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Didn’t Like It “I am easily impressed by rich prose and artful illustrations. Starbook promised to be the modern day version of an almost forgotten oral tradition. What I got in the end was a litany of hyphaluting phrases and a story that seemed to have no defining climax but had a definitely disappointing...” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“Remember those bedtime storytelling sessions? Something like that. It makes you warm. Go ahead - read.”
wassie wrote this review Thursday, June 25 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“I am easily impressed by rich prose and artful illustrations. Starbook promised to be the modern day version of an almost forgotten oral tradition. What I got in the end was a litany of hyphaluting phrases and a story that seemed to have no defining climax but had a definitely disappointing ending.
boomsanjuan wrote this review Sunday, January 11 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
I told my fellow book lover (my devious colleague in the adjacent cube) that reading Starbook was like reading a legend - and I even remember using the word "alamat." The mood instantly takes you back to a time when magic and enchantment were a part of daily life. The characters had no names, no descriptions - they were merely referred to as the king, the prince, the maiden, the elders….There were extraordinary elements like master artists, different realms, the white wind. Ben Okri created a truly unique world and I was honestly amazed.
But you see, these things take their toll. Being the ADD-afflicted person that I am (self-diagnosed, of course), I eventually got tired of the word parade and began expecting more from the book. With every turn of the page, I craved for more action and drama. I was getting impatient! When would the prince find the maiden? When would the maiden notice the prince in disguise? When will they get together and battle the evil elements? Not until the end - of course! (I’m assuming you won’t be reading this anyway so I can talk about the ending.) I was thinking the meat of the plot would be in the trials they face together, but the author focused more on their journey towards each other, the long, seemingly hopeless search for their one true soul mate. The moment they got together - BAM! - then came a fast forward telling of the not-so-happily-ever-after ending. It was frustrating, really.
What a shame, for I loved the way Ben Okri used words. I would, from time to time, encounter even new words. What a way to widen your vocabulary! The style was very rich but sometimes too rich in a couple of chapters. He would describe a scene like this, "The village was populated by artists, artists who carved stone, artists who carved wood, artists who cast bronze, artists who wove colorful threads into tapestries, artists who used spirits to mould sculptures…" and the sentence would run on until it reaches the length of a paragraph that occupies about a page and a half of space. That long! I usually skipped those parts. What’s more frustrating is that I was deprived of a decent, long-running dialogue! Oh, the book was full of descriptions and figurative narrations. Half the time I don’t understand what’s happening. I read some paragraphs twice because I doze off or my mind drifts into other things. ADD-afflicted, remember?
It was not altogether a waste of time though. I still found it entertaining in its simplest and truest form. Hands down to the author for still injecting bits of realism into the behaviour of characters. Sans the magical elements, it pretty much mirrored common themes of the modern day - love, corruption, deceit, redemption. I would still consider this novel a good addition to my library, for variety. And besides, the cover is lovely.”
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