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The Freedom Artist
An impassioned plea for freedom and justice, set in a world uncomfortably like our own, by the Booker Prize-winner Ben Okri.
In a world uncomfortably like our own, a young woman called Amalantis is arrested for asking a question. Her question is this: Who is the Prisoner?
When Amalantis disappears, her lover Karnak goes looking for her. He searches desperately at first, then with a growing realization that to find Amalantis, he must first understand the meaning of her question.
Karnak’s search leads him into a terrifying world of deception, oppression, and fear at the heart of which lies the prison. Then Karnak discovers that he is not the only one looking for the truth.
The Freedom Artist is an impassioned plea for justice and a penetrating examination of how freedom is threatened in a post-truth society. In Ben Okri’s most significant novel since the Booker Prize–winning The Famished Road, he delivers a powerful and haunting call to arms.
In a world uncomfortably like our own, a young woman called Amalantis is arrested for asking a question. Her question is this: Who is the Prisoner?
When Amalantis disappears, her lover Karnak goes looking for her. He searches desperately at first, then with a growing realization that to find Amalantis, he must first understand the meaning of her question.
Karnak’s search leads him into a terrifying world of deception, oppression, and fear at the heart of which lies the prison. Then Karnak discovers that he is not the only one looking for the truth.
The Freedom Artist is an impassioned plea for justice and a penetrating examination of how freedom is threatened in a post-truth society. In Ben Okri’s most significant novel since the Booker Prize–winning The Famished Road, he delivers a powerful and haunting call to arms.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published February 7, 2019
About the author
Ben Okri
79 books882 followersPoet and novelist Ben Okri was born in 1959 in Minna, northern Nigeria, to an Igbo mother and Urhobo father. He grew up in London before returning to Nigeria with his family in 1968. Much of his early fiction explores the political violence that he witnessed at first hand during the civil war in Nigeria. He left the country when a grant from the Nigerian government enabled him to read Comparative Literature at Essex University in England.
He was poetry editor for West Africa magazine between 1983 and 1986 and broadcast regularly for the BBC World Service between 1983 and 1985. 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 Society of Literature in 1987, and was awarded honorary doctorates from the universities of Westminster (1997) and Essex (2002).
His first two novels, Flowers and Shadows (1980) and The Landscapes Within (1981), are both set in Nigeria and feature as central characters two young men struggling to make sense of the disintegration and chaos happening in both their family and country. The two collections of stories that followed, Incidents at the Shrine (1986) and Stars of the New Curfew (1988), are set in Lagos and London.
In 1991 Okri was awarded the Booker Prize for Fiction for his novel The Famished Road (1991). Set in a Nigerian village, this is the first in a trilogy of novels which tell the story of Azaro, a spirit child. Azaro's narrative is continued in Songs of Enchantment (1993) and Infinite Riches (1998). Other recent fiction includes Astonishing the Gods (1995) and Dangerous Love (1996), which was awarded the Premio Palmi (Italy) in 2000. His latest novels are In Arcadia (2002) and Starbook (2007).
A collection of poems, An African Elegy, was published in 1992, and an epic poem, Mental Flight, in 1999. A collection of essays, A Way of Being Free, was published in 1997. Ben Okri is also the author of a play, In Exilus.
In his latest book, Tales of Freedom (2009), Okri brings together poetry and story.
Ben Okri is a Vice-President of the English Centre of International PEN, a member of the board of the Royal National Theatre, and was awarded an OBE in 2001. He lives in London.
He was poetry editor for West Africa magazine between 1983 and 1986 and broadcast regularly for the BBC World Service between 1983 and 1985. 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 Society of Literature in 1987, and was awarded honorary doctorates from the universities of Westminster (1997) and Essex (2002).
His first two novels, Flowers and Shadows (1980) and The Landscapes Within (1981), are both set in Nigeria and feature as central characters two young men struggling to make sense of the disintegration and chaos happening in both their family and country. The two collections of stories that followed, Incidents at the Shrine (1986) and Stars of the New Curfew (1988), are set in Lagos and London.
In 1991 Okri was awarded the Booker Prize for Fiction for his novel The Famished Road (1991). Set in a Nigerian village, this is the first in a trilogy of novels which tell the story of Azaro, a spirit child. Azaro's narrative is continued in Songs of Enchantment (1993) and Infinite Riches (1998). Other recent fiction includes Astonishing the Gods (1995) and Dangerous Love (1996), which was awarded the Premio Palmi (Italy) in 2000. His latest novels are In Arcadia (2002) and Starbook (2007).
A collection of poems, An African Elegy, was published in 1992, and an epic poem, Mental Flight, in 1999. A collection of essays, A Way of Being Free, was published in 1997. Ben Okri is also the author of a play, In Exilus.
In his latest book, Tales of Freedom (2009), Okri brings together poetry and story.
Ben Okri is a Vice-President of the English Centre of International PEN, a member of the board of the Royal National Theatre, and was awarded an OBE in 2001. He lives in London.
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March 6, 2019
The story is set in a dystopian world where books have disappeared for a long time. The people are encouraged to be average, sad and unthinking. So far it sounds familiarly Orwellian but it diverges from Orwell's1984 in several ways. For example, the government called Hierarchy is just as disorderly, desperate and illusive as the underground movement named “underground” (puzzlingly non-capitalised). There are one or two side stories but the main plot is about Karnak trying to find out whether it was the Hierarchy or the underground that abducted his girlfriend and why. We hardly know much of either because of the surrealist or magical realist nature of this novel.
Permeating the entire novel is a sense of knowing but not knowing. Information that does not inform. For example, we are told that the “underground” has “nothing to do with political resistance”, “witchcraft”, “spirits”, “crime syndicates”, or “Egyptian underworld”, even though the underground seems to be resisting the Hierarchy, and a boy presumably of the underground movement is buried in a sarcophagus in a subterranean crypt inside a “pyramid-shaped mountain” for a ritual.
