A review by octavia_cade
Black Moses by Alain Mabanckou

adventurous lighthearted fast-paced

3.5

The more I read this, the more I was reminded of Charles Dickens... except this is far more lively, and far more contemporary. It's like the Artful Dodger left an orphanage behind and ran to Pointe Noire to live as part of a gang of petty thieves. There's a real undertone of humour here as well, albeit very black humour, but the most appealing thing is the voice of the protagonist. Moses is such an entertaining character, whether he's hiding hot peppers in the midnight snacks of other boys, or mourning the cat he didn't want to eat, or running errands for the local brothel keeper. He's a bit of a larrikin, is Moses, though he means well. I had hoped for a rather happier ending than he got, but then it's not an entirely unhappy ending either. It just skates along the edge of believability, a final incredulous detail in a story that gleefully wallows in its entertaining, over-the-top nature.