290

There's a lot of literary references to things I haven't read, so I just read it as a kind of folk tale. It works well on that level too, and I liked the way that the normal human view of how animals exist and work for them was depicted from the other side for a change. ( )

> Mémoires de porc-épic, de Alain MABANCKOU (Seuil. 221 p.)
Se reporter au compte rendu de A. D.
In: (2007). Compte rendu de [Nouveautés]. Entre les lignes, 3 (2), pp. 45-47… ; (en ligne),
URL : https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/10578ac
Déjà, dans Verre cassé, l'auteur congolais abordait le thème du double dans la truculente chronique d’un bar africain. Le nouveau livre du romancier et poète – en nomination pour le Renaudot –, et deuxième volet d'une trilogie, revisite cette fois la fable africaine. Dans ce récit sans points ni majuscules, l'auteur recrée la dynamique et les ondulations de la littérature orale. Après la mort de son maître Kibandi, dont il était le double nuisible (d’après les légendes africaines, chaque humain peut aussi être accompagné d’un double pacifique, sorte d'ange gardien animalier), Porc-Épic confie à son ami le Baobab les forfaits rocambolesques qu'il a été forcé de commettre. Au-delà du folklore, l’écriture résolument moderne entrelace avec ironie proverbes, fables de La Fontaine et épisodes picaresques autour d'un sujet grave et intemporel : la présence du mal et la part d'ombre qui dort au fond de chacun de nous. Une réussite éclatante. Seuil. 221 p. --A. D. ( )

Originally published on my blog (https://reallifereading.com/2016/03/09/a-very-weirdathon-read-memoirs-of-a-porcupine/)

Memoirs of a Porcupine is as its title suggests, narrated by a porcupine. But not any ordinary porcupine, this porcupine is the animal double of Kibandi. At the age of 11, Kibandi’s father takes him out into the night and makes him drink something vile that somehow triggers this bond with his animal double, a “harmful double”, the “liveliest, scariest kind of double”.

“the humans of whom we become the animal incarnation will cease to feel emotions like pity, understanding, empathy, remorse, compassion, night will enter their souls, once transmission has occurred, the harmful double must leave the animal world and come to live close to the initiate, performing his assignments without protest”

The porcupine soon becomes his master’s murder weapon, of sorts. He orders it to kill fellow villagers, those who wrongly cross his path, for the slightest of reasons.

The porcupine is telling this story to a baobab tree, some days after its master’s death, certain that it is due to die soon too. This porcupine is a rather amusing narrator, and it is a more readable book than I expected it to be. It does have some rather rambly bits, especially since the sentences are broken up by commas instead of full stops, and capitalizations at the start of sentences are nonexistent. But I got used to that (and I did read this as an ebook, which I’m not sure if that makes it worse) and quickly finished this quirky little book.

Is it a fable? I’m not entirely sure. Does it have a moral? Perhaps it is “don’t have an animal double”. But what I do know is that it was quite entertaining, pretty dark, somewhat comic and yet an uncomfortable read. A book that isn’t for everyone, but that drew me in with its strangeness, its different nature. ( )

Despite the fact that I am not a huge fan of fables, I really enjoyed this tale. This is the stream of consciousness memoir of a porcupine , narrated by himself. If that doesn't grab your attention, how about the fact that the porcupine is the "harmful double" of a Congolese boy/man. Yep. Now you must be just a bit curious, right? The prose is witty, dark, thought provoking, and engaging. The ultimate question appears to be whether man or beast are more beastly? Given the dark history of the Congo, the author's native country it is not surprising that he believes the question merits some serious consideration. ( )