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    3K views30 pages

    What The Tapster Saw

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    Mary Nasrullah
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    Chapter-9 What the Tapster Saw OY KOE peared dh i, 9 Ses bs i(Tapster) nd Se Feit oe tef(Tabascolo-ne1th weet asi ato he oiled Y a8 AB RSS ete nie a csidy pend alta old GF WAH Es OI Se we te LoL Bretin nd nutes /p¥7 iL Company) het ile viet iubt vie ict Soviet df at pleted LK Li vdete dye tL SE L+ 4c tebe ef LiTabasco cent S pe al pie iE ie FITabascoe Lyi fiS etl Sense eet Lt ‘Scanned wih CamScanner What The Tapster Saw By Ben Okri A Life Sketch Ben Okri OBE FRSL (born 15 March 1959) is g Nigerian poet and novelist. Having spent his early childhood in London, he and his family returned to Nigeria in 1968. He later came back to England, embarking on studies at the University of Essex. He has received honorary doctorates from the University of Westminster (1997) and the University of Essex (2002), and was awarded an OBE in 2001. Since he published his first novel, Flowers and Shadows (1980), Okri has risen to an international acclaim, and he is often described as one of Africa's greatest writers." needed] His best known work, The Famished Road, was awarded the 1991 Booker Prize. He has also won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Africa, the Aga Khan Prize for Fiction, and was given a Crystal Award by the World Economic Forum. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He has also been described as a magic realist, although he has shrugged off that tag. His first-hand experiences of civil war in Nigeria are said to have inspired many of his works. He writes about both the mundane and the metaphysical, the individual and the collective, drawing the reader into a world with vivid descriptions, Okri is a*'Vice-President of the English Centre for the International PEN, an association of writers with 130 branches in over 100 countries. He is also a member of the United Kingdom's Royal National Theatre. He lives in London. After a 5 year break, Oki book, was published by Rider i's eleventh book, Star ‘Scanned wih CamScanner INTRODUCTION “What The Tapster Saw” is an imaginary and fantastic story. It tells in implied manner about the vices of imperialism in the life of African people. Imperials were sucking their blood day and night. It can be read as a meaningless fairy tale with turtles, snakes, cowwebs, magic paraphernalia suitably invented for such kind of stories. The story throws light on the dark aspects of imperialism. ‘Scanned with CamScanner Summary What The Tapster Saw The story is about a skilled tapster. One night he dreams that he has died. He goes to meet his friend, Tabasco who is a herbalist to share his dream. Tabasco does not pay heed to his friend’s dreams; but asks him to come next day. In the morning, the Tapster gathered his ropes and rode out into the forest to begin his day’s work. As he climbed his first tree he fell down and seemingly died. He seemed to enter into another strange world, where he had a lot of horrible and miserable experiences. The Tapster stared at the signboard without comprehension. Further he noticed a strange cluster of palm-trees. He rode through thick cobwebs in order to reach them. The smell of their green bark intoxicated him. The morning sun struck him with an oblique glare when branches of the palm-tree receded from him. It was the first time he had fallen in thirty years. In order to finish his labour, when he reached the area to catch turtles, he saw Delta Oil Company was in action drilling for oil and there was a board saying, ‘Trespassers will be persecuted’. He saw strange things. He saw three turtles; one of which had Tabasco’s face. The most surprising thing was that he woke up and found that he had been multiplied. vs The Tao a neu preparation creature came and stuffed hi word revolving in ved Jights. A saw the expatriate planted d anit ag oes: The Tapster the explosion, he saw a thick pre arth ihe forest area. After , green smoke. The tapster saW > in Secret executions, in armed i the soapstone im ile, the Tapser a the a slid over and began to tell ian bad jokes. ridiculous, the Ta ed. Partly because the snake looked: so i. €pster laughed as well. Some voices seemed to ‘Scanned with CamScanner : What The Tapster Saw } talk nonsense. And at night a Creature that smelt of rotting agapanthus came and copulated with him, leaving him with the grotesque eggs of their nights together, The Tapster Was unable to escape this calamity. Then he heard a voice saying, ‘you have been dead for two days. Wake up...’ He sees people being caught and executed and shot. There was fire around but without smoke. The voice again came and said “It’s getting too late, Wake up.” Invisible knocks fell on him. After the knocks had stopped the Tapster relieved himself of the mighty sneeze. When he sneezed the monstrous eggs exploded. Green liquids spewed out from the borehole and blew away the snake, the signboard, and the turtles. Later on, the Tapster saw the horrors of a war -a war against the despotic imperialistic powers. He visualized "poverty," "collapse of bridges," "roads", "malarial swamps", "creeks without names", "human skeletons” and “mindless accidents." He saw dogs turning into "ghommids" that ate up lonely travellers etc. Tapster saw an old man who had died in a sitting position while reading a bible upside down. The man looked exactly like him. The Tapster then felt that he was being awakened by the turtle that had Tabasco's face. Actually Tobasco had Teached the place and was now trying to retrieve his friend who had fallen down from the tall pine tree and died. He had lain dead for seven days and had seen all that night-mare about imperialism. Tabasco, with his medicines, was trying to save «the life of the tapster. He produced some incense and threw nto the nostrils of the Tapster. The Tapster revived! He came ‘0 life once again. That tells us about the fact that a slave ‘ation can rise if they utilize their old traditions and let hem work in the most proper order! The story is a scathing ‘itite on imperialism. Ben Okri has made use of the technique tk “aricaturing like Jonathan swift in Gulliver’s Travels, It is $0 an allegorical story. ‘Scanned wih ComScanner Tapster Q. The Character of the Tapster . Ans, The Tapster is the protagonist of the short-story, he is a simple and experienced man. He represents common African, He tapes the palm trees and prepares liquor. He is perfect in his art of tapping. He sees a night-mare in which ihe falls from a palm-tree and dies at the spot. He feels very disturbed he went to his friend Tabasco, but he does attend him actively. He is an adventurous fellow and undergows different adventurous things. He, sees all the problems caused by imperialism in his unconsciousness, he sees all the cruelties and atrocities implied upon the slave nation by the despotic tulers. He sees himself in a snake's hole and fed with horrible and nasty things. He sees the real face of imperialism with all its terrors or horrors. As he climbed his first tree he fell down and seemingly died. He seemed to enter into another strange world, where he had a lot of horrible and miserable experiences. The Tapster stared at the signboard without comprehension. Further he noticed a strange cluster of palm-trees. He rode through thick cobwebs in order to reach them. The smell of their green bark intoxicated him. The morning sun struck him with an oblique glare when branches of the palm-tree receded from him. It was the first time he had fallen in thirty years, to oath Ga, - finish his labour, when he reached the area drilling for oil and there vi el Company was in a be persecuted”. He sav cong eeu’ saving, “Trespassers will - Strange things. He saw three turtles; one of which had Tabasco’s face. ‘Th i i - The most surprising thing - was that he woke up and found that he had been multiplied This made his eyes itch and si ‘cemed a curious preparation for saw i eyes with cobwebs. The Tapstet the oe Planted dynamite round the forest area. After people being’ shot a a thick green smoke. The tapster s robberies, In the , Coups, in secret executions, in arme coloured snake two" environment he saw the multi- alligators in a ke gad found a capstone image. He s@¥ “ke of bubbling green water, ‘The multi-coloured ‘Scanned wih CamScanner | oie snake uncoiled itself from the soa Tapster ate the snake slid over The snake laughed. ridiculous, the Tapster laughed as well. Some voices seemed to talk nonsense. And at night a creature that smelt of rotting agapanthus came and copulated with him, leaving him with the grotesque eggs of their nights together. The Tapster was unable to escape this calamity. Then he heard a Yoice saying, *you have been dead for two days. Wake up...’ He sces people being caught and executed and shot. There was fire around but without smoke. The voice again came and said “It’s getting too late, Wake up.” Invisible knocks fell on him. After the knocks had stopped the Tapster relieved himself of the mighty sneeze. When he sneezed the monstrous eggs exploded. Green liquids spewed out from the borehole and blew away the snake, the signboard, and the turtles, Later on, the Tapster saw the horrors of a war -a war against the despotic imperialistic powers. He visualized "poverty," “collapse of bridges," "roads", "malarial swamps", "crecks without names", "human skeletons" and "mindless accidents." He saw dogs turning into “ghommids" that ate up lonely travellers etc. Tapster saw an old man who had died in a sitting position while reading a bible upside down. The man looked exactly like him, The Tapster then felt that he was being awakened by the turtle that had Tabasco's face. Actually Tobasco had Teached the place and was now trying to retrieve his friend who had fallen down from the tall pine tree and diced. He had lain dead for seven days and had seen all that night-mare about imperialism. Tabasco, with his medicines, was trying to save the life of the tapster. He