African Psycho

#325
Title: African Psycho
Author: Alain Mabanckou
Translator: Christine Schwartz Hartley
Year: 2003/2007
Publisher: Soft Skull Press
Country: Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville)
153  pages

A fun antithesis to Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho. The misogynistic protaqonists of both books strategize about how to harm a woman, but Mabanckou's narrator is not trendy, privileged, good looking, dispassionate, or competent. The story is vividly told, interior, and emotionally on-edge. He's no Meursault, and he's ultimately no match for his own self-loathing. Lots of word play and descriptions of poverty and disenfranchisement in the Republic of the Congo. It's perhaps a commentary on the difficulty of creating an authentic African self-construct in the context of colonial history.