The Mystery Feast: Thoughts on Storytelling by Ben Okri

The Mystery Feast: Thoughts on Storytelling by Ben Okri
Buy The Mystery Feast: Thoughts on Storytelling by Ben Okri at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Politics and Society
Reviewer: John Lloyd
Summary: A quick but vivid look at what the author calls whisperings from the gods we carry within us.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 48	Date: October 2015
Publisher: Clairview Books
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 9781905570768
Share on:

Ben Okri knows words and books. He hardly ever mentions either of them in this volume, concentrating as he does on the word story instead, but he knows them inside and out. He's won the Booker for a novel, and is just as adept at essays and poetry. So this sample of his work can contain all of the above. The result is something that looks completely disposable and lightweight – like someone put an ISBN number on your local pizza parlour leaflet – but actually resonates with a power belying its size.

We start with a two-page poem, then reach the heady heights of a public address he gave a couple of years ago, concerning story. In a world of DNA, of negative psychology, of the negative space left by advertising between what we have and are told we should want, story has the power to revert us to the straight and narrow. It never comes from nowhere, it is around us even with – or because of – all our science, it is the most powerful tool, and the brightest gift. Pointers to what a modern storyteller and their output might be follow, followed by a quick(-seeming) narrative piece.

Connected to the International School of Storytelling, this volume and the publishers have their seed in a very small acorn, somewhere in West Sussex. But just as, say, Homer gave us five per cent of the Trojan Wars and more or less bequeathed us a whole genre of literature, from small acorns big things grow. The simple and clear, yet poetic language, the fact that so much of this is worth underlining and holding dear, the charge it carries in emphasising the timeless, ageless nature of story and the duty of those who use it, all show this book to be a mighty oak. If the term 'gift book' didn't have a slightly derogatory, sniffy connotation, I would use it here. Call it, if you'd allow me, a great gift to yourself.

I must thank the publishers for my review copy.

Tales of Freedom by Ben Okri also pretty much runs the full gamut of prose, poetry, short stories and life lessons too.

Please share on: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

You can read more book reviews or buy The Mystery Feast: Thoughts on Storytelling by Ben Okri at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy The Mystery Feast: Thoughts on Storytelling by Ben Okri at Amazon.com.

Comments

Like to comment on this review?

Just send us an email and we'll put the best up on the site.