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You have never read a novel like this one. Winner of the 1991 Booker Prize for fiction, The Famished Road tells the story of Azaro, a spirit-child. Though spirit-children rarely stay long in the painful world of the living, when Azaro is born he chooses to fight death: "I wanted," he says, "to make happy the bruised face of the woman who would become my mother." Survival in his chaotic African village is a struggle, though. Azaro and his family must contend with hunger, disease, and violence, as well as the boy's spirit-companions, who are constantly trying to trick him back into their world. Okri fills his tale with unforgettable images and characters: the bereaved policeman and his wife, who try to adopt Azaro and dress him in their dead son's clothes; the photographer who documents life in the village and displays his pictures in a cabinet by the roadside; Madame Koto, "plump as a mighty fruit," who runs the local bar; the King of the Road, who gets hungrier the more he eats.
At the heart of this hypnotic novel are the mysteries of love and human survival. "It is more difficult to love than to die," says Azaro's father, and indeed, it is love that brings real sharpness to suffering here. As the story moves toward its climax, Azaro must face the consequences of choosing to live, of choosing to walk the road of hunger rather than return to the benign land of spirits. The Famished Road is worth reading for its last line alone, which must be one of the most devastating endings in contemporary literature (but don't skip ahead). --R. Ellis --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
From Publishers Weekly
Teeming with fevered, apocalyptic visions as well as harrowing scenes of violence and wretched poverty, this mythic novel by Nigerian short-story writer ( Stars of the New Curfew ) and poet Okri won the 1991 Booker Prize. The narrator, Azaro, is a spirit child who maintains his ties to the supernatural world. Possessed by " boiling hallucinations, " he can see the invisible, grotesque demons and witches who prey on his family and neighbors in an African ghetto community. For him (and for the reader), the passage from the real to the fantastic world is seamless and constant; many of the characters--the political thugs, grasping landlords and brutal bosses--are as bizarre as the evil spirits who empower them. In a series of vignettes, Azaro chronicles the daily life of his small community: appalling hunger and squalor relieved by bloody riots and rowdy, drunken parties; inhuman working conditions and rat-infested homes. The cyclical nature of history dooms human beings to walk the road of their lives fighting corruption and evil in each generation, fated to repeat the errors of the past without making the ultimate progress that will redeem the world. Okri's magical realism is distinctive; his prose is charged with passion and energy, electrifying in its imagery. The sheer bulk of episodes, many of which are repetitious in their evocation of supernatural phenomena, tends to slow narrative momentum, but they build to a powerful, compassionate vision of modern Africa and the magical heritage of its myths.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
This was a lovely novel,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Famished Road (Paperback)
This is one of the most wonderful books I have ever read. It's lush, full of life, vivid, surreal, and down right eerie. If I can only write half as well as Okri, I'll be very pleased with myself. This book is long, yes. And yes, I am well versed in Nigerian history and folklore, though I am Igbo, not Yoruba. So maybe I was at an advantage and I understood things on more levels than the average reader. But it held me in a way that no other book ever has. I've read Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Salman Rushdie AND Stephen King. I love all three of them. But I love Okri the most. This book was delicious.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fulfills any hunger,
By "graceful_ignorance" (Peterborough, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Famished Road (Paperback)
Absolutely astonishing. Ben Okri is a wonderful writer. I have read many of his works and know that the Famished Road is a wonderful introduction. Reality and myth reside together in this novel, and are at times inseperable. Okri takes his readers on an intense sensory journey that does not allow them to put the book down. Every passage must be read carefully to avoid missing something glorious. You will not regret buying this book!
4.0 out of 5 stars
I found myself challenged,
By Fiona (Aotearoa/ New Zealand) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Famished Road (Paperback)
"The Famished Road" challenged my concepts of narrative and genre and in the perplexity (out there at the edge of chaos where all art and learning takes place) I found myself enchanted and bewitched. I've since seen the label "magical realism" attached to Okri's work and suspect that comes from people who live in a linear paradigm, a secular one.The road is hot and dry. The smells of cooking waft from the doorways. A possessed father, a depressed mother, a bar full of dreams and a political tide... This book is special. Prepare for the magic.
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