First Impression Friday will be a meme where you talk about a book that you JUST STARTED! Maybe you’re only a chapter or two in, maybe a little farther. Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions and predict what you’ll think by the end.

Synopsis:

One great thought can change the dreams of the world. One great action, lived out all the way to the sea, can change the history of the world.

The adventures of Azaro, the spirit child, continue. From the bestselling author of THE FAMISHED ROAD comes this radiant sequel.

It’s the end of the workweek—yay! Finally, the weekend is here. I’m glad we were all able to survive another week. I hope everyone was able to or will finish the week on a high note. I hope you accomplished all your tasks, or at least made significant progress toward them. It’s now time to dress down and let your hair down—to dive into the weekend! I hope you get to spend this brief reprieve wisely, whether simply resting and taking a break from the rigors of a tedious career, pursuing your passions, completing household chores or other chores you put on hold, or simply spending time with your family and loved ones. The weather here in the Philippine capital remains a mix of hot and damp. The skies are often overcast during the day. Evenings are riddled with occasional drizzles. Still, keep safe, everyone! I hope you’re all doing well—physically, mentally, and emotionally.

With the workweek coming to a close, it’s time for a fresh First Impression Friday update. Over the years, this blogging meme has become an essential part of my weekly book-blogging routine. It provides a great opportunity to take a reading breather while reflecting on my current read. These updates have also become springboards for my eventual book reviews. Currently, I’m using the remaining weeks of the year – I just realized that today is the last Friday of the month – to complete the books I listed in my reading goals and challenges; this has somehow become a tradition. The remaining books in these challenges are part of American and African literature. My attention for the rest of the year is therefore on books written by writers from these regions. My current read, however, is not part of any of these reading challenges. Over the recent years, my interest in the works of Nigerian writers has grown exponentially, and among the reasons for this interest was Ben Okri, whom I first encountered through must-read lists.

It was part of my effort to diversify and expand the reading base that brought me to the Nigerian writer. Particularly, his novel The Famished Road was awarded the prestigious Booker Prize. It would be his first novel I would read, and one of the first works of Nigerian writers I read; I believe it was Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart that was my primer to Nigerian literature. I was a little underwhelmed by The Famished Road, but this did not preclude me from wanting to explore Okri’s oeuvre further, especially after I learned that it was the first book in a trilogy. African writers have a fascination with writing a trilogy. Achebe’s The African Trilogy and Naguib Mahfouz’s Cairo Trilogy are just among the prominent trilogies written by African writers. Eight years since I read The Famished Road, I finally got to read its sequel, Songs of Enchantment.

Originally published in 1993, Songs of Enchantment is set post-colonial Nigerian countryside and reintroduces a familiar character: Azaro. Azaro is an abiku, or a spirit child; I first came across this in Things Fall Apart. Abiku is part of the broader African lore. Basically, Azaro’s life is impermanent. He is destined to die and then return to life repeatedly. Azaro was a unique case. Unlike his fellow abikus, he opted to live in the world of the living, refusing to die. He wants to live a normal existence. However, he is plagued by different concerns. As an abiku, Azaro also has connections with the other dimension. He can see spirits and even talk to them. His companions from the other world constantly tried to persuade him to leave the world of the living and join them in the world of the dead. Tormented by his spiritual companions, Azaro was forced to stop his education.

As much as the novel is about Azaro, it also captures the story of the people surrounding him, particularly his family. His father wants to save people – the family was poor – and, at the start of the novel, even won a great fight. He dreams of building a great nation where everyone lives equally. He was cognizant of the importance of education for the poor and illiterate people:  “That is how the powerful people keep us down. They keep us illiterate and then they deceive us and treat us like children.” He is passionate and dreams of building a school for his fellow beggars. He is conscious of the issues surrounding him, and he expected his family to be the same, except that his wife rarely kept in touch with political developments. This drove a wedge between Azaro’s parents and was a contentious point in their relationship. It did not help that Azaro’s mother was bewitched by Madame Koto.

Yes, the mysterious Madame Koto also makes her comeback in the sequel to The Famished Road. She is an influential figure in the village, owning the village’s bar, which also served as the central scene for much of the novel’s action and even Azaro’s education. Unlike Azaro’s family, she is more affluent and has no qualms about exploiting her power to earn advantages. Like Azaro’s father, she is also deeply entrenched in the village’s political activities. Another interesting character is the blind old man, described as an old man with wrinkled female breasts. Do not, however, be deceived by his blindness. He was gifted the power to foresee the future. Interestingly, his dreams were often disrupted by Azaro; he can also penetrate the dreams of the living and the dead. Through the blind old man’s dreams, Azaro also witnesses seminal events that are about to take place in the future.

In a way, Songs of Enchantment bridges the Nigeria of the present and the past. The abiku, deeply entrenched in African mythology, is the embodiment of tradition. Destiny then plays a key role in the narrative. Azaro’s desire to stay in the world of the living defies logic, as it is understood and accepted that he will live. But as Azaro confronts the spirits around him, the world around him is changing. The villagers, with Azaro’s father at the helm, were becoming enlightened. However, they were held to the ground by a corrupted system where the powerful and the rich keep the poor shackled to the ground. The story of the village is then a microcosm of contemporary Nigerian history. I can’t wait to see how the story unfolds. And yes, the lyrical quality of Okri’s prose once again shines.

How about you, fellow reader? What book (or books) are you reading this weekend? I hope you’re enjoying your current read. Happy weekend!