“In the beginning, there was a river. The river became a road and the road branched out to the whole world. And because the road was once a river it was always hungry.”
THE FAMISHED ROAD
I remember these lines. These were some of the first literary lines, I had read and memorized. The famished road was among those first books I purchased when I put the thought in place that I wish to read some contemporary English literature. This reading bird had just started fledging around.
Like the continents shift in ‘continental shift’, my copy of the book has also shifted leftward from the bottom. Have a look. It seems it had been constantly rearranging itself on my bookshelf over the past decade; it is precisely ten years old on my shelf. And this cup of tea! This cup of tea I had placed beside it for Azaro. There is no tea in the cup! Did you just say that? Oh, you don’t know, the cup is filled with tea, but you can’t see it, only Azaro will see this.
Don’t you know Azaro?
Azaro is a spirit child; he said he never wanted to be born; being born was a shock for him from which he never recovered. Voices spoke to him day and night, and he realized one day that they were the voices of his spirit companions,
‘What are you doing here?’ one of them would ask.
‘Living’ I would reply.
‘Living for what?’
‘I don’t know.’
Azaro is the narrator of this book, and he will tell you his story. In this mortal world, his mother is a hawker, and his father is a laborer. Madam Koto is a domineering character, she is a bar owner. Azaro was sent to her for work, but he feared her anger and also disliked her customers. Her bar was the only place in the area which had the distinction of electricity; she even modified her bar board to call attention to this fact. Some of the most extraordinary things happen in her bar. One day even the head priest considered her an abomination and referred to her as the ‘Great whore of the apocalypse’.
One day, Azaro’s father decided to become a pugilist, a professional boxer and began to train dementedly, waking at midnight, bob and counter punch, hit and jab at imaginary opponents. He specialized in fighting his own shadow. On the other hand, his mother yelled,
“Poverty is driving me mad”
There are some party politics involved in the story. The dad finally turns politician. The story will go on in this world and another world simultaneously. Azaro will tell you the story of his parents and at the same time, will take you to a market where you will find, the man with red wings, a girl with fish gills, and someone without thumbs will give him a loaf of bread there. When he gets lost, he will ask a giant turtle, I am lost, I want to go home!
Almost a decade back, when I was just beginning my reading journey, this book imparted to me new worldliness and I loved very much the story, especially in the voice of Azaro! At that time I did not even hear the word ‘ magic realism’, but now when I have read some of the major proponents of the genre, I still feel that this book is something!
Robert Fraser wrote in the Independent, that ‘Okri is a patient artist, patient enough to proceed on two levels, for what is manifest to the child is news to us.’ I completely agree.
I also like the writing of Okri, it is simple, nimble, and imaginative!
And Hallucinatory too!
Let’s realize this pie in the sky once!
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