Songs of Enchantment [Hardcover]

Ben Okri (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1993

A sequel to the Booker Prize-winning The Famished Road blends myth and naturalism in the story of Azaro, the spirit-child who lives in an impoverished African village, and the upheavals that he and his family face. 20,000 first printing. $20,000 ad/promo. Tour.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

All is not well in the African village where Azaro lives. The child narrator of poet and novelist Okri's The Famished Road , who had outwitted death in the previous book, again relates the oppressive events that continue to plague his village and his family. While political factionalization shatters the community's cohesiveness, the prodigious bar owner Madame Koto, chief exponent of the "Party of the Rich," alternately exudes portentous metaphysical malaise and miraculous erotic force. Little Azaro, himself touched and distracted by a series of animuses, follows the heels of "dad," who is a resounding vessel, by turns, of cantankerous egotism and abased self-sacrifice. This Nigerian epic reveals a violent provincial world, opaque with magical spirits which place horrendous ethical demands on fragile and fickle humanity, as if to test each individual for a thread of virtuous constancy at the core. Events drench the essentially linear narrative with all the ruthless sensuousness of a tropical storm, and Okri's prose is lucid and deft: "His limbs shook and he was bathed in radiance, as if his fit were a sweet juice that he was drinking, or as if it were sunlight to the feverish." A difficulty with Okri's ambitious performance, however, is its relative indifference to dramatic development; experience violates characters, but does not always deepen them. However, readers will note the subtle moral inquiry which gradually wells up within the work, and will admire its patient musing on the problem of evil. Author tour.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Nigerian novelist Okri's last book, The Famished Road, won the 1991 Booker Prize; his newest picks up where it left off. Once again we're bedazzled and bedeviled by Okri's phantasmagoric prose and the strange and wondrous sensibility of Azaro, a spirit-child living in a poor African village. The only child of a street hawker and a laborer, Azaro is possessed of, or by, an immense and unwieldy intelligence and is routinely overwhelmed by bewildering visions and revelations. His parents also dwell in this enigmatic extra dimension. When they have a falling out, both are sucked into realms full of supernatural menace and cosmic information. Azaro's father is enthralled by a crazy-eyed but graceful beggar girl, while his mother joins the followers of a witchy tavern owner named Madame Koto. As each family member wages his or her own mysterious hallucinatory battles, we recognize that all this strife and upheaval is connected to the stratifications of class warfare and the machinations of political power struggles. This is a feverish and confounding work, a great boil of prophecies and aphorisms, dreams and myths. Donna Seaman

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 297 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; 1st edition (September 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385471548
• ISBN-13: 978-0385471541
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,989,061 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the greatest literary works, August 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Songs of Enchantment (Paperback)

Ben Okri's writing is magical, enthralling and captivating. He takes English writing to new heights. He is one of the greatest writers ever, and one sees it throughout the book. I was enchanted by the English which is delivered with an African flavor. Almost like a new language. This book is spiritual and out of this world on one level and yet down to earth in its portrayal of Nigerian village life. It's a must read for those who enjoy reading foreign authors. I read it over and over again.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Ho-hum, December 10, 2001

By 

mar-vic cagurangan "Mar-Vic Cagurangan" (Guam) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Songs of Enchantment (Hardcover)

Songs of Enchantment is a sequel to Booker Prize winning The Famished Road--one of the best novels I've ever read. But Ben Okri's attempt to outdo his first novel with this sequel had a disastrous result. He gives the readers an overdose of magic and supernatural. He describes one strange event after another (and almost in every succeeding sentence), distracting the readers and leaving them no time to savor one magical event at a time. (The Famished Road just has an amount of magic just enough for the readers to enjoy.) Ben Okri's prose has always been beautiful to read, but this time it didn't work. I couldn't find patience to finish the entire book.

5.0 out of 5 stars Action can be the most noble act of dreams, March 18, 2011

By 

Jan Faerk (Denmark) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Songs of Enchantment (Paperback)

"Songs of Enchantment" is the second novel in the series about the spirit child Azaro.

The election campaigns in Nigeria are under way and a stupendous fight between the Party of the Rich and the Party of the Poor is taking place in the neighbourhood around Madame Koto's public house. Azaro has the gift of being able to see through the facades of the partyfollowers and reveal their intentions by showing us the spirits that are connected with the political parties. His father "Black Tyger" continues his fight for better living conditions in the slum area, and he is also gradually drawn into the world of spirits which feeds him with knowledge. At one time everyone turn blind and Black Tyger is the first to regain his sight after acknowledging that you have to pass a painful process just to be able to interpret what you have already seen.

This is not a linear story as we are used to from European litterature. Ben Okri circles about his themes and hence follows a more traditional African circular and enriching way of thinking. The first novel in the series ended with: A dream can be the highligt of life. This second part of the series ends with: Action can be the most noble act of dreams.