762739
• ISBN-13: 978-1593762735
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 6.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #785,058 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Alain Mabanckou is considered to be one of the most talented and prolific writers in the French language today and the first francophone sub-saharian African writer to be published by Gallimard in its prestigious "collection" called La Blanche. He was born in Congo-Brazzaville in 1966 and is mostly known for his novels, notably Verre Cassé (BROKEN GLASS) which was unanimously praised by the press, critics and readers alike.

In 2006 he published Memoires de porc-épic (Memoirs of a Porcupine) which garnered him the Prix RENAUDOT, one of the highest distinctions in literature written in french. His novels are published in more than fifteen languages.

He his currently a professor of French and Francophone studies at the University of California-Los Angeles.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Recombinant, May 20, 2010

By 

Cynthia "Andante Cantabile" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Broken Glass (Paperback)

This is a quirky book with lots of clever pivots to literature, arts, politics, popular culture, religion, etc. In fact the best parts of the book are when Mabanckou goes off on a jazz like riff where he ties in unrelated things in clever ways. Here's a description of a fist fight between Broken and another damaged patron, other customers gather to witness, "....because I was Mohammed Ali and he was George Foreman, and I was floating like a butterfly, I was stinging like a bee, and he was a flat footed vegetable....." Here's a passage comparing a charismatic shaman to another showman, "...Hitchcock was a real life-size character, a talented man, a guy who could make your spine shiver just with a few birds, or a rear window, he could turn you into a psycho with a single characteristic little trick....."

Broken Glass is the name of the narrator. He's a patron/hanger on/employee at the Credit Gone West Bar in the Congo. The bar owner, Stubborn Snail, asks Broken to create a chronicle of the other inhabitants. Since Broken is a former educator who's fallen on tough times he's a natural at interviewing and documenting others while keeping up with his red wine quotient. Obviously the book is rife with metaphor and it's mostly funny in a tragic way until Broken begins to tell his own story. Then it's depressing and everymanish.

Mabanckou's sentences begin with small letters. Only names and places start with capitals. He doesn't use periods, words fall over one another separated by commas. Sadness repeats itself and never ends. Tragedy doesn't change, the same stories repeat. This was a difficult book to enjoy though it was clever and insightful and for all I know, in my ignorance, indicative of Africa.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A short, compelling read, January 7, 2011

By 

Chris Gillespie (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Broken Glass (Paperback)

The old alcoholic and aptly named Broken Glass lives at the only bar in Congo, the Credit Gone West, and writes compelling stories of his experiences at the bar -- customer stories, his addiction to red wine, and what led to his ultimate demise to town lush.

"Broken Glass" is a short read, I finished the book in a few days, but the ride is fun while it lass. Each of Broken Glass' stories are well-told: rich with dark humor, cultural references, and are in some cases very sad. There are some memorable scenes, one of which includes a pissing content between crass bar patrons.

My only gripe with "Broken Glass" is that the author loses steam towards the end of the book, which is more of reflection of Broken Glass' character arc, but lacks the same charm and humor of the work's early stories.