Alain Mabanckou, the acclaimed Francophone-Congolese writer, repeatedly returns in his books to his childhood home, Pointe-Noire in Congo-Brazzaville, where he was born in 1966. His latest novel is no exception.
Dealing With the Dead begins as a ghost story and ends with an excoriating account of kleptocracy. Mabanckou, who studied law in Paris and currently teaches literature at the University of California, Los Angeles, clearly enjoys experimenting with styles and blends magic realism, crime, mythology and satire into the mix, while echoes of Marcel Proust and Nathaniel Hawthorne add to the tale’s rich texture.
