The Famished Road
List Price: $15.95
Price: $10.85
You Save: $5.10 (32%)
The narrator, Azaro, is an abiku, a spirit child, who in the Yoruba tradition of Nigeria exists between life and death. The life he foresees for himself and the tale he tells is full of sadness and tragedy, but inexplicably he is born with a smile on his face. Nearly called back to the land of the dead, he is resurrected. But in their efforts to save their child, Azaro's loving parents are made destitute. The tension between the land of the living, with its violence and political struggles, and the temptations of the carefree kingdom of the spirits propels this latter-day Lazarus's story.
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.
I read this book shortly after it was first published. It remains my favourite book and I found it breath-taking. It is closer to a poem than prose, which may be why some appear to struggle with it. I can't recommend it highly enough but it needs to be read in the right frame of mind. It is about as far from Dan Brown as you can get, but infinitely more rewarding.
Not your ordinary novel
Those people who grew disappointed because they were looking for a "plot" and "character development" were looking for the wrong things. This is a book about consciousness, point of view, and how the world is seen from a standpoint of sacredness. The little boy is not so much the narrator as the consciousness that filters this world to us. No, there is not much in the way of plot, although many things happen. "Going somewhere" is not what this book is about. Rather, "being somewhere", and viewing that place in a different way, is what it is about. This the author accomplishes stupendously, with vivid, imaginitive prose, a startlingly original worldview, and an amazing eye for detail. If you like unique books that challenge your ordinary perspecitive on things, this book is for you. If you usually read Stephen King or Tom Clancy, forget it
Strange and Wonderful
A young Nigerian boy named Azaro is caught between two worlds: the real world, and the spirit world he came from when he was born. He's in a constant struggle to keep his soul here in the real world, with the spirits trying to get him to join them again in their world. Azaro's real world family lives a hand-to-mouth existence, with his father doing manual labor jobs for very little money, and his mother peddling what cheap goods she can get ahold of. They live in a compound in the ghetto, and are often in conflicts with the neighbors and landlord because of the father's sometimes eratic behavior. Add to this political thugs, herbalists, boxers, beggars, witches, and other strange beings and you've got a rich and powerful story.
This book is possibly one of the wierdest books I've ever read. I can't say I always understood it, but the journey through it and into Azaro's bizarro world made for some of the best reading I've had this year. I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys imaginative storytelling.
Steeped in magical realism, it has everything from talking animals to dream adventures to witches and curses. The setting however is very grounded in reality, and it makes in interesting contrast to read about the fantastical creatures and then the ghetto finally getting electricity in the same chapter. The writing is wonderful; Okri has such a perfect way of expressing himself that it really makes the story come to life. Not a book I'll forget any time soon, I hope to read more by this talented author.
Inexhaustibly Imaginative
Like Tutuola's The Palm-Wine Drinkard, Okri's greatest novel births and rebirths itself endlessly from the earth's oldest dreams, painting a world in which the past is always in collision with a future that never quite arrives.
This book is very much like the title
And like the title, it will take you on a long and strange (for Western eyes) journey. I liked the humanity and the constant failings of the characters and how Okri is able to project the same kind of social problems and issues found in any community into his fictional village. That the place is small doesn't mean that the stakes are. How he brings politics, status-seeking, public bombast, family issues and the recurring unlearned lessons of society into his story is reminiscent of Naipaul (as has been repeatedly pointed out). But unlike Naipaul who reveals the story with dialogue and detail, Okri's intermingling of the physical world with the world of local folklore and spirituality, as if it were an entire second half of a person's constant existence, gives the novel an added dimension. It also allows the author to give you perspectives into the people and the region that would normally get relegated to subtext. Often, that spiritual realm becomes more real than the African village they all call home.
I really enjoyed the novel, but it was long and it was winding. I did feel at the end that I knew the people and I knew the place, and I didn't mind at all that Okri asked me to check my beliefs of what is reality and what is spirituality at the front cover to get me to that destination.
Now, if someone could recommend a place where I could get a good pepper-soup and cup of palm wine...
