Novel
Short Review:
The Famished Road Is
written by Nigerian author Ben Okri. The novel, published in 1991,
follows Azaro, an abiku or spirit child, living in an unnamed most likely
Nigerian city. The novel employs a unique narrative style incorporating the
spirit world with the "real" world in what some have classified as
magical realism.
Others have labeled it African Traditional Religion realism.
Still others choose to simply call the novel fantasy literature. The book
exploits the belief in the coexistence of the spiritual and material worlds
that is a defining aspect of traditional African life.
Azaro is an abiku, or spirit-child, from the ghetto of
an unknown city in Africa. He is constantly harassed by his sibling spirits
from another world who want him to leave this mortal life and return to the
world of spirits, sending many emissaries to bring him back. Azaro has
stubbornly refused to leave this life owing to his love for his mother and
father. He is the witness of many happenings in the mortal realm. His father
works as a labourer while his mother sells items as a hawker. Madame Koto, the
owner of a local bar, asks Azaro to visit her establishment, convinced that he
will bring good luck and customers to her bar. Meanwhile, his father prepares
to be a boxer after convincing himself and his family that he has a talent to
be a pugilist. Two opposing political parties try to bribe or coerce the
residents to vote for them.
About The Author:
Ben Okri OBE FRSL
(born 15 March 1959) is a Nigerian poet and novelist. Okri is considered one of
the foremost African authors in the post-modern and post-colonial traditions .
Ben Okri is a member of the Urhobo people; his father
was Urhobo, and his mother was half-Igbo. He was born in Minna in west central
Nigeria to Grace and Silver Okri in 1959. His father Silver moved his family to
London when Okri was less than two years old so that Silver could study law.
Okri thus spent his earliest years in London, and attended primary school in
Peckham. In 1968 Silver moved his family back to Nigeria where he practised law
in Lagos, providing free or discouned services for those who could not afford
it.
Okri's success as a writer began when he published his
first novel Flowers and Shadows, at the age of 21. He then served West Africa
magazine as poetry editor from 1983 to 1986, and was a regular contributor to
the BBC World Service between 1983 and 1985, continuing to publish throughout
this period. His reputation as an author was secured when he won the Booker
Prize for Fiction for his novel The Famished Road in 1991.
Product Details
- Paperback: 512 pages
- Publisher: Anchor; Reprint edition (May 1, 1993)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0385425139
- ISBN-13: 978-0385425131
- Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.9 x 8 inches
Link:
قـراءة مـُمـتعــة
No comments:
Post a Comment