produced some incense and threw into the nostrils of the Tapster. The Tapster revived! He came to life once again. That tells us about the fact that a slave nation can rise if they utilize their old traditions and let them work in the most proper order! The story is a scathing Satire on imperialism. Ben Okri has made use of the technique Of caricaturing like Jonathan swift in Gulliver’s Travels. It is also an allegorical story. pstone image. While, the and began to tell him bad jokes. Partly because the snake looked so ‘Scanned wih CamScanner Atrocities of Imperialism Q. Discuss Atrocities of Imperialism. The story "What the Tapster Saw" throws light on the atrocities committed by the imperialism. The story has been written in an implied and symbolic way. The Tapster is the member of a slave African nation tied tightly in the clutches of imperialistic powers. Once, the Tapster fell down from a palm tree and died at the spot. Yet he was senseless by the sudden fall. During the next week he remained in a coma, or remained *p240QNsolasbyat a place. At the end of the week he was bought to sense by his herbalist friend, Tobasco. He saw a long vision, rather a nightmare, about different social atrocities of imperialistic powers. In his dream he made "a mark" on the trunk of tree and suddenly it tumed into "a fully festered wound." There was a river, a snake lived beside the river in a bore hole. The colourful snake sometimes went inside the river and changed the form of the river water. It showed the poisonous nature of imperials. The miserable condition of the slave nation had been symbolically presented in the story through the miseries of protagonist he says, He said: “When he was hungry, another creature which he couldn't see, miilipsdee aad tai aa mess of pulped chameleons, him a baking calabash of wreen Hier y ene Creature gave " Of green liquid. And then later at night another creature, which smelt of Tottin; above him, copulated with hi "8 agapanthus, crept » im and left him the grotesque eggs of their nights together.” The "next hare represented by "eggs". generation” had been Later, he saw the havo; . es of war. He saw " ” “collapse of bridges," "malarial swamps" wereeke end names,” “hills without measurements" “human skeletons,” “mindless accidents," "dog" that t ° ‘at “turned into ids that swallowed up lovely and unfortified travelers" ering song te ‘Scanned wih CamScanner During his Senselessness Eve TY great misery of imperialism is that it changes the very mental structure and psychology of the subjected nation. First of all, it knocks away the old traditional thoughts of the Subjected nation and then it installs the new ideology of its own liking. While under the yoke of imperialism, even explicitly true becomes false. When the turtle with Tobasco's face uttered "There are six moons tonight," the imperialistic snake "lifting up its head" cried out: "There are seven moons tonight." Tobasco, his best to wake him up and brought him to his senses. At last, he was successful in his attempts. The lapster, after along coma of six days and seven nights, came to his senses again, during his long senselessness, the Tapster became able to visualize the hovacs and atrocities of imperialism. eee ‘Scanned wih CemScanner = A quanced Critical Studies in Short Stories 68 eaten 10. What the Tapster Saw Ben Okri Summary The story is about a skilled tapster who is also well- known is in area due to his work. One night he dreams that he has died..On the other day, he goes to his friend Tabasco who isaherbalist. Tabarsco does not pay heed to his words due to his work and asks him to come next day with three turtles, then he would give him a suggestion to solve his problem. The tapster, on the next day, collects his tools and (goes to the forest to begin his day's work. On the way, he {reads a signboard of a Delta oil company that: ' “This area is being drilled. Trespassers in danger .. | Then he sees a cluster of palm trees. He immediately ‘brings out his ftope and proceeds to climb. As the golden light explodes in his eyes, the branches of the plam-tree recede Vfrom him. It is for the first time he has fallen in thirty years. 4 When tapster awakes, surprisingly, he. does not feel any pain rather he feels himself light and airy. Now, he feels that he is in a strange land and he sees fireflies who are ‘darting into his nose and ears and reemerge from his eyes |with their undimmed lights. He once again, sees the signboard of “Delta Oil ‘Company’ with the words: “Trespassers will be persecuted”. At that land, he sees very strange things such as he ‘Sees three turtles. One of them has a tabasco's face. Then he’ Sees a multi-coloured snake which emerges from a borehole ps slithers past him. lero Another strange thing happens there. When he looks | wn he sees that he has multiplied, That land is without | "set and sunrise.’ Another creature comes and lay eggs | ~ ‘Scanned with CamScanner i | 64 MBD Advanced Studies in English Literature there. He seems unable to escape. Those eggs start to torment him as there is horrible inside them. Then he hears a voice after a knock: . “You have been dead for two days. Wake up . But in the mean while, a creature comes and stuffs his eyes with cobwebs. He sees people being shot and executed. The sky is without birds. There aré multi-coloured snakes and { Alligators in green water. Things seem on fire but without | smoke. Then he sees a dead man who is exactly like him. | Time beating becomes very difficult for him. Simultaneously, he feels a knocking. The tapster does not like the place and wants to leave it immediately. Then he hears a voice which advises him to lead a well balanced life. L Then, once again, he feels knocking. At this time, he opens his eyes and finds Tabasco and other people near him. Tabasco tells him that he has been dead for last seven days | and now they were just going to bury him. hy Character Sketch of Tapster The Tapster is the central character of the story. He is tz the representative of the whole human race on a very strange |fy land. Tapster is a skilled man who goes to forests and collects wine from pine trees. He eams a reasonable livelihood. Tapster to some extent resembles “Gulliver's Travels” Gulliver. Ln Tapster is a heavy drunkard. Therefore, he loved his! profession and works wholeheartedly. I One night, Tapster dreams and feels as if he has died. He tells his friends Tabasco about his dream. Tabasco is herbalist. by profession and he asks him to come with thre? turtles the next day. Next day, he falls a victim to an acci by falling from a pine tree. Then he goes to a strange land and finds a signboard from “Delta Oil company” written like this: “The area is drilled. The trespessers in danger”. cane fixed signboard prevents him to move ahead mes a transgressor by advancing ahead. He is ET ht he be ‘Scanned wih CamScanner wm i sppnsed Cel Studies in Short Stories gg and adventurous by nature and moves forward to visit the grange land. The tapster appears a timid and chicken-hearted fellow throughout thi it i profound than the tapster. All the animals appear wise. That's why the tapster is attracted and impressed at every gesture of thesnakes?. - : Tapster is the spokeman of the author's philosophy of life. Who wants to highlight the weaknesses and follies of the people. Tapster is not a scholar type and a learned person but | the tapster is a human being first of all who is a supreme creature of God. That's why it is expected that he should be | wise and a possessor of insight and depth. Tapster should | -have understood the Purpose of his creation and play its role t Positively in life’s drama. f Theme of the Story The theme of the story is the lust of human beings. The | Message of the author, Ben Okri, has been conveyed through | the voice of the Tapster. | Ben Okri talks about fire which'does not burn but | dissolves the flesh like common salt. In fact, he talks about fire Of lust which really does not burn but keeps a Person restless P and keeps dissolving his flesh with the passage of time, Then he says: . 5 “The bigger mouth eats the smaller head .., " , So, it is quite true that every great. mass exploits the® | Smaller ones. Strong people get more strong and Weaker | become the weakest. Every authoritative person tries to make People surrender by hook or by crook. The writer Says: «The wind blows back to us what we have blown | Bway’, ; © ’ ‘Scanned wih CamScanner MBD Advanced Studies in English Literatur, \ Okri tries to téach a moral lesson that is own coin. He seems to believe inthe / 66 Actually, Ben everyone is paid in hl moral message: “AS you SOW, SO shall you reap”. f He maintains that one should treat people kindy 9 because one will get reward according to one's deeds ang ff doings. Further, the writer says that it is not true that disaster comes suddenly rather a particular sound indicates trouble in coming. The story “What that tapster saw” is a kind of scathing satire on human beings. Ben Okri has followed swift's technique which has been used by him in “Gulliver's Travels’, Ben Okri appears a little bit like a misanthrope like swift. Swift in his third voyage gives importance to animals than that of human beings. Like Swift, Ben Okri has made human beings dead in the fire of lust. He also caricatures man in the form of turtles because Tabasco’s faced turtle who appears very funny. Tabasco has glasses on his nose and a stethoscope around his neck. He further adds that: ‘The turtles broke a Kola -nut, divided it amongst themselves and discussed gravely like scholar without a text”. Tapster represents the wholé human race on that land. When the turtles start urinating to the direction of tapster, is \> another humiliating action for ost pitiable situation occurs when tapster. But the most PI i tapster hi hing on this ugly action. Tapster dooy ny himself starts laughing , l0es not take this action seriously. The laughing Pa human beings senselessness by tapsters . Pungent sati s by the voiog saya" Sati on the humain beings is evident wher "f Why? Be cue to leave, we will have to