Rating: 
Summary: "It is more difficult to love than to die"
Review: THE FAMISHED ROAD is absolutely one of my very favorite books and Ben Okri is one of my favorite writers. I will state right here, up front, that THE FAMISHED ROAD is definitely not going to be a book "for the majority" of readers, though it is certainly a classic and certainly a masterpiece. The narrative is brilliant but, in THE FAMISHED ROAD, Okri employs magical realism to such an extent that he would put authors like Salman Rushdie and Gabriel Garcia Marquez to shame (but comparisons are always unfair, each of these writers is brilliant in his own, unique way).
The narrator of THE FAMISHED ROAD is Azaro, an abiku, or spirit child who exists in a realm somewhere between life and death. When Azaro is born to a poor family, in a poor Nigerian village, he could return to his carefree "life in limbo" but instead, he chooses to remain among the living in order to "put a smile on the face of the woman who would become his mother." During the course of the book, we come to realize that putting a smile on anyone's face in the Nigeria Azaro is born into is going to be a very difficult to impossible task.
THE FAMISHED ROAD is a sad, heartbreaking book but it is a book that is filled with the extraordinary power of the human spirit. Violence, struggle, death and desolation seem to be Azaro's lot in life, yet this spirit child chooses to embrace life because only in living can he love.
Azaro is a magnificent and unforgettable character, but so are his mother and father, Madame Koto, the local bar owner, the photographer who takes photos of Azaro's village and even the spirits who constantly try to lure Azaro back to the spirit world from which he was born.
THE FAMISHED ROAD is a mesmerizing, hypnotic novel that is filled to the brim with magic and symbolism, yet it is never heavy-handed (a miracle in itself). If, however, you prefer realistic fiction, you probably won't like THE FAMISHED ROAD, great as it is. Okri's prose is shimmering and gorgeous throughout but be warned...the book is repetitive and slow paced. Readers must be willing to tolerate this, but those who do will be rewarded with a heartbreaking and unforgettable experience.
Azaro's father says, "It is more difficult to love than to die," and I think that pretty much sums up the theme of THE FAMISHED ROAD. In THE FAMISHED ROAD, death comes easily but love, love is something the characters cherish but have to fight for and, love is always just a hair's breadth of being taken away from them.
I found THE FAMISHED ROAD to be luminous, shimmering, incandescent and heartbreaking. It's a book I'll never forget and Azaro is certainly a character who's found a permanent home in my heart.
About that last line mentioned in the editorial review...it is the most heartbreaking I've ever encountered, but the reviewer was right...don't skip ahead. Believe me, it's well worth the wait.
I would recommend THE FAMISHED ROAD very highly but only to readers who love both literary fiction and fiction that is heavily infused with symbolism and magical realism. I loved it.
Rating: 
Summary: Patience and effort may be worth it
Review: Ben Okri's "The Famished Road" is a long novel that has way more character and image than plot. It takes patience and effort to read this book, but for some readers it will be well worth it. It is hard not to give an equivocal review of "The Famished Road". I would have liked it more if I had read it some years ago when I was more into writers like Thomas Pynchon, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, or Salman Rushdie. Comparing Okri to those writers should give you an idea of what this book is like: long, complicated, often surreal (the term "magical realism" is used in discussions of this book), and sometimes confusing. Okri weaves many elements of traditional Nigerian folklore into his novel, but the form and structure are very much in the tradition of the modern English novel. I can't get help but feel that this book seems to be written for an audience of professors, grad-students, and people who are very serious about the novel as an art form. Those aren't necessarily bad things, indeed for many readers those are the best qualities a book can have. I wonder if many Nigerians have read this book, and if not, if a book popular in Nigeria might be more interesting and informative than "The Famished Road". But that's the thing: being interested in the novel as an art form is not the same as wanting to read a book to learn something about Nigeria. Another Nigerian writer whose works are often based on African folklore is Amos Tutuola.
Rating: 
Summary: Take a deep breath...
Review: I marvel at Okri's writing and most of all, the planning involved in The Famished Road's creation. Here, we have a novel that is so completely infused with magical realism that the world created by Okri becomes almost like a dream. This story of a spirit-child who chooses to remain in the world rather than surrender to a peaceful afterlife is a marvellous allegory for the brutality and also, the beauty of life. So my criticism and my rating is not about Okri's ability as a writer or the literary quality of this novel, which is brilliant. I don't believe that this novel however, is for everyone. As another reviewer has mentioned, this novel appears to cater for literary academics rather than the average reader (like me). The Famished Road is on a rarified plain in the literary world. I admire anyone who has persevered and really UNDERSTOOD this novel, for it remains much of a mystery to me. For me, it was somewhat laborious, because I found the recurring symbolism hard to grasp. The extreme magical aspects of this book became progressively confusing and the overall purpose of spirit-child's journey was lost on me. I would recommend however, that if you enjoy plot (linear or non-linear), realistic and sympathetic characters, and if you prefer realism in your novels (for there is already plenty of magic in the real world...) - I would suggest you give this novel a miss.
