181 words about The Explosion of the Radiator Hose
Soon and very soon we are going to see the Leopard King
I love a good road trip to kick off summer as much as anyone else in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s supposed to be fun and easy: Pack a few bags, pick a place on a map, plot a route and roll away from reality for a while. But it doesn’t usually end up so simple, does it? Take Jean Rolin here: What should be an ostensibly straightforward task — bring a friend’s dilapidated Audi from Paris to Kinshasa so it can die slowly as a taxi, Francophonics the whole way, no problem! — devolves into a Conradian tour through pouring Belgian rain, at sea skirting the African coast, past suspicious Congolese port authorities and over roughened backroads delivered via Rolin’s droll, Bernhardian observations, reminiscences and historical vignettes of the river's recent postcolonial past. You wouldn’t assume a book detailing the exploits of Mobutu and Kabila punctuated by Proust and Sebald is hilarious, but intentional or not, Rolin has the right idea: If a road trip can’t be fun and easy, shouldn’t you at least get a good laugh out of it?