beat you out. you human beings only understand pain”. Apparently, th nea face, there ic StctY Seems to be funny but petal 4 'S a serou: in it. The at IS message in It. onthe human beings are condemned y © Voices says: > the su ‘Scanned wih CamScanner sdoanced Critical Studies in Short Stories én "You humans are so slow — you walk two thousand ‘years behind yourselves” So, the expectation of Ben Okri, on the part of human peings is that they should behave wisely ana profoundly Fagainst the heavy odds of life.. Human beings are the best creation -of God and they must understand purpo: e of their existence. ; e _ ‘Scanned with CamScanner 07 Ben Okri (1958 - ) LIFE-SITUATIONS & LITERARY CAREER Birth and Parentage Ben Okri is a Nigerian poet and novelist. Ben Okri was born on 15 March 1959 in Minna, Nigeria, to an Igbo mother, Grace, and an Urhobo father, Silver. Okri's father, then a railway station clerk, soon lett for England to study law. The rest of the family joined him shortly Atterwards, Despite young Ben's protestations, the Okris returned to Lagos in 1965, where Silver Okri set up law’ practice. Okri’s father practiced in Lagos among those who could not afford normal legal fees - this later gave material for the author's fiction. Okri childhood was shadowed by the Nigerian civil war (the Biafran War). While Ben Okri seldom reveals details about his childhood (unless perhaps his early memories Gf the Civil War) saying he'd “rather reserve that for the complex manipulations of memory that only fiction ean provide’, he has extensively commented on his literary influences. They range from the African tales and legends his parents used to tell him to the European authors whose works he found in his father's library: Arstotle, Plato, Shakespeare, Dickens, Twain, Ibsen, Chekhov an Altion mathe ne others. This double heritage, the intermingling © ths and European sources, and the later influence 0! contemporary African wri eens for orary 4 Titers, we spirations {o' Ben Okri's work Te to become major inspiral Education Be i . vi his family tes Needed pamary school in London but returned wit! ‘withdrawn from een weet Seven. When he was constantly beité home in Lagos nario schools he continued his education largely + aU a paint store, Henge ishing his high school Okri worked as 2 “le " cles on a ‘o get a place at the university and started When howd Political issues. Most of them were Y found readers in we Tote Short stories based on these article 1 1578 On ” Women’s journals and evening papers. i , Ure at Essex rived, t© England where he studied comparat “*sity. This period was difficult in Oks! litera Bias 6 a ‘Scanned wih CamScanner 7—Ben Okri he wrote, slept occasionally on office floors and was forced to leave without taking a degree because lack of funds. He was poctry editor for West Africa magazine between 1983 and 1986 and broadcast regularly for the BBC World Service between 1983 and 19085. He was appointed Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College Cambridge in 1991, a post he held until 1993. He became a Fellow of the Royal Socicty of Literature in 1987. Honours and Awards _ His best known work, The Famished Road, wi arded the 1991 Booker Prize. He has also won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Africa, the Aga Khan Prize for Ficti was given a Crystal Award by the World Economie Forum. He is also a Pcllow of the Royal Society of Literature. kri is Vice-President of the English Centre for the International PEN, an association of writers w1 branches in over :0¢ utries. He is also g member of the Unite Kingdom's Royal National Thestre. He lives in London, He | received honorary doctorates from the University of Westminster (1997) and the University of Es 2002), and was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) in 2001 Literary Career The novels, poems and essavs of the Nigerian-bors author Ben Okri offer a challenge to received notions of literary convention and form. At the age of nineteen he completed his first nov lowers end Shadows (1980), about a successte! businessman whose. j relatives miake his life difficult. The story writ in th tradition of realism. er the publication ot his first novei, Okri b risen to an international acclaim, and he Africa’s gre . Okri’s second nove G98i), traced the adventures ef a young a “Ghetto-dwellers are the great famta, vas an extraordinary vibrancy there oor, all you've got left is ly accepts his s ; stories was selected by Peter Ackroyd Fictio . Th ollowed by two collections ¢ Incidents at the Shrine (14986) and Stars of the New C: which Oksi started to experiment with new nar Several of the stories dealt with the Biafran War, s Point of view. lous 1984, The narrative structure of Songs of Enchantment ( Next novel, was simpler than in The Famished Road. bis te develop the author's mythical and puetical view 1993}. Okr ie onc ‘Scanned wih CamScanner Short Stories of the World fine poet, with 4 iter tone % ects in his.collection 4n -\frican | ley y (1992) are dreams, st snd the legacy of e¢ sonialisnr. He describes a nation which “ceased : fecomnect ‘The fou) of the spirits’, “The soldiers and Politicians ases and guns / And celebrations on city nighto jer). But he also celebrates love in the shado, ter: T your face / Where be uty is threatened / Wit violence / Roseate in the evening's / Chimerical murders’, Ang The Poet Declares’: ‘Let the music irtadiate my spirit / And J shall travel farther than allowed / to find the gifts of the new / ligh An African Elegy (1992) was a collection of poems with the classical themes of love, solitude, and death. . emerged / With brie (On Falae of Time of d } In response to reports of the Sudanese famine, Okri published in 1993 in the Guardian the short story A Prayer for the Living in order to generate funds to donate to relief charities. Okri say hungrier 1 became, the more I saw them - my old friends died before me. clutching on to flies. Now, they feed on the light of the air. And they look at us - the living - with so much pity and compassion in their eves.” Dangerous Love (1996) was about artistic crisis of Gmovo. He has a doomed affair with Ifeviwa, a married woman. Tfeviwa's husband is violent and she dreams of cutting his throat with a knite, Government officials seize Omovo's painting from an exhibition, he is haunted by an image of a murdered girl, and he feels afraid of painting, In ugliness, Omovo says, “we sce OUrseh'es a8 ee Sant 10." Omovo resigns from his poorly: paid work at am office - he feels free and decides never to work in an organization Ohare eni4 dies on her way back to her village. /n Arcadia (2002) Pens yenth work fi fiction, was a disappointment to Helen Bow stoned sixth fore ette “s In Arcadia reads tike the ramblings o! Sixt former”, she wrote in her review on 20 Getober, 2002: , MAJOR WORKS « Flowers and Shadows Okri’s first novel Longman in 1980, and Nigeria's corrupt society: Part of. The story is, Okey j wr the city of Lagos, and Flowers and Shadows, was published by features a teenager's disillusionment YT \which, as he discovers, his own father "ats, “not autobiographical at all” I Parents, a is is about Jeffi ild to well © Jetta sting Docks Of Passage into adult ie the took opens vik the ildten torturing’ one friend's house and coming actoss 2 8F'tp e reader, The chi 8) this scene j. je a horril torturing it, The mldren are holding the ees back legs Tail tithe book, revue ePeets Jeffia to reseae tite dos, This HaPP ne the readers own emnoqn # Reed for a relief, very cleve! ions. , ee. ‘Scanned with CamScanner 7—Ben Okri 71 nn After Jeffia has rescued the dog, he takes him home, and all is well until a few days have passed, and his mother points out at advertisement in a local paper, for the return of the missing anuine! This is where the book tal twist, as the owner of the dog, turns ont to be the mistress of his wealthy step father, his own father hing died in poverty whilst he was still a very young child The book fail of very clever twists bke this And this is why it is such ¢ appeal hook, there's always something which the reader didn't quite seo the first time around. Later in the story, Jeffia as a young man i8 drinz home and comes across Cynthia, a nurse fron: the local hospital In het, he sees the porsoni { goodness: she + kneeling acre dying body of one emplove Ws taken circle, as she as froma very, poor ba hes ini been dese with hordship. In her, a stren, he has nev it emt Jong bets, are entwined a With every chapter the + from corruption to intrigue. soves from fear to happiness, here truly isn't a dull moment in-the book. The book is full o et, at the same time there is a darkness and mystery. It ling from murder, corruption, death, loneliness, to pasion, romance and happiness. The Famished Road foed (1991) was Okri's literary tour de forre and ize. The stury is seton the eve of independence of > rator is Avaro, a “spirit-child,” an alnku.a famist i baby of ambiguous existence, whe jy destined to die in infaney anda Teborn to the same mother over and over again. Okri d cbs. Aaare's struggie to resist his fate ond to survive with be tame hunger, disease, and violence. The story t: simaltaneousiy situated in the orld of dream, of those waiting to be born, of dead. Azare's Spiit-companions are constantly trying to-pull him hack inte their World. Avaro's father undergoes a series of mythic battles and h mother keeps the family together with her courage and hard work The sinister shaman Madame Koto, whose bat Azars degenerates with her corfupt deals. Azaro therchy becomes a symbol Of the writer's imagination, his duty to depict the chaotic stor (that is by implication an extended parable ! Nigeria). An animating conception witi the world is full of riddles that only the dead can answer’: constant interchange between humans and spirits, grot: and tr. ations; the dead walk again, often « nimal forms. His fiction also harks ba; mediate pre-Independence era, in ve: to the im! ‘Scanned wih CamScanner Short Stories of the World n $ 2 NTN ntree.

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