SOURCE: "Strong Spirits," in New Statesman & Society, Vol. 6, No. 245, March 26, 1993, p. 41.

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 Okri's new book, which in many ways continues the exploration started in The Famished Road. Songs of Enchantment is closer to a collection of short stories, or rather folk tales, than to the novel form. It describes a pilgrimage through danger and violent struggle into some kind of stasis—not a retreat, since Azaro's redeemed world remains as astonishing as any nightmare, but an acceptance that "to see anew is not enough. We must also create our new lives, everyday, with will and light and love."

This very personal statement, centred on the reconciliation between man, wife and child, conveys a familial warmth and provides a necessary weight of feeling...