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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"Ben Okri writes beautifully." -- "The Times"
Time
‘A prodigious talent’
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
I read the first book - The Famished Road - and really loved it. I couldn't wait getting my hands on the sequel. However, I found Songs of Echantment so boring it took me very long to finish it. In a sense this isn't fair as it's very similar to the first one. Same setting, same characters, the main character is the same age (he's a child), same everything. And...this is the problem. It just becomes boring as it's too similar to the first one - there is no real development and not much happens in the book.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Somebody please give this novel 4 stars because 3 is too little but I am stingy.
The book is a follow-up to The Famished Road, a 5-star work of originality. Same people, same setting: another month in the lives of the spirit-child and mum and "dementedly concentrated" dad in a Nigerian village out of time.
The main problems I have with Songs of Enchantment is that it smells a bit of left-over notes, the number of aberrations is a bit large, and the story in physical reality is a bit weak which all together result in a novel less bouyant.
However, Ben Okri is concerned with that which makes a thing or phenomena an entity, separate from the black abstract. He describes things and moods in terms of what holds it together, giving uniqueness, and what the purpose of it is. And he attempts to illustrate how an awareness of the spirit of things can help us improve life. How to "re-dream the world". That is a worthy purpose indeed.
And occasionally his prose is really good - Eugine Onegin entered my mind a couple of times - but when the aberrations grow he looses it.
The book is a follow-up to The Famished Road, a 5-star work of originality. Same people, same setting: another month in the lives of the spirit-child and mum and "dementedly concentrated" dad in a Nigerian village out of time.
The main problems I have with Songs of Enchantment is that it smells a bit of left-over notes, the number of aberrations is a bit large, and the story in physical reality is a bit weak which all together result in a novel less bouyant.
However, Ben Okri is concerned with that which makes a thing or phenomena an entity, separate from the black abstract. He describes things and moods in terms of what holds it together, giving uniqueness, and what the purpose of it is. And he attempts to illustrate how an awareness of the spirit of things can help us improve life. How to "re-dream the world". That is a worthy purpose indeed.
And occasionally his prose is really good - Eugine Onegin entered my mind a couple of times - but when the aberrations grow he looses it.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
One of the greatest literary works
24 Aug 1999
Format:Paperback
Ben Okri's writing is magical, enthralling and captivating. He takes English writing to new heights. He is one of the greatest writers ever, and one sees it throughout the book. I was enchanted by the English which is delivered with an African flavor. Almost like a new language. This book is spiritual and out of this world on one level and yet down to earth in its portrayal of Nigerian village life. It's a must read for those who enjoy reading foreign authors. I read it over and over again.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
A fable of survival and regeneration
11 Feb 2011
Format:Paperback
Azaro, the spirit child, is a reluctant traveler in the realities of this world. In this moving story of love and transformation, his adventures begin with the depiction of his family. Under the pressure of poverty and myth, his mother departs to follow the legendary Madame Koto. An obsession for a beautiful beggar girl snares his father into forbidden visions. Set in an age of enchantment, their story takes place among the uphevals of a nation struggling to be born. There are mass political hallucinations, battles of contending forces in the realm of dreams, myserious disappearances, and the rise of the Jackal-headed Masquarade.
The tale dazzles with a picaresque temerity that bewilders with a concoction of folk-tale lyricism and the metaphysics of the heart. The human spirit prospers when best attuned to the forces of nature, the dignity of love and the strength to fashion oneself in spite of the overwhelming distress the decrees of social power force upon individuals. Morality is here on the side of the brave, the honest and those who appreciate beauty even when the ugly devours everything in sight.
With humor and wisdom, Okri tells of Azaro's father and how, drawing on the magic of courage, he undergoes the great penance of love. Through the unique experiences of this family we see that life lived with compassion and fire and serenity can vanquish the forces of oppression. At the end of this absorbing fable we feel it to be true when Azaro's father says, "stories can conquer fear, you know. They can make th eheart bigger".
The tale dazzles with a picaresque temerity that bewilders with a concoction of folk-tale lyricism and the metaphysics of the heart. The human spirit prospers when best attuned to the forces of nature, the dignity of love and the strength to fashion oneself in spite of the overwhelming distress the decrees of social power force upon individuals. Morality is here on the side of the brave, the honest and those who appreciate beauty even when the ugly devours everything in sight.
With humor and wisdom, Okri tells of Azaro's father and how, drawing on the magic of courage, he undergoes the great penance of love. Through the unique experiences of this family we see that life lived with compassion and fire and serenity can vanquish the forces of oppression. At the end of this absorbing fable we feel it to be true when Azaro's father says, "stories can conquer fear, you know. They can make th eheart bigger".
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Ho-hum
10 Dec 2001
Format:Hardcover
Songs of Enchantment is a sequel to Booker Prize winning The Famished Road--one of the best novels I've ever read. But Ben Okri's attempt to outdo his first novel with this sequel had a disastrous result. He gives the readers an overdose of magic and supernatural. He describes one strange event after another (and almost in every succeeding sentence), distracting the readers and leaving them no time to savor one magical event at a time. (The Famished Road just has an amount of magic just enough for the readers to enjoy.) Ben Okri's prose has always been beautiful to read, but this time it didn't work. I couldn't find patience to finish the entire book.
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