The novel reads like a dream or a fable. Dreams and myths are both also major recurring elements of this novel. It is revealed that most people in the world are sleeping. As the story progresses, dream encroaches on reality. There are many dreams and otherworldly experiences the nature of which the characters themselves are uncertain of. However, this isn’t one of those postmodernist novels that use stream of consciousness heavily in a way that hinders literal comprehension. The language of this novel is very simple. You would have no problem understanding the words but why the characters say certain things is not easy to grasp.
There are references to many other fables or stories. For instance, there’s a part where a boy climbs up a tall ladder into another land where he talks to a colossus, which resembles Jack and the Beanstalk IMO. Central to the story is the “old myth”. This book begins with “it is written in the oldest legend of the land that all humans are born in prison”. However, “new myths” are created. One of them is a revision of the “myth of prison” to a “myth of garden”. The elaboration of this myth evidently parallel the biblical story of Adam and Eve, which I find rather daring.
This novel certainly holds a postmodern perception of the world as something heavily mediated by narratives, myths, stories none of which is the single truth, but all of which simultaneously reveal and conceal the Truth. In fact, I believe this to be the primary message of this novel especially considering the metafictional ending that is well-executed, albeit predictable. Another clue lies in the frequent mentions of rose that seems incongruous with the dystopia. It very much reminds me of the novel, The Name of the Rose, the title of which, according to the author, alludes to the nature of "rose" as an overused "sign" that symbolises too many abstract concepts. Rose in this novel is a sign of the underground and a father says “in these times, all we can do is be a sign”, to the puzzlement of his daughter.
This novel is a “sign” that hints strongly to multiple interpretations, yet one can't say for sure that it is any because it is many. This book is definitely not everyone’s cup of tea. If you enjoy postmodernist, magical realist or experimental novel, then I highly recommend it. I think this is also a good novel for anyone interested in a quirky, weird, magical story. Also, you are looking for an *African* novel like I did, then you might be surprised by this book. Africa and African cultures are not prominent. Ben Okri said in an interview that he wishes there to be African writings that are "received purely as writing" and not "prefixed" as "African".
The novel has an interesting format. It is divided into 6 “books” each consisting of numerous chapters marked with big numbers on the top. Many chapters are only one-page or half-a-page long. It’s also as if the words are imprisoned. It lends the book to fast reading and easy navigation. It has so many chapters you almost don’t need a bookmark.
*A proof copy was provided by Pansing Distribution in exchange for an honest review
Permeating the entire novel is a sense of knowing but not knowing. Information that does not inform. For example, we are told that the “underground” has “nothing to do with political resistance”, “witchcraft”, “spirits”, “crime syndicates”, or “Egyptian underworld”, even though the underground seems to be resisting the Hierarchy, and a boy presumably of the underground movement is buried in a sarcophagus in a subterranean crypt inside a “pyramid-shaped mountain” for a ritual.
The novel reads like a dream or a fable. Dreams and myths are both also major recurring elements of this novel. It is revealed that most people in the world are sleeping. As the story progresses, dream encroaches on reality. There are many dreams and otherworldly experiences the nature of which the characters themselves are uncertain of. However, this isn’t one of those postmodernist novels that use stream of consciousness heavily in a way that hinders literal comprehension. The language of this novel is very simple. You would have no problem understanding the words but why the characters say certain things is not easy to grasp.
There are references to many other fables or stories. For instance, there’s a part where a boy climbs up a tall ladder into another land where he talks to a colossus, which resembles Jack and the Beanstalk IMO. Central to the story is the “old myth”. This book begins with “it is written in the oldest legend of the land that all humans are born in prison”. However, “new myths” are created. One of them is a revision of the “myth of prison” to a “myth of garden”. The elaboration of this myth evidently parallel the biblical story of Adam and Eve, which I find rather daring.
This novel certainly holds a postmodern perception of the world as something heavily mediated by narratives, myths, stories none of which is the single truth, but all of which simultaneously reveal and conceal the Truth. In fact, I believe this to be the primary message of this novel especially considering the metafictional ending that is well-executed, albeit predictable. Another clue lies in the frequent mentions of rose that seems incongruous with the dystopia. It very much reminds me of the novel, The Name of the Rose, the title of which, according to the author, alludes to the nature of "rose" as an overused "sign" that symbolises too many abstract concepts. Rose in this novel is a sign of the underground and a father says “in these times, all we can do is be a sign”, to the puzzlement of his daughter.
This novel is a “sign” that hints strongly to multiple interpretations, yet one can't say for sure that it is any because it is many. This book is definitely not everyone’s cup of tea. If you enjoy postmodernist, magical realist or experimental novel, then I highly recommend it. I think this is also a good novel for anyone interested in a quirky, weird, magical story. Also, you are looking for an *African* novel like I did, then you might be surprised by this book. Africa and African cultures are not prominent. Ben Okri said in an interview that he wishes there to be African writings that are "received purely as writing" and not "prefixed" as "African".
The novel has an interesting format. It is divided into 6 “books” each consisting of numerous chapters marked with big numbers on the top. Many chapters are only one-page or half-a-page long. It’s also as if the words are imprisoned. It lends the book to fast reading and easy navigation. It has so many chapters you almost don’t need a bookmark.
*A proof copy was provided by Pansing Distribution in exchange for an honest review
February 23, 2019
Can a book start a revolution? Ben Okri’s The Freedom Artist certainly intends to.
The novel is an ardent entreaty to every single person in the world, an appeal to let go of their meaningless lives and rebel against expected but often nonsensical societal norms. Okri stands in the midst of an increasingly chaotic, mechanical, empty universe--zealously trying to transform it back to its pure and blissful form. The novel demands, almost screams for, an examined life nourished by philosophy and mindfulness.
