On Reading: Stars of the New Curfew

Stars of the New Curfew by Ben Okri

I'm trying to catch up on my reading so I picked up this book. I found in Shakespeare & Co in town. It is out of print in the US now. I think it has been on their shelf for a while since the barcode price sticker was worn to the point of being almost gone! (I tried to carry it in Indigo as an import but the increase in the exchange rate made it prohibitively expensive.)

I thought that I haven't read any Ben Okri but the first few stories seemed eerily familiar. It is a short book of short stories but it began to freak me out. The story where the main character is seeing people with writing on their faces that appear then disappear gave me the creeps. I guess I'm too sensitive right now to read stories like this. So I put this book down for now.

As for the writing, Mr. Okri is wonderful. Clean, crisp prose, just the way I like it. He manages to describe a lot without flourish. You are right there in the story. I suppose that is why it freaked me out so. I'll return to it later.