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A Novel
by Ben Okri
Book Reviewed by:In this modern fable with the impish magic of A Midsummer Night's Dream, a masked ball makes two upper-class British couples see each other in a new light.
A wise, enchanting novel about love, power, and our many selves—past and future, public and private—from the Booker Prize–winning author.
There are organizations for people who grieve, for alcoholics and other kinds of addicts. But if you've been devastated by the love of your life walking out on you, where the hell do you go?
On the 20th anniversary of the day her first husband left her, Viv decides to host an unconventional party for those burned by love. She successfully ropes in her reluctant second husband, Alan, and their friends Beatrice and Stephen, and when she meets the famed fortuneteller Madame Sosostris—last seen in T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land, and rumored to be the secret to success of 5 prime ministers—she believes she's found the perfect act to headline her masquerade.
In a sacred wood in the south of France, the partygoers disguise themselves and wait eagerly for the great clairvoyant, who might be able to mend their broken pasts and brighten their futures. But the night soon goes awry, in a comically revealing way that causes our couples to question their relationships and the direction of their lives.
1
The road to unhappiness is predictable, but the paths to happiness are surprising.
Viv had the idea for the festival on the twentieth anniversary of the day her first husband abandoned her. She didn't know it was the anniversary at the time.
She had been at a friend's party in Hampstead and found herself talking to a nice woman, a stranger, about the impossibility of recovering from real heartbreak.
"There are organizations for people who grieve, for alcoholics and other kinds of addicts," Viv said. "But if you've been devastated by the love of your life walking out on you, where the hell do you go?"
"The million-dollar question," said the stranger.
That was when Viv had her epiphany. She immediately saw shadowy people wandering about in a well-lit forest and had a fleeting impression of piano music.
"Wouldn't it be great," Viv said, "to hold a festival for people who've been smashed up by love?"
The stranger seemed fascinated by the idea.
"You mean, people who've been dumped?"
"Yes. Properly ...
Dreamy and mysterious in a way reminiscent of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Madame Sosostris and the Festival for the Brokenhearted invites readers to consider the many, sometimes painful, paths to happiness. In their individual journeys, the characters have often confronted betrayal, romantic or otherwise, and their trip to the forest becomes a catalyst for discussing the nuances that lead a person to make life-altering choices. The novel's dialogue holds a lot of weight, not just in comparison with the number of descriptive passages, but also in how its characters constantly circle certain thought-provoking motifs. Masks, for example, are frequently discussed and take on multiple meanings. There are many different perspectives on the themes of masks, choice, and love, but often, the conversations meander, making it hard to know what a specific character thinks about something at any given time...continued
Full Review
(830 words)
(Reviewed by Frankie Martinez).
In Madame Sosostris and the Festival for the Brokenhearted, Londoner Viv meets the infamous clairvoyant Madame Sosostris while she is giving readings at the Cholmondeley Room of the House of Lords. Guests are frightened and awed by the accuracy of her gift, calling her "the most dependable clairvoyant in the country," as she has helped correctly predict certain country-wide phenomena, from policy decisions to World Cup winners. They also praise her specialty in predicting the successes and failures of relationships. As the title character of Ben Okri's novel, Madame Sosostris may just be a name for some, but others will recognize the reference to a clairvoyant with the same name who appears in T.S. Eliot's famous poem The ...
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