It is a pleasure to join this effort, purely because of the way Okri writes.
This description of a reader plunging into a river inside a book, for example: “It was a luminous river, its banks undulating. They went sailing in a boat with a red sail. He read to her lines from the river, lines that became flowers on the shore, lines that became fishes.”
He writes with words we are all familiar with, have used hundreds of times, yet in his hands, these humdrum letters twist and form unnervingly beautiful shapes. The simplicity, artlessness and musicality of the style are what we read Okri for--it is a dip in a fresh, clear, blue pool. The language is primordial, what we sensed in our mothers’ wombs and never after.
The idea behind the novel is rooted in history. In a world that is eerily similar to ours, where everyone is engrossed in their own trivialities, a number of young people begin to notice things they should not. They realise the world is flawed, stifling, sinister. As soon as they understand this and begin seeking ways to return to their past, their lives are in danger. Okri follows three of these rebellious citizens in their desperate quest to extricate themselves from the prison-like world.
We travel with these three dissidents, who keep hearing of their world as it was in inception, an unadulterated and sovereign space. The more we learn of their world, the more we are reminded of the debauchery of our own. We liken their sleepwalkers to our own people who are merely ticking off boxes; their fierce cannibalistic police to our own perilous armed services; their forced silences to the censorship clamped by the state; the ‘hierarchy’ ruling them to authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. All this while, the protagonists--Karnak, Mirababa and Ruslana--keep clawing their way out of their dystopian surrounds.
It is almost a replication of Plato’s famous cave. The one in which people live chained to the wall of a cave and stare at the shadows flickering on the wall in front of them, considering this to be their only reality. They are unaware of the world that exists outside the cave and are unwilling to think of it either. This shadow cave is where we now live, the novel reminds us in every other page. There is also an allegory of the forbidden fruit and the disappearance of the Garden of Eden. After the loss of that mythical garden, people have lived tormented lives that are more burden than privilege.
The novel brings this deplorable life to the fore in ways familiar and strange, thought-provoking and laughable. “In the olden days there was beauty, or religion, or myth. But we are modern and we are bored with beauty, we are sick of religion, and we’ve sorted out the old myths,” says an artist. “God left us a long time ago.”
In this godless world, teaching causes damage, ignorance is deified, people trade honest craft for hollow fame, a fear of arguments and confrontations makes everyone agree to everything, people sleep through their days, a mass hysteria spreads over societies, and everyone breathes suspicion. The anxiety of postmodern humans, their secret fears and worries, their constant fear of ‘missing out’ yet striving to be ‘mindful’--the novel sneers at them.
A description of a typical person living in this world, from Karnak: “He had looked at people and had seen paleness of skin and dullness of eyes. Sarcasm had become permanent and cynicism had left its dryness on their features. Gloom, misery, fear, and resentment were stamped on their faces. He had seen crowds marked for death and whole families marked for disappearance. He had seen pretty girls marked for madness. There was not a single face that was not doomed in some way.”
It is a startling revelation for even the most hardened mind, the vicissitude that our world has fallen prey to, the need to rethink and refocus if we are to squeeze ourselves out of this hallucination, the urgent need to be self-aware. It is a fervent exhortation for us to find our way out of the lives we are faking, to discover a charmed world that might seem out of reach, but is ours for the asking. Almost like a self-help book.
And yet, it isn’t enough.
The attempt to jolt us out of our comfort zone is heartfelt; the results, not quite so. The writer frequently enters (and invites his readers to step into) a meditative state, a Zen-like stupor that some readers will be delighted to follow, but will leave others confounded.
Okri spends almost all his time agonising and protesting against the chains of this world, which are clothed as satire and cynicism. Even though the style often leaves you in a trance, there is nothing novel here. The author has displayed the enchantment of his words in two dozen works, it is expected and treasured. His experimentations with magic realism, his elaborate literary devices and the flow of his words have all been lauded multiple times. But what then of the plot? It is certainly a sobering and cautionary tale, but nothing justifies its length and overflow. It seems a lengthy and passive-aggressive way to direct people to take control of their own lives.
There is a tiresome back-and-forth among characters who do little than repeat the others’ words, sometimes adding one of their own at the end. It is inauthentic and pretentious. At points, there is only gibberish, which might make sense in the author’s mind but add little to the story and substance. They, instead, take away from the gravity of the work. There are a tad too many mysteries sans explanations or follow-ups, which render them useless. The idea of the utopian world and a savior who will lead humans to it is also overkill. A ‘warrior king’ in a ‘star-spangled chariot’ is a laughable idea in this particular work. There are symbols that do not weave naturally into the narrative, like the rose, which seems like a forced afterthought.
With so many loopholes and inconsistencies, The Freedom Artist remains a mere shadow of the powerful rebel song that it could have been. The saving grace is its otherworldly language, which quenches a deep satisfaction in Okri’s admirers.
First published here: https://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/n...
The novel is an ardent entreaty to every single person in the world, an appeal to let go of their meaningless lives and rebel against expected but often nonsensical societal norms. Okri stands in the midst of an increasingly chaotic, mechanical, empty universe--zealously trying to transform it back to its pure and blissful form. The novel demands, almost screams for, an examined life nourished by philosophy and mindfulness.
It is a pleasure to join this effort, purely because of the way Okri writes.
This description of a reader plunging into a river inside a book, for example: “It was a luminous river, its banks undulating. They went sailing in a boat with a red sail. He read to her lines from the river, lines that became flowers on the shore, lines that became fishes.”
He writes with words we are all familiar with, have used hundreds of times, yet in his hands, these humdrum letters twist and form unnervingly beautiful shapes. The simplicity, artlessness and musicality of the style are what we read Okri for--it is a dip in a fresh, clear, blue pool. The language is primordial, what we sensed in our mothers’ wombs and never after.
