A review by lelia_t
The Famished Road by Ben Okri

4.0

I was thrown off by this book at first because I was waiting for a plot line to emerge. It’s more like a recurring chaos of fights, carnival, and forays into a transrational realm. But then I realized that if we’re looking at life through the wide-open eyes of a spirit child, that’s what we should expect to see. Azaro isn’t labeling and categorizing, so the reader has to simply accept at face value that the misshapen beggars are allies (maybe), threats (maybe), spirits (maybe) and Madame Koto is a fecund goddess and death bringer (maybe?). Azaro is a reluctant sojourner on earth, but he’s learning to embrace "the earth's life and contradictions." He’s not searching for answers, but witnessing the mystery, so we aren’t really going - or arriving - anywhere in particular, yet it’s a beautiful, life-affirming story.