Ben Okri’s The Famished Road

Just finished reading this absolutely lovely book. Thanks to Prat for lending me her copy and making me read it.

If there is one thing in life that continues to leave us puzzled beyond all our acquired wisdom – it is Life itself. Humans are born to, eventually, die. But despite this awareness and the multitude of sufferings and ugly paradoxes that often pushes one to the edge of his sanity, there develops a strange affection to the very activity of living. It’s one of those mystical allusions beyond the scope of any human wisdom.

Ben Okri’s 1991 Booker winner The Famished Road, is a metaphorical narrative of this strange affection, rich in symbolism and gripping imageries of a surreal reality. The story is narrated by Azaro – a spirit child, born into the painful world of Nigerian Parents and set to return to its spirit world very soon. His mother is a hawker screaming her soul out to make their ends meet, while his father labors in an equally appalling job.

Azaro is born as an Abiku – which means born to die in Yoruba. Okri makes his first emotional strike indicating the strange affection phenomenon, when he writes the words of Azaro as he is about to be born into his wretched world of poverty, hunger and struggling parents.

But sometimes I think it was a face that made me want to stay. I wanted to make happy the bruised face of the woman who would become my mother.

The story moves between Azaro’s adventures in the real world with his struggling parents and dirty politics, and another peculiar world limited to Azaro’s vision – Madame Koto’s palm wine bar, the (famished) road and the forest – which are crowded with spirits, and supernatural elements. Often it is Azaro’s visionary world that leads him through all the tribulations of the real world.

I began to feed on my hunger. I fed well and had a mighty appetite. I dipped into myself and found other worlds waiting… A world of famine, famishment and drought… I lost myself and felt myself becoming light. I listened to the music of famine.

Azaro’s spirit friends, repeatedly play tricks on him trying to lure him back to their spirit world. But Azaro manages to escape them every time until he finds the solemn serenity in the arms of his parents at the beginning of every night. Okri has created Azaro himself as a metaphor depicting the oxymoronic essence of the state of living, as he puts it beautifully,

Because each new generation begins with nothing and everything. They may not know that they know, but they do… They have an infinity of hope and an eternity of struggles.

With every reference to the surreal visions – many headed spirits, men with three eyes and sometimes just strange lights watching Azaro – Okri reiterates the circular nature of life – to suffer, to hope, to persist in hope and eternally condemned to repeat this cycle of imageries. The extensive imagery of Azaro’s supernatural visions tends to slow down the story for a wee bit, but only to build up into a powerful account that makes him not wanting to go back to his spirit world, and choosing to stay in his parents’ world of struggles.

There are many riddles amongst us that neither the living nor the dead can answer.

But riddles need not be answered to be enjoyed. And in the process of writing the story, Ben Okri has woven an intricate web of riddles rich in literary fervor, sure to captivate any reader drawing him into a sea of magnificent imageries. The Famished Road is a sheer literary delight that, in its inimitable style, sends out a strong message on the essence of living.