The idea behind the novel is rooted in history. In a world that is eerily similar to ours, where everyone is engrossed in their own trivialities, a number of young people begin to notice things they should not. They realise the world is flawed, stifling, sinister. As soon as they understand this and begin seeking ways to return to their past, their lives are in danger. Okri follows three of these rebellious citizens in their desperate quest to extricate themselves from the prison-like world.
We travel with these three dissidents, who keep hearing of their world as it was in inception, an unadulterated and sovereign space. The more we learn of their world, the more we are reminded of the debauchery of our own. We liken their sleepwalkers to our own people who are merely ticking off boxes; their fierce cannibalistic police to our own perilous armed services; their forced silences to the censorship clamped by the state; the ‘hierarchy’ ruling them to authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. All this while, the protagonists--Karnak, Mirababa and Ruslana--keep clawing their way out of their dystopian surrounds.
It is almost a replication of Plato’s famous cave. The one in which people live chained to the wall of a cave and stare at the shadows flickering on the wall in front of them, considering this to be their only reality. They are unaware of the world that exists outside the cave and are unwilling to think of it either. This shadow cave is where we now live, the novel reminds us in every other page. There is also an allegory of the forbidden fruit and the disappearance of the Garden of Eden. After the loss of that mythical garden, people have lived tormented lives that are more burden than privilege.
The novel brings this deplorable life to the fore in ways familiar and strange, thought-provoking and laughable. “In the olden days there was beauty, or religion, or myth. But we are modern and we are bored with beauty, we are sick of religion, and we’ve sorted out the old myths,” says an artist. “God left us a long time ago.”
In this godless world, teaching causes damage, ignorance is deified, people trade honest craft for hollow fame, a fear of arguments and confrontations makes everyone agree to everything, people sleep through their days, a mass hysteria spreads over societies, and everyone breathes suspicion. The anxiety of postmodern humans, their secret fears and worries, their constant fear of ‘missing out’ yet striving to be ‘mindful’--the novel sneers at them.
A description of a typical person living in this world, from Karnak: “He had looked at people and had seen paleness of skin and dullness of eyes. Sarcasm had become permanent and cynicism had left its dryness on their features. Gloom, misery, fear, and resentment were stamped on their faces. He had seen crowds marked for death and whole families marked for disappearance. He had seen pretty girls marked for madness. There was not a single face that was not doomed in some way.”
It is a startling revelation for even the most hardened mind, the vicissitude that our world has fallen prey to, the need to rethink and refocus if we are to squeeze ourselves out of this hallucination, the urgent need to be self-aware. It is a fervent exhortation for us to find our way out of the lives we are faking, to discover a charmed world that might seem out of reach, but is ours for the asking. Almost like a self-help book.
And yet, it isn’t enough.
The attempt to jolt us out of our comfort zone is heartfelt; the results, not quite so. The writer frequently enters (and invites his readers to step into) a meditative state, a Zen-like stupor that some readers will be delighted to follow, but will leave others confounded.
Okri spends almost all his time agonising and protesting against the chains of this world, which are clothed as satire and cynicism. Even though the style often leaves you in a trance, there is nothing novel here. The author has displayed the enchantment of his words in two dozen works, it is expected and treasured. His experimentations with magic realism, his elaborate literary devices and the flow of his words have all been lauded multiple times. But what then of the plot? It is certainly a sobering and cautionary tale, but nothing justifies its length and overflow. It seems a lengthy and passive-aggressive way to direct people to take control of their own lives.
There is a tiresome back-and-forth among characters who do little than repeat the others’ words, sometimes adding one of their own at the end. It is inauthentic and pretentious. At points, there is only gibberish, which might make sense in the author’s mind but add little to the story and substance. They, instead, take away from the gravity of the work. There are a tad too many mysteries sans explanations or follow-ups, which render them useless. The idea of the utopian world and a savior who will lead humans to it is also overkill. A ‘warrior king’ in a ‘star-spangled chariot’ is a laughable idea in this particular work. There are symbols that do not weave naturally into the narrative, like the rose, which seems like a forced afterthought.
With so many loopholes and inconsistencies, The Freedom Artist remains a mere shadow of the powerful rebel song that it could have been. The saving grace is its otherworldly language, which quenches a deep satisfaction in Okri’s admirers.
First published here: https://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/n...
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February 22, 2020This is not for me. It’s a sort of fable or fairytale as a commentary on modern times. It made me think of The Alchemist, so if you enjoyed that book you may like this one more than I did. Read by the author and that’s a positive in this case since he has a lovely voice.
May 2, 2019
A book by Ben Okri is worth waiting for. This one is no exception. It is a meditation upon the role of mythology in our culture. But Okri is not the kind of author who would do this as an academic exercise. He creates a world, very much like ours, and builds its own mythology. He starts from the basis that the story of the Garden of Eden is an adaptation of a much earlier mythology of imprisonment, to make it more acceptable, more pleasant. This mythology of imprisonment holds that we are trapped in our bodies, in the world, in the universe and that we cannot escape even by death for that is just another form of entrapment. Like Prometheus, we are chained and can only escape from our torment by the intervention of another over whom we have no control. We can long for escape, we can pray for escape, but we can do nothing to bring about the intervention of the person who breaks our chains and sets us free. That is the thesis of this story.
Ben Okri very cleverly invents his own mythology. We do not know if we are in this world, or one that is very like it. We do not know if we are in the past, the present or the future. We know that we are in a world where strange things are happening. It seems likely that this is a world of the future affected by climate change, but we have no proof of that. We know that Mirababa is sent on a strange quest, a magical quest by his dying grandfather, with the command to “Go in” whatever that means. We know that Mirababa is going through a sort of Eleusinian Mystery as an initiate. But we do not know what he is expected to find, nor why it is important.
