In African Psycho, the French Congolese novelist Alain Mabanckou follows an aspiring criminal plotting his first murder. Gregoire, an orphan who bangs out dents in car fenders when he is not prowling his run-down neighborhood, He-Who-Drinks-Water-Is-An-Idiot, is inspired by the nation's recently deceased and most notorious criminal, whose grave he visits for inspiration. There is something of the solitary, independent intelligence of the unnamed protagonist of Hunger in Gregoire. He is a political and social critic, a bit of a sex fiend -- an angry young man who yet appeals, as he must for the book to be a success. Mabanckou has written a fine novel of pungent satire wrapped in a thriller.
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