Customer Reviews

Broken Glass

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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.

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.