196 Books: Republic of the Congo

Johnny Mad Dog by Emmanuel Dongala 

Yes, there are actually two Congos. As expected, Republic of the Congo is right next to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

The book:

Set amid the chaos of West Africa's civil wars, Emmanuel Dongala's striking new novel tells the story of two teenagers growing up while rival ethnic groups fight for control of their country.

At age sixteen, Johnny is a member of the Death Dealers, a rebel faction bent on seizing power. Even as he is drawn into the rebels' program of terror, Johnny Mad Dog, as he calls himself, retains his youthful exuberance-searching for girls, good times, and adventure. Sixteen-year-old Laokolé, for her part, dreams of finishing high school and becoming an engineer, but as rogue militias prepare to sack the city, she is forced to leave home with her mother and brother-and then finds herself alone and running from the likes of Johnny.

Acclaimed in France, Johnny Mad Dog is a coming-of-age story like no other; Dongala's masterful use of dual narrators makes the novel an unusually vivid and affecting tale of the struggle to survive-and to retain one's humanity-in terrifying times.

First off, I loooved the dual narrative. I know it was fictional, but it felt real and terrifying. There were times where the stories overlapped, or Johnny's section would begin witht he same sentence Laokolé's ended on. One thing that kept taking me out of the book, and this happens in movies too, but the rebels had a seemingly endless supply of ammo. I read one part and just stopped and said "where the hell are they getting all these freaking bullets?!"  They were shooting into the air and mowing down crowds and emptying whole clips into one person. It annoys me when the do that. With that nit-picky complaint, on to the rest of my thoughts. 

There are a couple of books I've read about coups, and they're just so strange to me. One group is just like, "Alright, we're done with this. We're taking over and ravaging everything, and now I'm a general or colonel or what have you, and we're in charge. And you of course love us, because we liberated you." Maybe that's me simply being ignorant and privileged. Then the "liberators" do the exact same thing as the previous administration. But there's a really poignant quote from the book: "...we were the grass on which two elephants were engaged in combat."And so much rape. I almost find that to be the worst thing. And by Johnny's account, it's just a part of the spoils of war. Johnny describes the spoils this way: "There had to be a reason for looting, just as there had to be a reason for drowning one's dog; well, instead of saying we were eliminating rabies, we had decreed that every person owning a likeness of that "tribalist" and "regionalist" president was a traitor. Especially if the person had valuables worth looting." And there's so much apathy that he later says, "Too bad for the other people in the district--they should have known better than to be born Mayi-Dogos." 

Yeah, I know, I'm writing like these are real people and this is a real account. But I can't imagine it's that far off from a lot of thinking during wars like this. The world is distressing. DO BETTER, WORLD.