In Karnak’s case we know exactly who he is looking for. He is searching for Amalanta, his beloved, who has mysteriously disappeared, possibly arrested by the secret police of the Hierarchy, who are the government. Amalanta can best be described as enigmatic, which becomes more and more clear as Karnak remembers the strange questions that she kept asking him. As Karnak wanders, he discovers the mystery and strangeness of the place in which he lives. This is a world where the Hierarchy have deemed that books are unnecessary and dangerous. Karnak of course finds a library run by the daughter of a philosopher who had gone into hiding. He begins to piece together what is happening in his world. Then, the library disappears.
It is hardly surprising to find that the writer of “The Famished Road” creates a magical realist world, a world that creates mythologies because people need them and a world that has been created by these very mythologies. He asks some very pertinent questions about these mythologies. Is the Garden of Eden a place to which we should aspire to return? Or is it a prison from which we have escaped? What do our mythologies actually mean? What are they trying to tell us? How do we find the truth in ourselves?
Ben Okri very cleverly invents his own mythology. We do not know if we are in this world, or one that is very like it. We do not know if we are in the past, the present or the future. We know that we are in a world where strange things are happening. It seems likely that this is a world of the future affected by climate change, but we have no proof of that. We know that Mirababa is sent on a strange quest, a magical quest by his dying grandfather, with the command to “Go in” whatever that means. We know that Mirababa is going through a sort of Eleusinian Mystery as an initiate. But we do not know what he is expected to find, nor why it is important.
In Karnak’s case we know exactly who he is looking for. He is searching for Amalanta, his beloved, who has mysteriously disappeared, possibly arrested by the secret police of the Hierarchy, who are the government. Amalanta can best be described as enigmatic, which becomes more and more clear as Karnak remembers the strange questions that she kept asking him. As Karnak wanders, he discovers the mystery and strangeness of the place in which he lives. This is a world where the Hierarchy have deemed that books are unnecessary and dangerous. Karnak of course finds a library run by the daughter of a philosopher who had gone into hiding. He begins to piece together what is happening in his world. Then, the library disappears.
It is hardly surprising to find that the writer of “The Famished Road” creates a magical realist world, a world that creates mythologies because people need them and a world that has been created by these very mythologies. He asks some very pertinent questions about these mythologies. Is the Garden of Eden a place to which we should aspire to return? Or is it a prison from which we have escaped? What do our mythologies actually mean? What are they trying to tell us? How do we find the truth in ourselves?
October 19, 2019
2.5 Stars!
“Uniqueness, individuality, curiosity, became invidious qualities. They made enemies of the state. Anyone who stood out in some way was suspect. To be different was to condemn your fellow citizens. Those who were tall learnt to walk with a stoop. The intelligent learnt to be foolish.”
Okri is one of those many names I have heard countless times, but I have never got round to reading until a review of this caught my attention. Like most dystopic novels this creates a feeling like there is a draught coming into the room from somewhere that you can’t quite pin point. Like many of the best dystopic novels this is really addressing many of the issues which are occurring right now, there are clear and pointed attacks on the likes of hyper-capitalism, hyper-commodification of art, the internet and the on-going dumbing down of media, culture and society in general.
“We’ve all forgotten how to think. It’s all done for us. Fashion is chosen for us. Art is chosen for us. When there were books, they were decided for us. We’ve forgotten what it’s like to have a mind of our own.”
There are shades of “Fahrenheit 451” but this doesn’t have the clarity or readability of that. There are also some similarities with Ali Smith’s seasonal quartet, though this has a colder, darker and more detached feel to it than her work and the landscape that Okri paints is less recognisable or familiar.
This starts off really, really well with clean, punchy prose but then as it goes on it grows more cold, cryptic and confusing and then there are many times when it feels like you are trapped inside an obscure Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen song, where you wonder what the hell he is harping on about?...and when is the good bit going to start?...
Okri has some nice writing and at times his anger is almost palpable, but all the political statements in the world are no good to man nor beast if you can’t deliver a decent story. This is far from a decent story. Too often this was just too clunky and clichéd to be anything other than so so. As far as I could see there is nothing fresh, original or worthwhile in here that has not been done before in the dystopic genre.
This doesn’t quite submit to outright magical realism, but it certainly flirts heavily with it and maybe enjoys a clumsy fumble or two with it, but without committing wholly towards it. For me magical realism is one of the laziest and most over rated forms of fiction and too often it seems to be the sanctuary and get out of jail free card for a mediocre plot or lazy writing that is inaccessible or unenjoyable to read.
August 9, 2023
We've all forgotten how to think. It's all done for us....We've forgotten what its like to have a mind of our own. Most people don't even know what a mind is. p74
...follow your deepest questions....Things are not what they seem. Everything we need to know is concealed in what we take for granted. p340
This time around, the inimitable mythologist and storyteller Ben Okri has given us a dystopian fable, universal in its application. Half the size of most of his books it nevertheless packs an equal punch.
You have to make a choice...whether to wake up or stay asleep. p166
I am lost and I need help. I need to do something more than weep and wail at night. Something better than wandering about....knowing nothing, feeling nothing, sunk up to my neck in a nameless fear. p196
You can protect a child from evil, but not from the truth. p247
But what does freedom mean when your whole life is a prison? p202
...follow your deepest questions....Things are not what they seem. Everything we need to know is concealed in what we take for granted. p340
This time around, the inimitable mythologist and storyteller Ben Okri has given us a dystopian fable, universal in its application. Half the size of most of his books it nevertheless packs an equal punch.
