Rating: 
Summary: One of the Best Books I've Read in Years
Review: The Famished Road is a novel of great beauty, spirituality, poetic grace, and political observation. The book takes the reader on a magical journey which constantly blurs the (western myopic) line between "reality" and the spirit world, the immense power of the imagination. The language is hypnotic, incantatory. Though this book may be a tough read for some Americans who are stuck in a scientific mode of thought or who want their prose Hemingwayesque and dull, for those who want to commence a spiritual and political journey into another reality, another place, another way of being and seeing, The Famished Road is a must-read. It is simply one of the best novels I have ever encountered--and I read A LOT! It is fire in the soul...and we Americans can be so terribly soul-dead. Read it
Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely incomprehensible
Review: This guy is on a different planet. The story is impossible to follow. Everytime you think you are getting it, he shoots off on some other phantasmic sub-plot. Perfect to test out English majors, but not much else
Rating:
Summary: Magic-Realist Classic
Review: "The Famished Road", and its companion "Songs of Enchantment" are among the best examples of the magic-realist tradition, and belongs on the shelf with Marquez and Allende. The birth of an African nation -- a thinly veilled Nigeria -- is seen through the eyes of a spirit-child, Azaro. His parents are poor and represent the common people. The angelic/ demonic Madame Koto is a personification of the the two-fold plight of the emerging black bourgeoise. But that's just one reading of it. The sheer scope of the novel -- over 500 hundred pages -- is drenched in imagery so rich, bejewelled and dreamlike, that you never want to leave. Such things as plot, character, and structure are meaningless in Okri's hands. This is a political fable and a mythological treatise at the same time. Echoes of the brilliant African author Amos Tutola can be glimpsed here as well: Okri Africanizes the language of imagination. You will never see things the same way after reading this brilliant novel
Rating:
Summary: Fulfills any hunger
Review: Absolutely astonishing. Ben Okri is a wonderful writer. I have read many of his works and know that the Famished Road is a wonderful introduction. Reality and myth reside together in this novel, and are at times inseperable. Okri takes his readers on an intense sensory journey that does not allow them to put the book down. Every passage must be read carefully to avoid missing something glorious. You will not regret buying this book!
Rating:
Summary: A THRILLING JOURNEY THROUGH PURE ENCHANTMENT
Review:
Ben Okri's THE FAMISHED ROAD is exceptional in its treatment of fiction as a study of both history and prophecy. Through the eyes of Okri's child hero, Azaro (shortened from Lazarus) readers enter an African community coming to terms with that crossroads known as change. Like another boy hero in the famed CALVIN AND HOBBES comic strip, Okri's Azaro is prone to wandering roads of the imagination that constantly lead him in body, mind, and spirit away from the safety of his parents' protection. History, mythology, and social realism mix in THE FAMISHED ROAD to create a very heady fictional brew. By providing a portrait of his Nigerian homeland during an era when oil lamps were just beginning to give way to electricity and cars were claiming the road over bicycles, Okri has spun an enduring parable on change relevant not only to Africa but the world at large. His prose is sometimes indistinguishable from poetry and the fact that he strikes a masterful balance between the two for a full 500 pages is a small miracle.
Aberjhani
author of ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE
and STRENGTH TO CARRY ON
Rating: 
Summary: Spirit Child in the world
Review: If you have read the rest of the reviews on this page, you will have already gotten the message that the book takes some effort to read. This, for me, was mostly true at the beginning. It was obvious straight away that it drew heavily from a tradition of mythology to which I had no access. It is not so much that this was a barrier to my being able to read it; it is more that I kept expecting it to be a barrier and initially fought the flow of the book, trying to make sense of things that were not important to understand precisely.
To my mind, there are several ways to read magic realism. One way is to understand all the mythology and all the references that are included and use that understanding to directly enrich the "real" level of the book. The other way is to let the real and the mythic flow together and hope that the author is skilled enough to knit the two elements such that you do not need an academic understanding to follow the story. I think that Okri is a terrifically talented writer, and I found that once I got over my initial discomfort I was more than able to follow the narrative. The plot, to me, did not seem particularly hidden or unclear and I did not have the feeling that it was written for academics.
_The Famished Road_ tells the story of Lazarus/Azaro, a spirit child who chooses to stay in the impoverished world of reality, rather than return to the ideal world of the spirits. His family struggles with the impotence of their situation, baffled by politics and poverty and conditions beyond their control. The world of the compound is full of magic both real and imagined as the characters search for a way to influence their lives in the face of forces which seem to make things inalterable. Myth becomes a kind of resistance against the politicians who fight in the street and hand out poisoned milk.
I found it beautiful to read, and only slightly less rich because I did not know the surrounding mythological setting. If you are interested in the book, do not be put off by the more frightening reviews. It is not as dense as it initially appears and once I got used to the prose, I found that it read quickly and very smoothly.
Rating:
Summary: Moving, rich and beautiful
Review: I always wondered what a author that mined the richness of African myth could produce and found it in The Famished road. Unlike greek mythlogy tha is readily accessible to most of the world, African, specifically Nigerian in this case, is not. Nevertheless Okri doesn't shy away from drenching his book in it.
I'm happy to see this did not chill the interest or enjoyment of non africans to the book.
Ben Okri has a fan for life.
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: 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.
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