The Famished Road by Ben Okri is one of the most unusual books I read last year. I didn’t race through it, though. Well, I did through some parts, but at other times I couldn’t read more than, say, forty pages a day before I was ’saturated’. It took me about ten days to finish this 570-page book, so you see that the average amount of pages I read per day, is not that high.
The Famished Road is set in Nigeria and it tells the story of Azaro, a spirit-child. Spirit-children are children who are born and live only for a short time before they return to the spirit world. Azaro, however, refuses to return to the spirit world and decides to stay in the ‘real’ world with his parents. Azaro’s world is a world in which the spirits are just as present as the ‘normal’ world. Sometimes it took a while before I realized that Azaro was seeing and interacting with the spirits instead of with real people. Not everyone can see and interact with the spirits, Azaro’s parents, for example, can’t.
His mother is a small trader, selling her goods on the market or peddling the streets; his father is a day-worker carrying loads of twenty or thirty kilos on his back. In this way they try to make ends meet. Azaro’s father is also a supporter of the ‘wrong’ political party, the Party of the Poor, which gets him into trouble with their landlord, who is a staunch supporter of the Party of the Rich (aka the Party of the Bad Milk). Azaro’s father is always thinking about ways to get out of the poverty they live in: he wants to join the army, he dreams of becoming a professional boxer and of becoming a politician. We also meet Madame Koto, the local bar owner who hooks up with the Party of the Rich, which brings her business, fortune, and money. And blows up her ego. She is one of the people who can see spirits as well. In fact, the spirits frequent her bar just as often, if not more, as the ‘real’ people do. Finally, we meet the many spirits who are sent to take Azaro back to the spirit world.
There is no real plot in this book, in the sense that there is no major problem to be resolved or some event to deal with with a climax or a solution or something like that. The story is more or less a linear narrative of a few years of Azaro’s youth. It is more of a ‘life goes on’ story. But it is also so much more than that. It is a story about poverty, politics, greed and how that corrupts people. About hope, family and dreams.
It wasn’t the storyline itself, though, that captivated me. It was Ben Okri’s writing: so rich, so descriptive! Sometimes I would reread a sentence, just for the beauty of the description. It took some time to get used to Ben Okri’s writing style, in fact I don’t think the book would have passed a 50-page test: I would have tossed it away before that. The beginning was tough, but once I realized what was going on and once I had gotten used to the writing, I loved it. On the other hand, as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, it is not a book I raced through, there was only so much I could take in every day. For me, The Famished Road really was a book to savor slowly and to take my time with.
There is a sequel to The Famished Road, called Songs of Enchantment, also about Azaro and his parents. That one is on my wishlist now.
If you reviewed this book on your blog, please leave a comment with the link to your review and I will add it to the post.
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I’ve had my eye on this one, so I really enjoyed reading your review. Good to know it’s one of those books you have to stick with.
This book sounds intriguing, especially the idea of the blurring between the real and the spirit world (although it may be difficult to know which is which in the book–I’d need to reread parts, most likely). I ‘ll keep this book in mind the next time I wander into a bookstore with the intent to buy myself a book.
Happy New Year, Myrthe!
Eva, for me sticking with this book was totally rewarding. I’d love to hear your thoughts if you get around to reading it.
Susan, the blurry lines between the real and the spirit world are hardest in the beginning. After that it gets a lot easier to figure out which is which. Don’t let it turn you off, though.
And a Happy New Year to both of you as well!