Songs of Enchantment

A sequel to Famished Road, Azaro the spirit child draws us into darker and more terrifying visions as Nigeria is torn apart by fear and violence, war, poverty and political corruption. The evil Masquerade towers in our nightmares and the blend of African story telling, the glimpses into the Yoruba spirit world. the myths, the metaphors, the poetry are both disturbing and mesmerising. And yet it is not without all hope, Azaro's Dad chooses the right act in burying the carpenter and the blindness that afflicted him and the community is lifted. Whilst this returns him to the harsh realities of his life and much is lost, it also reveals that it is possible to choose, to escape from passivity and fatalism, that in life there are many show more possibilities, "there could be more astonishing lives beyond the mirror" (p.288). The main message of the book perhaps is that things are never what they seem. The dedication to his father refers to Virgil's beatitude; "Blessed are those who know the causes of things" and this book reveals the hearts and souls of men and women, of the choices they make, the dreams they cling to and the fears they face, and how history is made from those choices, reactions and dreams. The dream world Okri creates takes you on a journey that lingers long in the mind afer the book itself is read. For Okri himself on his writing, listen to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orNNO90R-JI show less

I first encountered Ben Okri in a post-colonial fiction class in grad school – oh how I miss those days of nothing but reading, writing, and discussing great literature! We read The Famished Road, which won the Booker Prize in 1991. I really loved that book of magic spirit children and an interesting West African culture. Road currently sits on my list of books read long ago and due for a re-read.

Songs of Enchantment also has the magic of spirit children, -- and many of the same characters from The Famished Road -- but this novel goes way over the top. It reads like magic realism on steroids. Virtually the entire novel has visions, dreams, spirits, and all sorts of supernatural doings.

Reading Okri’s work requires getting accustomed show more to the style, but it does take on a lyrical flow. Unfortunately, the symbolism, cultural references, and allegorical elements of Nigerian history eluded me. This book needs to be read in a group setting – a graduate school class, for example – or with a dictionary of West African mythology.

Songs tells the story of Azara, a spirit-child, and his family in a Nigerian village. This example of a passage represents the style of almost the entire novel. Azara and his father have walked into the forest. The child’s father comments, “The forest is dreaming” (24), and they decide to go home. Suddenly they find themselves beset by strange sounds.

“We ran into a quivering universe, into resplendent and secret worlds. We ran through an abode of spirits, through the disconsolate forms of mesmeric dreams of hidden gods, through a sepia fog thick with hybrid beings, through the yellow village of invisible crows, past susurrant marketplaces of the unborn, and into the sprawling ghomind-infested alabaster landscapes of the recently dead. We kept pushing on through the inscrutable resistance of the moon-scented air, trying to find the road back into our familiar reality. But the road eluded us and we troubled the invisible forms of great trees with our breathing, and the spirits of extinct animals with our fear. Our heads pulsated with an infernal violet heat” (25).

I think I might do some research and give this one another try, but right now, only the poetic language and the flow save it. 3 stars

--Jim, 8/27/10 show less

I was astounded by The Famished Road when I first read it, and proceeded to collect as many of Okri's other works as possible. Although Songs maintains the poetic language and imagery of the Famished Road, there is virtually no plot or message. It's a giant acid trip of a novel - great images, no substance.

Read way back in college in a Sandy Feinstein class, in a unit on ethnic cleansing in Africa. Flipping through it, I was vaguely horrified to discover that I read it during a phase when I underlined in books. On the other hand, it let me quickly find some excerpts that I'd found the most moving...

Onirique. L'auteur est anglo-nigerien.Il faut que je m'y remette, je n'ai pas réussi au premier coup, mais il y a quelque chose, là.