Rating:
Summary: Patience and effort may be worth it
Review: Ben Okri's "The Famished Road" is a long novel that has way more character and image than plot. It takes patience and effort to read this book, but for some readers it will be well worth it. It is hard not to give an equivocal review of "The Famished Road". I would have liked it more if I had read it some years ago when I was more into writers like Thomas Pynchon, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, or Salman Rushdie. Comparing Okri to those writers should give you an idea of what this book is like: long, complicated, often surreal (the term "magical realism" is used in discussions of this book), and sometimes confusing. Okri weaves many elements of traditional Nigerian folklore into his novel, but the form and structure are very much in the tradition of the modern English novel. I can't get help but feel that this book seems to be written for an audience of professors, grad-students, and people who are very serious about the novel as an art form. Those aren't necessarily bad things, indeed for many readers those are the best qualities a book can have. I wonder if many Nigerians have read this book, and if not, if a book popular in Nigeria might be more interesting and informative than "The Famished Road". But that's the thing: being interested in the novel as an art form is not the same as wanting to read a book to learn something about Nigeria. Another Nigerian writer whose works are often based on African folklore is Amos Tutuola.
Rating:
Summary: Simply excellent
Review: I read this book while studying african fiction at the university of cape town, and it totally consumed me. While it is a long journey - occasionally confusing, repetitive and tedious - the vast majority of this work is lyrical and beautiful in a way but rarely found. I highly recommend this book, along with Moses Isegawa's "Abyssinian Chronicles" for the reader who wishes to find good entertainment but also a sense of the heartbreak that is modern Africa.
Rating:
Summary: This was a lovely novel
Review: This is one of the most wonderful books I have ever read. It's lush, full of life, vivid, surreal, and down right eerie. If I can only write half as well as Okri, I'll be very pleased with myself. This book is long, yes. And yes, I am well versed in Nigerian history and folklore, though I am Igbo, not Yoruba. So maybe I was at an advantage and I understood things on more levels than the average reader. But it held me in a way that no other book ever has. I've read Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Salman Rushdie AND Stephen King. I love all three of them. But I love Okri the most. This book was delicious.
Rating: 
Summary: I found myself challenged
Review: "The Famished Road" challenged my concepts of narrative and genre and in the perplexity (out there at the edge of chaos where all art and learning takes place) I found myself enchanted and bewitched. I've since seen the label "magical realism" attached to Okri's work and suspect that comes from people who live in a linear paradigm, a secular one.
The road is hot and dry. The smells of cooking waft from the doorways. A possessed father, a depressed mother, a bar full of dreams and a political tide... This book is special. Prepare for the magic.
Rating:
Summary: 500 hundred pages full of sadness
Review: You shall believe those reviewers who tell you this book is worth 5 stars, but only if patience is a trait of your personality. It is undeniable that the author have an excellent command of English and a great sensibility to make the reader understand how extreme poverty and the lack of self-esteem will make you numb to the most aberrant events of life. So much, that life becomes uni dimensional. And that is precisely the reason why I rated it with only three stars. The events, the characters, the drama, the mental scenery, all about this book is circular, without colors, plain. If you read 100 pages or 400 pages it makes no difference, the action just stand still so much that this book can also be summarized as "Azaro goes into madam Koto's bar - Azaro gets scared - Azaro leaves madam Koto's bar". After this situation had happen 15 times, in 300 hundred pages, there comes a point you wonder why the author does not use his imagination and writing skills to lead the novel somewhere aside from the events in madam Koto's bar, in which invariably, the patrons become weird spirits or someone gets into a fight forcing Azaro to leave the bar. In other words this book is very boring.
Rating:
Summary: Poetic Journey
Review: Ben Okri's creation has a very interesting premise, that of life as seen through the eyes of a spirit child, Azaro, who chooses to stay on in the world rather than return to the spirit realm, to bring happiness to the face of his mother. Simple everyday life of Nigerian peasants in a small town are described and in the passing weeks and months, relationships between characters are revealed and contribute to our understanding of a unique culture. Politics, the division between poor and rich, jealousies and envy are all part of the negative aspects of the real world which cause such heartache and suffering to people. On the other hand, the strength and resolution of the resilient characters such as the photographer and Azaro's parents, highlight the positive aspects of human nature and what makes the real world such a wonderful place and so attractive to the spirits. Azaro's world is one where the spirit realm merges with the real world and Okri's rendering of his story is magical and fascinating. However, repetitions to the story, though reminiscent of Homer's "The Odyssey", takes away the focus of the story and makes it a little draggy. Imaginative and ambitious, "The Famished Road" remains a good read, however, for readers who constantly look for something out of the ordinary.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful spiritual writing by a gifted author
Review: The Famished Road goes beyond the restrictions of plot, character, and structure, to reveal a style of writing so beautiful that even when the story drifts, one still retains attention, to avoid missing out on the superbly woven prose. For me, Okri's greatest achievement was to show that writing need not follow hand-me-down formats of yesteryear to be sophisticated and fabulous.
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