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Ben Okri.
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The youngest Nigerian writer to have written and published a full-length novel, Ben Okri is the first Nigerian author to succeed as a full-time writer, the first to have won the Booker Prize, and the ...
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Ben Okri is one of the best known of the first generation of Nigerian novelists who have described in their fiction the psychic costs of the Nigerian transition from colonial rule to independence. He ...
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In the following favorable review, Bryce discusses the themes, characters, and setting of Flowers and Shadows.
Flowers and Shadows is a first novel by a young Nigerian of nineteen. A striking feature ...
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In the following review, Foden presents a mixed assessment of An African Elegy, questioning the collection's relevance for non-Africans since "every poem contains an exhortation to climb...
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In the excerpt below, Tredell argues that the poems collected in An African Elegy are better suited for public oration than the printed page.
Violence, and the resistance to it, are important themes i...
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In the following excerpt, Wilhelmus examines stylistic and thematic aspects of The Famished Road.
In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, the animals say to Nietzsche's philosopher-mystic:
"Look, we...
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In the following review of Songs of Enchantment, Cooke favorably assesses the novel's themes and characters.
"Sometimes we have to redream ourselves," declares the narrator of Ben...
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Gorra is an educator. In the following unfavorable review of Songs of Enchantment, he faults the novel's focus and structure.
I had looked forward to reading the Nigerian writer Ben Okri'...
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Wandor is an English playwright, scriptwriter, short story writer, poet, novelist, editor, and nonfiction writer who frequently writes on feminist themes. In the review below, she presents a thematic ...
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In the following highly laudatory review, Melmoth briefly describes the plots and themes of some of the short stories contained in Incidents at the Shrine, concluding that Okri's Lagos stories ...
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In the following positive review, Cronje examines Okri's focus on Nigeria in Stars of the New Curfew.
In the title story of Ben Okri's book, Stars of the New Curfew, two local politician...
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In the following essay, Porter analyzes how Okri uses elements of the künstlerroman in The Landscapes Within to discuss problems of contemporary Nigeria. He also briefly compares the story line...
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Bissoondath is an Trinidadian-born short story writer and novelist. In the following review, he offers a highly favorable assessment of Stars of the New Curfew, praising the volume's universal ...
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The pseudonym of the late Roberta Warrick, Thomas was best known for her fiction and nonfiction writings about Africa, where she spent numerous years working for the Peace Corps. In the following favo...
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In the following review, Wood discusses Okri's use of language and thematic focus in the short story collection Stars of the New Curfew.
Once, when traveling in Africa, I asked a friend whether...
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In the following review, Obradovic gives a brief plot summary of Flowers and Shadows.
"Little flowers in the shadows that's what we all are. Nobody knows what the larger shadows will do ...
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Ben Okri
Critical Review by Jane Bryce
