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Amazon.co.uk Review
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
Review
"A brilliant read, unlike anything you have ever read before...the message is universal." -- Philip Howard, "The Times"
"Okri is incapable of writing a boring sentence. As one startling image follows the next, The Famished Road begins to read like an epic poem that happens to touch down just this side of prose.... When I finished the book and went outside, it was as if all the trees of South London had angels sitting in them." -- Linda Grant, "Independent on Sunday"
"It is a rich, provocative and hopeful vision of the world, stuffed full of drama and surprise.... Its literary lineage -- the ease with which spirits move through everyday life -- is from ancient Greece and medieval romances." -- Robert Winder, "Independent"
"Overwhelming...just buy it for its beauty." -- Jenny Turner, "New Statesman & Society"
"Okri is incapable of writing a boring sentence. As one startling image follows the next, The Famished Road begins to read like an epic poem that happens to touch down just this side of prose.... When I finished the book and went outside, it was as if all the trees of South London had angels sitting in them." -- Linda Grant, "Independent on Sunday"
"It is a rich, provocative and hopeful vision of the world, stuffed full of drama and surprise.... Its literary lineage -- the ease with which spirits move through everyday life -- is from ancient Greece and medieval romances." -- Robert Winder, "Independent"
"Overwhelming...just buy it for its beauty." -- Jenny Turner, "New Statesman & Society"
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A book that will change your perspective of the world,
By Jess Granger (Wolverhampton, West Midlands Great Britain) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Famished Road (Paperback)
What i found absoltely incredible- and unique- about this book is the ease with which Okri merges enlightening and sometimes shocking images of African life , with the surreal and dark supernatural world, both seen through the eyes of Azaro - 'the spirit child'. His everyday struggles- living in poor accomadations admist political upheaval, while his father indulges in his eccentricities and suffers in his manual labour job, - seem entangled with the strange spiritual or mental battle Azaro has with the strange creatures he sees around him, and the call of his fellow' spirit children' . His perception of the two worlds is intriguing, and I found myself especically immersed for example, in the cafe scenes where he sees all the customers as sinful monsters. Quite simply I've never read anything like it, and was soon desperate to read the sequel....truly one of the best books I've ever read.
23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the greatest novels ever written,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Famished Road (Paperback)
Like many modern Nigerian authors, Ben Okri bases the Famished Road on Nigerian legends, and to the unitiated, the book may seem symbolic, lacking in connection to the real world. But when read carefully, this book limns all of modern life. From the election campaigns of the hypocritical "Party of the Rich" and the even more hypocritical "Party of the Poor" to the vision of the trees in retreat from the village after having "lost their argument with men" Okri has written a masterpiece about the modern death of the spirit and presented it (as is fitting) in a magical form. From the first page, where the narrator describes his position as a spirit child, born only to die young, often many times to the same parent, a figure of fear and horror, until he decides to see what life is like, the book captivates you. The first three pages are as well written as any novel in the English language, Moby Dick and Augie March included.I ave a soft spot for Nigerian literature (although I myself am a Jew from Brooklyn); for some reason, the Nigerian authors manage to come up with some of the best literature of our time again and again: and this book is the perfect introduction.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
a disapointment,
By
This review is from: The Famished Road (Paperback)
I really looked forward to reading this book after "astonishing the gods" being one of my all time favourite books, but i just could not get into it at all. Eventually 3/4 of the way through i gave up. I still love the way that he writes and the images he presents but this book seemed vary slow and within that really didn't seem to progess anywhere other that the feeling of going around in very slightly increasing circles, which is a shame as will no doubt put me off picking up another of his for a while now.
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