No Full Stop

In a town of Trois-Cents, a regular customer of the bar Credit Gone West, BrokenGlass sets out to write a book about odd characters he encounters on the bar, and tells theirs and his own story, jotting down them in a notebook, however he likes, and this is the story produced, a one long sentence without even a full-stop. Stubborn Snail, the owner of the bar, wants the fame and legacy of his bar to be written down and those who think their story is special wants their space in the book, and apparently all those are patrons of Credit Gone West, and all have their backstory, some confessed, other observed.

The first part of the book traces the precarious origin of Credit Gone West, and the puns surrounding it find its way into politics, creating jokes and satires on ordinary people, crowd culture, and the references the author has used for humour, crossing national and cultural boundaries, makes the description vivid and enjoyable. The whole drama around the bar's establishment—the concoction even involving the government, and Stubborn Snail's resistance and victory—is too great an opening.

"… I’ve always hated intellectuals of all kinds, because it’s always like that with intellectuals, they talk and talk, but nothing concrete ever comes out of it, only more and more discussions about discussions, then they quote some other intellectuals who said this, that, or the next thing, and who saw it all coming, and then they have a good scratch of their own navels, and they think everyone else is stupid, and blind, as though no one could get through life without philosophizing, and the problem is, these pseudo-intellectuals, they philosophize without actually living, they know nothing about life, and life goes on anyway, following its own course, countering all their second-rate Nostradamus predictions, and they all go round congratulating each other, but what you notice is, pseudo-intellectuals all love suits, and little round glasses, and ties, because an intellectual without a tie is basically stark naked, incapable of proper thought, but I’m proud of how I got here, I did things myself, I’m a self-made man,"

One of the odd characters is the Pampers guy, a man who was fond of visiting Rex District (probably a Red-Light District), locked out by his wife, who ends up in Prison and is sodomised by fellow inmates… and now a patron of Credit Gone West, who earnestly wants to be in the book by Broken Glass, our off-beat narrator. Description also sometimes turns to bawdy, but laughter is all that matters. Another guy is the Printer, who claims “I’m telling you, Broken Glass, if you don’t put me into your book, it won’t be worth the paper it’s written on, I tell you, they could make my life into a film,”, a man who had once settled with a white French woman, worked like a boss, had an easy going life, whose life suddenly turned upside down upon arrival of his long unknown son, and who was thrown into an asylum… and now brags that he's great story to tell, because unlike others, "he's done France" and relishes on the copy of Paris Match.

In another episode, Stubborn Snail tries to impart some joy to Broken Glass—sixty-four years old man—and suggests trying his luck with Robinette, also an alcoholic, known to be the piss queen of the town, and Robinette contesting with a newly arrived high-life bragging guy turns unexpected. The first part of the novel is jolly, stylistic, and compilation of idiosyncratic traits and tales of all these characters.

"…I trusted you, I told you about my life, and you just make fun of me, you say the file’s closed, I know deep down you’re laughing at me, give me that book, I want to read it, if you don’t give it to me things are going to get nasty between you and me, and I want you to rub out everything you’ve written about me, I don’t want people to know my story”

In the last part of the story, the similar style of narration follows, and now Broken Glass tells us his own personal and saddening story. Once an instructor, Broken Glass recalls his childhood days and his fond of reading books from all around the world. And he spins the story, on how he lost his mother, lost his job, lost his wife only to find himself broken and at the mercy of alcohol at Credit Gone West. In these ramblings, he gives away his character, what kind of man he is, and what doesn't he care at all and on what he sticks to always. All through the text we find allusions or even direct mentions of writers and book titles, that suggests Broken Glass found happiness reading literature and wanted to be associated with it, but could never make himself a writer, but luckily Stubborn Snail's proposition has brought back the urge, nevertheless he doesn't want to be pedantic, neither concerns himself with willful coherence, and enjoys the freedom writing in a stream of conscious way.

"…I must be off now, my place is in paradise, and if some cheating angels go telling lies up there to stop me entering by the great wide gate, well, believe me, I’ll get in anyway, through the window”

Broken Glass, is too self-absorbed, particularly about memories of his mother. The tragedy befallen on many characters, including our narrator, though cannot be so heartrending, since we doubt whether or not we can be their emotional followers. Are we to trust these drunken ramblings? May be, but time has changed them, and alcohol has blurred their self. But, their lives are not jinxed, they hope to continue, but the ways are scrambled. What are we to make of all these? The story, slyly composed, is irreverent in every manner, and African literature with post-colonial mark or struggling identity should not be expected of this. Unruly work of art, humour at its heart and off-beat narration at the surface, the novel is able to satiate a reader.

Author: Alain Mabanckou

Translator: Helen Stevenson

Publisher: Softskull Press

Page Count: 162

Price: $16.95