Customer Reviews

Starbook

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you persist with this languid work of poetry by Okri, you will be rewarded. But like fine wine, this one takes time to mature, as one takes time to digest its fragrant prose.

I found Okri's work at times profound and magical, the poetry and beauty penetrate one deeply. However, it is also long-winded and difficult to get through.

The story is a simple one - love overcoming all; the parable is woven persistently into the story, which creates a fabric that wonders mystically into the depth of emotive creativity, African shamanism, the clarity of untouched African tribal life. It is clear that Okri idolises a dream of Africa which is hard to digest, in light and context of what we see happening today in the continent. However this mythical vision is so pure and innocent, so humble and filled with art and music, that the tapestry that Okri weaves is majestic, magical and in itself a work of art.

The Starbook by the Nigerian writer Ben Okri is another masterpiece with the story evolving before and (unfortunately) during the time of the cold, white wind. The wind that took away a large part of the population from the African continent. The novel offers a seldom look into the book of Life with answers to all questions. The answers lie within yourself but we have almost forgotten to ask the relevant questions.

The Starbook is a long fairytale with a prince and a kingdom (obviously) and a very unusual artistfamily whoise daughter must be the quintessence of inner beauty. If you do not feel you know anything about art, this novel might prove very helpful. Like Hans Christian Andersen this story is not afraid of revealing the true nature of the Emperors new clothes. The language is very beautiful and poetic and you instantly feel the pulse of the heart of Africa and humanity.

I liked the writing style of this book. It's beautiful and poetic. But what a shame that it was so long-winded! I can't remember the last time I read such a slow-paced book. It was horribly, terribly, painfully slow - so much so that practically nothing happened for hundreds of pages. Whole chapters were dedicated to concepts that could have been expressed in a single sentence.

This 400+ page book could probably have been whittled down to a short story, there was such little plot in it. In the end, it actually lost meaning for me. Things were restated so often that they became confusing and unclear. The only thing saving this story from a one-star rating, in fact, is the beauty of the language. However, give this a pass if you like to read stories with some action and adventure.

This is not a proper story but a long poem, a long repetitive poem. The author describes something, then makes 10-20 more descriptions of the same thing, again and again. The story progresses at a snail's pace and makesnosenseatall most of the time. Too deep for me!