Title: The Famished Road
Author: Okri, Ben
Publisher: Anchor Books
Pages: 512
Date Read: 11 December 2017
Bookshelves: read
My Rating (out of 5): ⭐⭐⭐
This rewiew will be in two parts:
Part 1
In truth, this was a well written story. But a well written story without direction, excessive description and a prose devoid of general substance. This was 632 pages of Okri trying badly to chronicle every second of Azaro’s tiring life. Save for a host of brilliant metaphors, this book was colossal waste of time.
In many ways, this book tested my discipline and thrived totally on the fact that i always want to finish every book I start (an attitude I soon have to unlearn). I refused to see all the obvious red flags – especially the one where after three hundred and seven pages, the book’s compass had still not found North.
The Famished Road was like a loop. A 632 page loop. One that began with Azaro’s endless wanderings during the day and recollections of his father’s tragic and unfortunate life at night.
In 1993, this book won the Man Booker prize. My only question is how?
Part 2.
i did begin to perceive a sense of direction as i inched towards the four hundredth page. Things became sort of interesting. We see how Azaro’s father, Black Tyger, breaks from his normal routine of whining, how he actually picks up boxing and how he becomes a champion within a short period. This excitement lasted only a couple ten pages but this was a massive shift from the cyclic and frustrating story Okri had been peddling for over two-thirds of the book.
It also felt like the author intentionally left the message, the wisdom of the book for its last pages as if to reward us for our patience – for not giving up on him a bit too soon. I found the author’s beautiful style and clever use of metaphors soothing to say the least. However, at this point, i just wanted to get done with the book for it had been 3 long months. The book was very well written. But i genuinely believe that Okri could have passed the exact message with less than half the number of pages.
That said, if we are going to judge based on quality of writing and nothing else, The Famished Road definitely did deserve to win the Man Booker Prize in ‘93.