A review by michellehogmire
Broken Glass by Alain Mabanckou

5.0

Much thanks to Soft Skull for reissuing this wonderful book! Composed of one long run-on sentence (no periods or capitalization, but there are section breaks), Broken Glass is a collection of journalistic ramblings of the title character--a disgraced, drunk former school teacher and regular at the Congolese bar Credit Gone West. Mabanckou expertly packs his short novel with sly literary allusions and ridiculous scatalogical humor, as we cycle through the absurd tales of the bar's patrons. Despite its hilarity, the book is a serious and sad take on both addiction and colonialism: will definitely be reading more from this guy. (Pub Date: Oct 9, 2018)