A review by secretbookcase
Incidents at the Shrine: Short Stories by Ben Okri

challenging dark emotional reflective

4.0

A soulful collection of stories that offers a glimpse into people's everyday life struggles, set mostly in Africa. They are all told from the viewpoint of male protagonists and deal with issues such as alienation, urban life, poverty, violence, love and infidelity. Most of the stories are told in a meandering fashion rather than built around a rigid linear plot structure, and are also strongly infused with the spirit world and symbolism. It gives a dreamlike quality to the stories and a sense of hovering on the border of the surface world we all inhabit. I am not sure I always fully grasped all the magical realism elements but I nonetheless enjoyed Okri's narrative style and the light touch way in which he portrays people's struggles with finding a place in life and society.