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The Famished Road: Outside the Norm Forum
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Allie
Posted 2012-09-03 4:54 PM (#4099)
Subject: The Famished Road: Outside the Norm Forum



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BEWARE: SPOILERS HERE!

This reading group gives a chance for contributors to discuss the content of a book in depth, so there will be many spoilers of The Famished Road throughout this discussion.

Were kicking off the second month of the Outside the Norm reading group. This is my first month, actually, as I was unfortunately unable to get to last weeks selection, Omon-Ra. This week features Ben Okris The Famished Road. Im going to follow more or less same format as last months and everyone can feel free to respond in whatever format they prefer!

1. Initial Impressions of Ben Okris The Famished Road

The Famished Road is a work of magical realism, though Ive seen it described as animist realism as well. The part of the story that is clearly reality is completely intertwined with the part that is spiritual, and the narrator views them both as equally credible. However, the spiritual elements dont actually seem to directly affect the story. They seem to mostly exist as symbolism or for the purpose of showing deeper meaning of a scene. In some cases, the meaning of the spirits and visions are really clear (e.g. the road-builders or the ghosts in the corrupt cops house), but sometimes I was completely at a loss at to what meaning the visions could carry. I really dont get what the increasingly-numerous-headed spirit was supposed to symbolize, beyond the supernatural meaning of an increasing desperation on the part of Azaros spirit companions to draw him back into the fold.

In terms of the surface story, this is a novel that also didnt seem to have a traditional plot. There was no buildup to any climactic moment, the story just continued on with its description of Azaros life and the notable people he encountered. This first book appears to chronicle from birth to about adolescence, and Im guessing the next two books in the trilogy continue from there. Azaro was basically an observer character, which makes sense for a child. I was hoping he would eventually grow up, though, and become a more active player in his own life.

I think a lot of the story was discovering the difficult, poverty-stricken world of Azaros experiences. I appreciated having it built up from Azaros impressions as a small child, because this was a very unfamiliar setting to me. The portrayal of Azaros community, with its quiet desperation, petty rivalries, and misery, was the strongest part of the story to me. It was very frustrating to read about all the hopes and dreams of the main characters, only to watch them constantly sabotage themselves, or fail, or find out that their goal wasnt what they wanted after all. I think the point was the inescapability of the conditions of life in Azaros community.

2. Themes

Sorry if Im completely off, but this is what I took from the book:

1) Life as struggle / Death as perfection: One thing that comes up pretty constantly is this idea that the definition of life is a struggle. The road-builders comes into mind as an illustration. If they ever completed their road, the struggle would be over and they would be dead. Instead, life is a cycle of creation and destruction. On a large scale, this refers to the rise and fall of civiizations or communities, but it applies in this story on a small scale as well. No one seems to be able to achieve success without also then meeting some failure. For example, every time Azaros father does something admirable, he ends up falling into the same patterns that draw him back to where he started.

2) The Abiku/Post-colonial Africa: The children who do not want to be born. On the surface, this seems to be a folktale arising from a high child mortality rate. However, the idea of the abiku is applied not only to people, but to countries and societies. This is connected to #1, in that abiku do not want to join in the struggle to improve themselves and their world. They want to be perfect and happy meaning dead. For nations, it is a struggle to be born and to grow up, and many states simply collapse, to be constantly reborn and to constantly die young.

3) The Road: The road is used as a metaphor for progress, travel or destiny. The road eats people. People die as a result of change or progress, or they are devoured by their own destiny (like Azaros father).


4) Poverty: I think that a big part of this novel was showing what it was like to live in an impoverished community like Azaros. There is a strong sense of desperation and despair in Azaros family and acquaintances. Politicians briefly pander to them at election times, and they may vehemently support one party or another. However, they know it wont make a difference in the end, because no one really cares about their lives beyond securing a vote. The photographer, for a brief while, took pictures of people in the community, thus making them exist. It was powerful for them to see their community discussed and pictured in the newspaper, because it implied that they had a connection and relevance to the world outside their impoverished community.


What else have I missed? ☺

3. Favorite Moment

I dont really have a favorite moment, so I will pick a favorite character. I found Madame Koto to be one of the most fascinating characters, and I would probably just say all of her interactions with Azaro. She was one character who changed drastically throughout the story, though she was always the same person inside. She was determined to achieve material success, even when it meant debasing herself and betraying her community. Throughout it all, though, she had such a strong connection to Azaro. She took care of him without asking for any kind of recompense. At times, she gave him food, a (relatively) safe place to stay, and large amounts of money (swearing him to secrecy about its origin). I think Azaro, more than anyone, was allowed to see Madame Koto the person and not Madame Koto the symbol of capitalism. The Madame Koto we saw through Azaro was a woman determined to make her life better, who was struggling when the very things she expected to make her happy became a trap for her.
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Emil
Posted 2012-09-05 7:11 AM (#4105 - in reply to #4099)
Subject: RE: The Famished Road: Outside the Norm Forum



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Location: Grootfontein, Namibia		Thanks @Allie.