You have to make a choice...whether to wake up or stay asleep. p166
I am lost and I need help. I need to do something more than weep and wail at night. Something better than wandering about....knowing nothing, feeling nothing, sunk up to my neck in a nameless fear. p196
You can protect a child from evil, but not from the truth. p247
But what does freedom mean when your whole life is a prison? p202
April 19, 2019
The theme of this book was made clear in the first few sentences and, with a small amount of plot and character development, it was fulfilled by the last pages. I found this book a struggle to read as it just did not engage me. The premise was interesting but sadly I felt it did not go beyond it. The writing, at the sentence level, is fine but the fable-like style had way too much telling for my liking. It was very difficult to visualise the world or characters with a noticeable lack of any concrete detail. This might appeal to people who liked The Alchemist, but it was not for me.
February 16, 2022
I didn't really know what was going on during any of this book. I got that there was an oppressive government, but beyond that the details I think were not even supposed to make sense.
May 30, 2020
Heroically dull.
February 28, 2020
The Freedom Artist is a very poetical novel with short chapters and simple declarative sentences that read like free verse. It is primarily about a young man named Karnak who loved Amalantis, a young woman who asked: “Who is the prisoner?” and is taken away, but who took her away and where. He becomes committed to finding her. Whether it was those in power, The Hierarchy, or the resisters, the underground, he does not know. They live in a world without books, a world where those in power control the narrative and the public does not question.
He meets Ruslana, a woman who is working to save the skill of writing, of knowledge shared. There is also the story of Mirababa, a child who seems chosen to be a questioner, a thinker, whose dream-like quest for understanding is very otherworldly and mythic.
The Freedom Artist was wonderful at the beginning. I was in love with the beauty of Okri’s prose. The simple narrative was like a fable, a story that would be spoken, perhaps, not read. This might make sense since writing and books are lost arts in this dystopian world. And if the book ended after a hundred or so pages, I might have loved it. But it was 248 pages long. The plot is too meager and the prose to spare to sustain interest that long.
In the end, I lost interest and finishing the book was an unwelcome chore that never satisfied me, even at the end. That is heartbreaking in a way because the story is valuable. We know the power of narrative and see it in the world today. We see those in power trying to restrict knowledge, to turn away and deny questioning. We see satire and cynicism displacing questioning and thinking. We are complicit in our own oppression, building out own prisons out of a desire to be comfortable, to not have to struggle with what our role is in society. So yes, I wish the book was better written because we need a book like this.
I received a copy of The Freedom Artist from the publisher through LibraryThing
The Freedom Artist at Akashic Books
Ben Okri author site
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre...
He meets Ruslana, a woman who is working to save the skill of writing, of knowledge shared. There is also the story of Mirababa, a child who seems chosen to be a questioner, a thinker, whose dream-like quest for understanding is very otherworldly and mythic.
The Freedom Artist was wonderful at the beginning. I was in love with the beauty of Okri’s prose. The simple narrative was like a fable, a story that would be spoken, perhaps, not read. This might make sense since writing and books are lost arts in this dystopian world. And if the book ended after a hundred or so pages, I might have loved it. But it was 248 pages long. The plot is too meager and the prose to spare to sustain interest that long.
In the end, I lost interest and finishing the book was an unwelcome chore that never satisfied me, even at the end. That is heartbreaking in a way because the story is valuable. We know the power of narrative and see it in the world today. We see those in power trying to restrict knowledge, to turn away and deny questioning. We see satire and cynicism displacing questioning and thinking. We are complicit in our own oppression, building out own prisons out of a desire to be comfortable, to not have to struggle with what our role is in society. So yes, I wish the book was better written because we need a book like this.
I received a copy of The Freedom Artist from the publisher through LibraryThing
The Freedom Artist at Akashic Books
Ben Okri author site
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpre...
January 26, 2022
I like this, but I might have liked it more as a short story. Things circled round and round and round the same ideas, and those jackals??
"The old man had not answered his question, but had only caused him to listen more intently to the silence."
March 5, 2021
This was quite easy to read in that I liked the short chapters and I felt compelled to keep reading. I was sympathetic with the characters even though I didn't feel we got to know them that well. The book got pretty dark - when the police turned into jackals that were eating people, for example! There's a small part of me that felt the point of the story (UPWAKE!) was a little laboured, but then, I suppose when we're so used to sleepwalking through much of our lives, the wake up call has to be pretty damn loud.
February 10, 2019
What absolute nonsense, total boll***s and waste of paper.
June 3, 2019
The book had interesting themes but lacked substance on the plot and world that the main characters inhabited.
December 7, 2020
There are some really lovely bits of prose here, but ultimately it's more bare allegory, less characterization and lived-in world, than I'm looking for. And I thought the tarot stuff in the final section meshed poorly with all that came before.
May 8, 2020
Best book I've read in ages - made me think. and think. and think some more. Beginning with the idea that we are born in a prison.
October 18, 2021
DNF. I just don’t get it. Maybe others do and it’s great but I didn’t warm to the style and after 70 pages I gave up.
September 4, 2020
The Freedom Artist by Ben Okri was one of those “didn’t know this book existed but now I have to have it” bookstore finds for me earlier this year, and reading it definitely brought the bookstore nostalgia for that reason. It’s sleekly designed, and I was captivated by the page between the dedication and epigraph which sports the words “Read Slowly” at the bottom. I’m not sure I always successfully followed that instruction, but I tried.