List Price:
Price: $10.85
You Save: $5.10 (32%)
Description
In the decade since it won the Booker Prize, Ben Okri's Famished Road has become a classic. Like Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children or Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, it combines brilliant narrative technique with a fresh vision to create an essential work of world literature.The narrator, Azaro, is an abiku, a spirit child, who in the Yoruba tradition of Nigeria exists between life and death. The life he foresees for himself and the tale he tells is full of sadness and tragedy, but inexplicably he is born with a smile on his face. Nearly called back to the land of the dead, he is resurrected. But in their efforts to save their child, Azaro's loving parents are made destitute. The tension between the land of the living, with its violence and political struggles, and the temptations of the carefree kingdom of the spirits propels this latter-day Lazarus's story.
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
Customer Reviews
PoeticI read this book shortly after it was first published. It remains my favourite book and I found it breath-taking. It is closer to a poem than prose, which may be why some appear to struggle with it. I can't recommend it highly enough but it needs to be read in the right frame of mind. It is about as far from Dan Brown as you can get, but infinitely more rewarding.
Not your ordinary novel
Those people who grew disappointed because they were looking for a "plot" and "character development" were looking for the wrong things. This is a book about consciousness, point of view, and how the world is seen from a standpoint of sacredness. The little boy is not so much the narrator as the consciousness that filters this world to us. No, there is not much in the way of plot, although many things happen. "Going somewhere" is not what this book is about. Rather, "being somewhere", and viewing that place in a different way, is what it is about. This the author accomplishes stupendously, with vivid, imaginitive prose, a startlingly original worldview, and an amazing eye for detail. If you like unique books that challenge your ordinary perspecitive on things, this book is for you. If you usually read Stephen King or Tom Clancy, forget it
Strange and Wonderful
A young Nigerian boy named Azaro is caught between two worlds: the real world, and the spirit world he came from when he was born. He's in a constant struggle to keep his soul here in the real world, with the spirits trying to get him to join them again in their world. Azaro's real world family lives a hand-to-mouth existence, with his father doing manual labor jobs for very little money, and his mother peddling what cheap goods she can get ahold of. They live in a compound in the ghetto, and are often in conflicts with the neighbors and landlord because of the father's sometimes eratic behavior. Add to this political thugs, herbalists, boxers, beggars, witches, and other strange beings and you've got a rich and powerful story.
This book is possibly one of the wierdest books I've ever read. I can't say I always understood it, but the journey through it and into Azaro's bizarro world made for some of the best reading I've had this year. I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys imaginative storytelling.
Steeped in magical realism, it has everything from talking animals to dream adventures to witches and curses. The setting however is very grounded in reality, and it makes in interesting contrast to read about the fantastical creatures and then the ghetto finally getting electricity in the same chapter. The writing is wonderful; Okri has such a perfect way of expressing himself that it really makes the story come to life. Not a book I'll forget any time soon, I hope to read more by this talented author.
Inexhaustibly Imaginative
Like Tutuola's The Palm-Wine Drinkard, Okri's greatest novel births and rebirths itself endlessly from the earth's oldest dreams, painting a world in which the past is always in collision with a future that never quite arrives.
This book is very much like the title
And like the title, it will take you on a long and strange (for Western eyes) journey. I liked the humanity and the constant failings of the characters and how Okri is able to project the same kind of social problems and issues found in any community into his fictional village. That the place is small doesn't mean that the stakes are. How he brings politics, status-seeking, public bombast, family issues and the recurring unlearned lessons of society into his story is reminiscent of Naipaul (as has been repeatedly pointed out). But unlike Naipaul who reveals the story with dialogue and detail, Okri's intermingling of the physical world with the world of local folklore and spirituality, as if it were an entire second half of a person's constant existence, gives the novel an added dimension. It also allows the author to give you perspectives into the people and the region that would normally get relegated to subtext. Often, that spiritual realm becomes more real than the African village they all call home.
I really enjoyed the novel, but it was long and it was winding. I did feel at the end that I knew the people and I knew the place, and I didn't mind at all that Okri asked me to check my beliefs of what is reality and what is spirituality at the front cover to get me to that destination.
Now, if someone could recommend a place where I could get a good pepper-soup and cup of palm wine...
stv.tvBritain's Got Talent - your 40 semi-finalists revealedNatalie Okri - singer Ten year old Natalie from London is in Year 5 at primary school. She began singing Natasha Bedingfield's song These Words when she was 4. According to her mother, Tabitha, she sings non-stop and always entertains people with her
Mashable5 Ways Traditional Media is Going SocialThe Booker prize-winning author Ben Okri recently published a poem exclusively on Twitter, one line a day, with the entire piece linked from his Facebook page. Stateside, HarperStudio, has extended the Harper Collins brand into cyberspace,