I really battled with the book. It was a slow read, dark and mostly tragic, despite the somewhat regenerative power of imagination and its visionary tone toward the end, plainly devoid of traditional, linear plot and a burgeoning climax. There were elements in it that reminded me of my all-time favorite African literary work, Things Fall Apart by my all-time favorite African author, chief Chinua Achebe, particularly in terms of the abiku, but can't honestly say that I enjoyed the book, or that the characters held my attention, apart from the magisterial Madam Koto.

My favorite moment, incidentally, is around her altercation with a non-paying customer, the sore loser from the match up with Azaro's father. The scene is crafty myth-making. Never once is it explicitly stated that she's a witch, but mention is made hesitantly of rumors, legends and myths about her character - here Okri uses the first person narrator to best effect.

Her dreams are livid rashes of parties and orgies, of squander and sprees, of corruption and disintegration, of innocent women and weak men.... She became all the things we whispered she was and she became more. At night, when she slept, she stole the peoples energies.


Let's not forget about the "customer" who devours a lizard!! I would love to ask the author the following question: does Madame Koto raucous bar with her fantastical clientele contest the newly forming and corrupt establishment just prior to Nigerian independence?

I also found it a memorable moment when Azaro talks about the first night of political unrest and terror in the ghetto. He does not describe what happens, only conveys the experience of awe and terror and elation.

The dead joined the innocents, mingled with the thugs, merged with the night and plundered the antagonists with the cries of the wounded. The dead uttered howls of mortal joy and they found the livid night a shrine glistering with fevers.

Perhaps the magical realism were too much for me; I do recognize the appeal the book had and still has with many readers - in fact, it is quite honesty a literary masterpiece, as an allegory of Africa's continuous struggles for re-birth - but I never became comfortable with the rhythm of the narrative, often contemplated giving up the ghost (bloody-minded inertia kept me going); it never turned into an edifying read. Sadly, I guess; perhaps I'll find the narrative more endearing upon a re-read.

Oh, there is a particular humorous passage that I love, which shows that even everyday items have magical abilities in the right context. The people of Azaro's ghetto look on in wonder when electricity arrive:

They couldn't understand how you could have a light brighter than lamps sealed in glass. They couldn't understand how you couldn't light you cigarette on the glowing bulbs.

I fear the light never shined for me.

Like Allie I also found the plight of the characters frustrating. I never saw the worth of investing any emotional energy in them when their world is governed by so many arbitrary forces.

What I did find astonishing about the novel, though, is Okri's seamless presentation of a world in which spiritual and material realities co-exists. And that's it. In the final analysis, the book is overly long, a trudge with an odd few memorable moments. At least it does not suffer from pretentiousness as in The Life of Pi. I much prefer my magical realism dished up in the likeness of Kafka on the Shore and American Gods.
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Rhondak101
Posted 2012-09-05 8:10 AM (#4106 - in reply to #4099)
Subject: RE: The Famished Road: Outside the Norm Forum



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Hi All, Since this was my pick based on reviews and my love for magic realism AND Things Fall Apart, I thought I'd jump in (event hough I'm only about halfway through the book). I agree with everything that Allie and Emil have said. In fact, at the bottom of one page, I wrote "I miss plot." This book has the magic realist elements but lacks the sparkle and virtuoso writing of Rushdie and many of the others.
 
Early in the book, I was intrigued by the first-person narration by Azaro. I thought about all of the backlash against Ender's Game, pointing out that the voice did not sound at all like a young child. Frankly, I always thought the criticism was a bit too harsh. Do we really want to read something in the voice of a 5 year old? With Azaro, (early in the book), I thought we got an interesting look at what child narration could be. When he is in the "real" world (the non-spirit world), he seems to describe events and actions without any understanding or interpretation. While I think this is hard to accomplish and an interesting approach, I do feel that this is also what gives the book this feeling of disorientation that we are all commenting on.  I miss the Nigerian background and the explanations that a third-person narration or even an adult first-person narration could have given us. 
 
 
More later when I've read more
 
 

 

 

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