a lovely story narrated by a porcupine that explores African culture and themes such as death and witchcraft

Porcupine – this is apparently both his name and his species – is the animal double to the boy Kibandi. But porcupine is not one of those benevolent animal spirits you usually read about, one assigned to a human child at birth to act as his guardian and spiritual guide. When Kibandi is eleven years old, his father takes him into the jungle and forces him to drink mayamvumbi, a home brew so powerful, so evil that it is kept buried in secret locations. Porcupine, who until this time has been livin...

a sentence can be a term of imprisonment and a sentence can have no end in that way a sentence is timeless and a book like this that has no periods or beginnings or endings is yes evocative of an oral culture and yes really gives the flavour of people talking because they just talk they don't always talk in sentences, so there is much here to enjoy but also so much to wade through, one has to be in the mood for this and me and my spirit twin who is a moody beast is not always in the right mood,

Kinda weird, got interesting in the end. Forgot a porc-épic meant porcupine and not hedgehog & thus called it 'cute' in class. Dunno if I would call a porcupine cute

Kibandi, a boy living in a Congolese village, reaches the age of 11, and his father takes him out into the night as his initiation, and forces him to drink a vile concoction. After this, he and his double, a porcupine, become accomplices in murder. It reads like an ancient African folk tale, but throughout I was searching for it’s deeper meaning. An African legend says that all humans have animal doubles, some peaceful, some wicked. Kibandi’s is of course the latter. Read on a simple level, jus

Originally published on my blog (https://reallifereading.com/2016/03/0...)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 wil...

Alright, giving this book reviews I never actually read myself thing a try.This quite short book by a Congolese-French author is, as its title implies, in fact narrated by a porcupine. The first thing worth pointing out is that the gimmicky dangers inherent in this, as well as in the book's style of not using any punctuation except for commas - that is, having everything told in almost neverending sentences by our breathless porcupine - do, both, somehow, miraculously work pretty damn well.It is...

A fascinating allegorical novel: The titular porcupine is a shadowy double created by way of tribal magic. Doubles, according to the book, can be beneficial or harmful. This one is harmful, moreso as the book goes on. As the book goes on, the porcupine's rampage accelerates and the reasons behind it become more frivolous, selfish and hypocritical. It's a clear indictment of personal violence while also being a compelling little read.

Though I didn't find it necessarily humorous (it is very dark humor), I did enjoy this quirky, dark tale & its many observations & comments on mankind. I think it's an excellent mix of very traditional African belief/folklore/village life mixed with the differences/clashes of 'Western'/white beliefs. The porcupine is an affable, if somewhat evil, narrator who expounds on his life to a Baobab tree. Maybe not for everyone, but definitely different & definitely one I relished. Recommended.

Even as I'm reviewing, I have to return to the feeling that I've missed something here. Or perhaps, better, my hope for as much. So many good reviews but I struggle to find the profound. Sure - Mabanckou asks some interesting origin-of-evil and origin-of-life type questions, but both the questions and answers seem tired in their treatment.The narrative is interesting and the world he creates is novel... though I couldn't discern any reason for the inconsistent punctuation (only uses commas, excl...

☆ 2.75“I learned my sense of digression from men, they never go straight to the point, open brackets they forget to close” -p101 A quick and morbid read told through the perspective of a sentient magical porcupine who enjoys a bit of quippy social commentary. Told in an easy to read stream of consciousness where a sentence can sometimes last pages. Somehow you don’t even notice the lack of punctuation and just keep gliding through, eager to get to the bottom of this porcupine’s tale.

3.5*not sure how to review this, the whole book is from a porcupine’s POV but I really enjoyed it - social commentary is cleverly interwoven but I didn’t understand a lot of it as it’s heavily based on folklore. still liked it though!

Very weird piece of writing which I have a feeling I could not fully comprehend because of my ignorance about Africa. It felt like a long white poem with a story. Definitely not regret reading though.

The idea of listening to a porcupine's confessions to a baobab is amusing and light-hearted but his story raises the most serious cultural and ethical issues. I'm reminded of nothing so much as Hannah Arendt's Banality of Evil, with digressions on the relationship between evil, power and the possibility of redemption. This is not the first time I've read a fable written from the point of view of an animal and most of the other recent ones come from outside the English-speaking world as well. The...

Set in a Congolese village, Memoirs of a Porcupine is exactly as the title suggests. A porcupine sits down to pen his memoirs. The porcupine is the animal double of Kibandi, a harmful double at that, and he assists Kibandi in an ever-growing number of malicious deeds. This carries on for years, until one day even the porcupine balks at what his master asks him to do, which is when he turns to his confession..This is actually the second book I've read for my reading the world challenge which is t...

I found this a compelling read, despite the story not really going anywhere. it brings home to me how power corrupts, not in big spectacular ways but through increments of petty jealousy, slights, feelings of inferiority, etc.

Ngoumba, 'this porcupine' that 'is clearly far from finished yet', sharing his life story with some captive audience...Q:I don’t know if you noticed a remarkable thing this morning, when I began talking to you, (c) a porcupine said to a baobab.Wow! A bibliophile porcupine!Q:yes, I was a happy porcupine back then, I’m putting up my quills as I say this, that’s our way of swearing a pledge, another is to raise the front right paw and wave it three times, I know humans swear on the heads of their a...

This is a really funny novel that plays a lot with how humans perceive themselves and how cultures perceive themselves.I haven't read many books by African authors, but this is certainly one I'd recommend. It's funny, insightful, and pretty quick.It's made of a sequence of run-on sentences that sometimes stretch for pages. Despite that, it's never difficult to follow or read. It's probably one of the most readable novels with a strong formal experiment.Anyrate, very great stuff. Interested in ch...

Everything in this book is a gimmick. The porcupine might as well have been a human. The lack of punctuation is just so literary. The story itself is unoriginal, lazy, too goddamn easy.But what caps it all is the "appendix", written by the supposed finder of the manuscript. It is literally a couple of pages of the author explaining his meaning behind the story, and complimenting himself for being so clever. An actual quote:"I must confess that I was quite carried away by this tale of the fortune...

In African folklore, all human beings have a animal "double" they are connected to. Some are "peaceful" doubles, but some are "harmful" doubles. This book is the memoirs of porcupine as a harmful double to a boy named Kibandi. Just like his father before him, he also has another self. An identical version of Kibandi, except he has no mouth and no nose. So, Kibandi has a harmful double and another self. They share thoughts, feelings, urges, and desires. The other self "eats" the souls of dead peo...