Though this book is probably considered by many to be more “literature” than “science fiction”, I put it on the 2019 Becky Awards Longlist because genre is made up and I was excited to read it. The Freedom Artist is a poetic little dystopian, with short elusive chapters which made it difficult to put down. I feel like somehow it’s a page-turner not because of the plot but because of the tone of the writing. Any book that’s ever been described as “allegorical” probably means that on some level I didn’t understand it, but I still found the reading experience rich and exciting. We begin with a tangled web of founding myths, and throughout this novel I found the worldbuilding to be intriguingly imprecise, cluttered with unknowns on questions of history and truth. The founding myths are being rewritten, books are disappearing, the majority of people sleep through their lives and scream in their sleep. The bulk of the plot follows a man named Karnak, whose lover has been removed by the authorities for asking the dangerous question “who is the prisoner?” This evocative question roots itself deeply in the novel, which overall I found absolutely beautiful to read, and mostly satisfying in its conclusion.
This novel makes an intriguing companion for another literary dystopian longlist-er, The Memory Police by Yoko Ogwa. Comparing the two, I think my biggest disappointment with The Freedom Artist is how off-page the story’s women were. Amalantis is arguably a much more interesting character than her lover Karnak, but we get his whole story peppered with mere fragments of his memories of her. I’m sure you could argue there’s something interesting about centering the story this way, but it also just kind of feels like the way women are so often not developed as full characters. I don’t feel like this criticism took away from the magic of the reading experience, but it sort of nags at me as I sit back and reflect upon finishing.
Cw for violence including some gruesome descriptions and mentions of suicide
Though this book is probably considered by many to be more “literature” than “science fiction”, I put it on the 2019 Becky Awards Longlist because genre is made up and I was excited to read it. The Freedom Artist is a poetic little dystopian, with short elusive chapters which made it difficult to put down. I feel like somehow it’s a page-turner not because of the plot but because of the tone of the writing. Any book that’s ever been described as “allegorical” probably means that on some level I didn’t understand it, but I still found the reading experience rich and exciting. We begin with a tangled web of founding myths, and throughout this novel I found the worldbuilding to be intriguingly imprecise, cluttered with unknowns on questions of history and truth. The founding myths are being rewritten, books are disappearing, the majority of people sleep through their lives and scream in their sleep. The bulk of the plot follows a man named Karnak, whose lover has been removed by the authorities for asking the dangerous question “who is the prisoner?” This evocative question roots itself deeply in the novel, which overall I found absolutely beautiful to read, and mostly satisfying in its conclusion.
This novel makes an intriguing companion for another literary dystopian longlist-er, The Memory Police by Yoko Ogwa. Comparing the two, I think my biggest disappointment with The Freedom Artist is how off-page the story’s women were. Amalantis is arguably a much more interesting character than her lover Karnak, but we get his whole story peppered with mere fragments of his memories of her. I’m sure you could argue there’s something interesting about centering the story this way, but it also just kind of feels like the way women are so often not developed as full characters. I don’t feel like this criticism took away from the magic of the reading experience, but it sort of nags at me as I sit back and reflect upon finishing.
Cw for violence including some gruesome descriptions and mentions of suicide
January 27, 2020
The Freedom Artist
Everything I wanted from 1984 and didn’t get.
4.8 stars
Characters: 5
Setting: 5
World Building: 4
Plot: 5
Language: 5
I’m going to start by saying that I loved this book. I went into this with no expectations since Okri was a new author to me. The very first paragraph of the book pulled me in and I found the entire reading experience to be quite magical. The writing was beautiful and atmospheric.
The story telling in The Freedom Artist was quite abstract, which added a layer of mystery as we follow our main character’s journey to understand the world and himself. This book delivered all of the dystopian atmosphere but had a speculative edge that ran throughout. I really loved how Okri managed to make it a quiet and intense story while having constant action. The references presented, both biblical and otherwise had me questioning what was going on at all times, and when things all became clear in the end it was extremely impactful.
The world building was extensive while still maintaining an air of mystery; however, I can see this style being off-putting to some because even I found it tedious at times. While this is not a plot driven story, there was a clear progression of events, and the author directs you to explore the inner thoughts of out MC. We do not know a lot about our MC but as the story progresses we start to understand him and really become invested in his story.
I recommend this to fans of literary fiction and speculative fiction as well.
Everything I wanted from 1984 and didn’t get.
4.8 stars
Characters: 5
Setting: 5
World Building: 4
Plot: 5
Language: 5
I’m going to start by saying that I loved this book. I went into this with no expectations since Okri was a new author to me. The very first paragraph of the book pulled me in and I found the entire reading experience to be quite magical. The writing was beautiful and atmospheric.
The story telling in The Freedom Artist was quite abstract, which added a layer of mystery as we follow our main character’s journey to understand the world and himself. This book delivered all of the dystopian atmosphere but had a speculative edge that ran throughout. I really loved how Okri managed to make it a quiet and intense story while having constant action. The references presented, both biblical and otherwise had me questioning what was going on at all times, and when things all became clear in the end it was extremely impactful.
The world building was extensive while still maintaining an air of mystery; however, I can see this style being off-putting to some because even I found it tedious at times. While this is not a plot driven story, there was a clear progression of events, and the author directs you to explore the inner thoughts of out MC. We do not know a lot about our MC but as the story progresses we start to understand him and really become invested in his story.
I recommend this to fans of literary fiction and speculative fiction as well.
February 3, 2020
The Freedom Artist
by Ben Okri
2019/2020
Akashic Books
4.5 / 5.0
Thanks to LibraryThing and Akashic Books for sending this ARC.
A dystopian novel, set in an un-named city, living in a time where human life and human communication are so censored, societies mindset is that everyone must say they are happy. Complacent and happy, happiness as defined by The Hierarchy. Anyone found not enforcing the forced happiness could be instantly killed. Books have become illegal.
The premise is absolutely amazing, mind-bending and incredibly thought provoking. To evoke change, we must start over. We cannot afford to be complacent. We must start asking questions, like, Who Is Really The Prisoner? Upwake! Upstart!
Suggested reading.
by Ben Okri
2019/2020
Akashic Books
4.5 / 5.0
Thanks to LibraryThing and Akashic Books for sending this ARC.
