For the Republic of the Congo, I read Broken Glass: A Novel by Alain Mabanckou which was translated from French by Helen Stevenson.

Broken Glass is the name of a 64-year-old former schoolteacher who frequents a bar called Credit Gone West. The owner of the bar gives Broken Glass a notebook and urges him to write, so Broken Glass fills the notebook with the stories of the patrons of Credit Gone West, eventually leading to his own tale.

The novel is written in the voice and style of a drunk, with no periods and sporadic capitalization. For example, here’s the opening line:

let’s say the boss of the bar Credit Gone West gave me this notebook to fill, he’s convinced that I–Broken Glass–can turn out a book,

Broken Glass at pg. 1

I picked a random spot to end that opening line because it just keeps going, a rambling run-on sentence of drunken chaos, but there are also references to literary classics sprinkled throughout the book, reminding the reader that Broken Glass was once a schoolteacher, and beneath the inebriation and despair, there’s a really intelligent man lost to alcoholism.

The book takes place in the town of Trois-Cents in the Republic of the Congo, but this is a universal story about alcoholism and addiction. The patrons of Credit Gone West are addicted to alcohol (for Broken Glass, it’s all about the red wine) but they are also desperate to have their stories recorded in Broken Glass’s notebook.

I do have to give one warning about this book: it discusses in excruciating detail some scenes that involve excrement and urine. I’ve been exposed to a lot of scatological humor by way of reading Day Pilkey with my son Julian, but there were a few scenes that would shock even my eight-year-old boy. I LOVED THIS BOOK and it made me think a lot about alcoholism, but if you are enjoying a quiet lunch and want some reading material… chose something else.

I’ll definitely be reading more books by Alain Mabanckou. Just maybe not while I’m eating lunch.