Bookish Mardi:
Ben Okri's Dangeorus Love
"Shouldn't these ancient sufferings of ours finally start to bear fruit?"
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| My first adult and African novel being read 4 years ago ^^ |
Book Summary
With the simplicity and innocence of Narayan or Seth, he tells the story
of a young man, Omovo, an office-worker and artist who lives at home
with his father and his father's second wife. In the communal world of
the compound in which he lives, Omovo has many friends and some enemies,
but most important of all there is Ifeyiwa, a beautiful young married
woman whom he loves with an almost hopeless passion - not because she
doesn't return his love, but because they can never be together. Ben
Okri builds a vivid picture of Nigerian life: of the compound with its
complete lack of privacy, the gossip, the good times, the street life,
the complex nature of family relationships and the kindness and
treachery of friends. Overshadowing everything, is the image of a
nation struggling to come to terms with the atrocity of the recent civil
war, the echoes of which presage the story's tragic events.
Book One
"If your work can surprise you then you have started something worthwhile." - Omovo
"An inner darkness is darker than an outer darkness." - Omovo
". . .we have no Van Goghs, no Picassos. no Monets, no Goyas, no Salvador Dalis, no Sisleys. Our real lives and confusions have not been painted yet." - Old Woman
". . .the perceived world became unfamiliar images were re-ordered into freshly juxtaposed fragments by a disinterested visions." - Omovo
"We can't be lost. There is an exit somewhere." - Keme
"God is playing games with us." - Omovo
Book Two
"Life has no patterns and has no threads." - Omovo
". . .to fail was not a crime." - Omovo
"What happened had to happen. We shall seek the true meaning of our lives. This is a dream we might wake up one day." - Okur
"It's a dream from which we might wake up one day.He hoped they would not wake up too late, when the nightmare had gone too far, when nothing could be done anymore." - Okur
"Life would take care of its own." - Ifeyiwa's Mother
"Weeping doesn't really do anything. It only cleanses us prepares us for more weeping. Meanwhile the mad world goes on. Wicked things happening. This world has forgotten how to love. The gods don't respond to weeping anymore." - Walt Whitman
". . .the peace seemed an uneasy one." - Ifeyiwa
"To learn how to remember creatively is to learn how to feel." - Dr. Okocha
"The young boys nowadays don't respect old people." - Old Man
The ugly truth conversation of Omovo and Dr. Okocha
"We don't look at ugly things enough." - Omovo
"Craft is important. The greater the idea, the greater the craft you need." - Dr. Okocha
"Ugliness is the face we always turn away from. When things are bad, people don't want to face the truth." - Dr. Okocha
"In ugliness, we see ourselves as we never want to." - Omovo
"Ugliness festers while the people cry for images if beauty, for illusions." - Dr. Okocha
". . . how can we be happy if there is so much ugliness around and if we paint the ugly truth?" - Omovo
"How can we be happy if we lie to ourselves?" - Omovo
"Everything you feel and see now will be your reservoir later." - Dr.Okocha
"Art is a poor substitute for real life." - Dr. Okocha
"Don't live only in your head. You are in the world." - Dr.Okocha
"In dreams begins responsibility." - An Indian Poet
"We cast our nets out into the darkness and draw in ourselves. Sometimes, if we are fortunate, we also bring back. . .bright corals, . . .bright things. . .with light and wonder." - Dr. Okocha
". . .learn how to look clearly, look more carefully, without strain, without prejudice." - Omovo
"Our society is a battlefield. Poverty, corruption and hunger are the bullets. Bad governments are the bombs." - Okoro
"One should live as fully and as freely as possible." - Okoro
"There are too many unnecessary struggles in our lives. It's a struggle to wake up in the morning, to bath, to struggle to catch a bus, to go to work, and make a decent living. It's a struggle to come back from work, to relax, to have electricity and running water, to get a good woman, and to keep her.It feels like a lifetime struggle." - Dele
"Sometimes, life is very hard." - Omovo
"Dreams can betray lives." - Ifeyiwa
"This world is so wicked. - Ifeyiwa
"When the darkness is recent there is almost nothing to guide you." - Omovo
"Yesterday i but a dream." - Ifeyiwa
"In dreams begin responsibilities. In loss begins art." - Dr. Okocha
". . .and tomorrow is just a vision. . .But today well lived makes yesterday is a dream of happiness. . .and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well therefore, to this day." - Dr. Okocha
"Life is so strange." - Omovo
"There are some things one never forgets, things one shouldn't forget." - Omovo
"Too many people are afraid to look at the dark side of things, to look at the things that are there." - Omovo
"One gets lost too quickly in the city." - Omovo
"Art is a poor approximation , but the best we have." - Omovo
"Lord may this life always surprise me - fill every crack with light - when we are falling, Lord, make us like the spider that can build its own web as net - may good things always flow into us -and when we most need it, Lord, show us a silver way- a secret way." - Omovo
"Our life is in God's hands." - Omovo
"Let the dead stay dead." - Omovo
"What must we do to save ourselves from the termites and the maggots that eat at our dreams?" - Omovo
Book Three
" . . .bus stop in the mornings as the perfect symbol of the society, and through that, of life in general." - Omovo
"Nobodies, that's what we are." - Okoro
"We've been selling our souls without knowing it." - Okoro
"Don't block people's way. The life is hard enough as it is." - Joe
"For your reflections reflect on the things you do. And the things you do reflect on you." - Omovo
"There is a lost horizon waiting to be found." - Omovo
"Perfection is made up of details, but details is not perfection." - Da Vinci
"Men grow with all that grows." - Neruda
"So long as the canvas is empty its potential is infinite." - Dr. Okocha
"The empty canvas can become the gateway in to the landscape of nightmares or a vision of sensual bliss." - Dr. Okocha
Book Four
"Age is experience. Age is wisdom and power." - Ifeyiwa's Husband
"Women should change with the changing times." - Ifeyiwa
"Life is a mystery, no one gave her the keys with which to unlock doors of understanding." - Ifeyiwa a good
"If you ever despair of going abroad, just step into a good restaurant and you are as good as there." - Dele
"Quiet people are the most dangerous." - Neighbor
Book Five
"We're all along. We all carry aloneness inside us whatever we do." - Omovo
"More is yet to happen." - Dr. Okocha
"Miracles only happen when there has been suffering." Dr. Okocha
". . .time will put a strange honey in the bitterness. That's the way of life." - Dr. Okocha
"This heart is small but I have never been able to understand how it can take so much suffering and still go on beating." Dr. Okocha
"In seeing clearly begins the real responsibility." - Dr. Okocha
"Be like the tortoise- grow a hard shell to protect your strong heart. Be like the eagle- soar above your pain and carry the banner and the wonder of our lives to the farthest corners of the world. Build your strength. Destiny is difficult." - Dr. Okocha
"Be like David from the Bible- use your own weapons." - Dr. Okocha
"Love is dangerous. . .
. . .and fantasies are are a mirror,
. . . a shield,
. . .a blindfold." - Omovo
"It's hard to see people for what they are; and maybe to love them for what they are." - Omovo
"To love simply is a gift." - Omovo
"We have to be ninjas to survive." - Omovo
"Responsibility is active. Vigilant. Actions become character and character becomes destiny. . .the moment you see something is wrong, you have a responsibility." - Omovo