A dystopian novel, set in an un-named city, living in a time where human life and human communication are so censored, societies mindset is that everyone must say they are happy. Complacent and happy, happiness as defined by The Hierarchy. Anyone found not enforcing the forced happiness could be instantly killed. Books have become illegal.
The premise is absolutely amazing, mind-bending and incredibly thought provoking. To evoke change, we must start over. We cannot afford to be complacent. We must start asking questions, like, Who Is Really The Prisoner? Upwake! Upstart!
Suggested reading.
December 26, 2022
A dystopian novel mired in minimalism. There is a thin plot that barely keeps the story together (though written in a Hero's Journey). It reminded me of William Morris' "News from Nowhere" mixed with The Matrix. Though well-written, it feels drenched in allegory and symbolism but at the end of the day, for me, these were empty shells. You need story to have your ideas lean to something otherwise it has the risk of just being superfluous thoughts.
Books like these make huge promises for profound sagacity, but almost always fail to deliver.
Books like these make huge promises for profound sagacity, but almost always fail to deliver.
January 26, 2020
I received an early review copy from Library Thing's Early Reviewers program. This book was not my cup of tea, although I did finish it. The book is basically a fable about society and the ways in which we live unconsciously. I like the idea and the theme, but doing it through a fable just isn't my thing. I didn't and couldn't connect with the characters, and found the tiny short chapters really choppy.
November 5, 2020
Oleks see olnud mul esimene Ben Okri teos, oleksin seda kindlasti kõrgemalt hinnanud, aga peale "Näljutatud tee" ja "Jumalaid hämmastades" lugemist näib "Vabadusekunstnik" kuidagi pealiskaudse ettearvatava ja ennekõike tüütult stampse teosena. Pean ütlema, et mõtlesin mitmel korral teose pooleli jätmise peale, sest kogu sisu oli etteaimatav, ehk mitte ilukirjanduse lugejaile, aga kindlasti tänaste uususundite ja Facebookis levivate vaimsete teooriatega tuttavaile. Just see originaalsuse puudus muutis teose ajuti tüütult kordavaks ning isegi poeetiline esitusviis ei suutnud seda päästa.
September 18, 2019
Vad var det jag läste? En skapelseberättelse? En allegori? En bok som jag läst långsamt, och där jag njutit av många meningar och ordvändningar. Den har gett mig tankar och bilder. Det är inte en roman i den mera klassiska bemärkelsen, även om det finns en handling. För mig handlar boken mera om vilka vi människor är och vad vi gör med våra liv. Jag är glad att jag läst den! Och att jag, tack vare Lousiana Literature festival, stött på en för mig okänd författare. Men okänd är han knappast!
April 7, 2024
One of my favourite reads of the year so far. A spellbinding tale of the imprisoned, the asleep - a world without books, smiles, and questions. Particularly resonated with me as a sociologist who read post-structuralist theory, but essential for all citizens.
October 26, 2019
The writing is amazing, especially the first two thirds of the book - my first Okri book.
Almost every word and sentence belonged and was not superfluous. I found the activism and rebellion against massive odds and numbers highly inspiring to my spirit and akin to the activism for veganism.
Almost every word and sentence belonged and was not superfluous. I found the activism and rebellion against massive odds and numbers highly inspiring to my spirit and akin to the activism for veganism.
June 4, 2022
Just a note that the metaphoric and literal instances of disability felt stereotypical, uninformed and displayed without great critical thought which seemed out of place in a novel otherwise entirely devoted to other forms of liberation. This is just to say that disability liberation exists and centers self-acceptance as much as the other paradigms of liberation yet it was difficult to be believe in characters elevating and transcending prisons while still projecting disabled bodies as scary or bad. At the end, the disappeared returned yet what happened to those the jackals disabled or those who went “mad” kept in hospitals? “Curing them” would’ve been problematic, yes, but writing them out felt stigmatizing. Not great when disabled people are used as prophets and the punished and then written out of the rest of the story.
March 22, 2024
Didn't really like the ending, but I loved everything else :)
Reminds me of 1984 by George Orwell
Reminds me of 1984 by George Orwell
April 11, 2023
inimesed magavad ja õgivad üksteist?
(tglt annaks 3.5 tähte aga goodreads ei lase😒)
(tglt annaks 3.5 tähte aga goodreads ei lase😒)
January 24, 2021
The book is woven with magical realism that is focused. Dreams, lucid dreams, and hypnagogic states that characters experience are what propel this book forward, and if you are like me, interested in all things mystic, ethereal, meditative, it will keep you reading.
As the reader, you are often in a lucid dream state with the characters, trying to make sense of what is being seen, hoping it gives insight to the waking world.
Their world is not what it was. An absolute lack of freedom now exists in "The Freedom Artist." Everything they do, everything they say, everything they read, even their sleep is being watched by the State.
In order to escape, characters are forced to go inside themselves for answers that generations have sought.
The writing is good, poetic, dreamy. I did feel a bit of repetitiveness in the story telling, even predictable at times, with a need for tighter cohesion.
"The Freedom Artist" is a book that I have to read again. With dreams, are they ever what they seem? Thus, we dream again.
As the reader, you are often in a lucid dream state with the characters, trying to make sense of what is being seen, hoping it gives insight to the waking world.
Their world is not what it was. An absolute lack of freedom now exists in "The Freedom Artist." Everything they do, everything they say, everything they read, even their sleep is being watched by the State.
In order to escape, characters are forced to go inside themselves for answers that generations have sought.
The writing is good, poetic, dreamy. I did feel a bit of repetitiveness in the story telling, even predictable at times, with a need for tighter cohesion.
"The Freedom Artist" is a book that I have to read again. With dreams, are they ever what they seem? Thus, we dream again.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 134 reviews