‘I always finish books I begin. Better not to start than not to finish’ … Ben Okri. Photograph: Martin Godwin |
Books
that
made me
Ben Okri: ‘I began Don Quixote as one person and finished as another’
The author on his mother’s storytelling, cheering up with Oscar Wilde and why he always finishes booksFriday 8 March 2019
The book I am currently reading
The third volume of John Richardson’s A Life of Picasso. It reveals him to be at once worldly and lordly, both a deliberate artist and an intuitive one. The best biographies don’t read the life into the work, but acknowledge their parallel and sometimes contingent realities.
The third volume of John Richardson’s A Life of Picasso. It reveals him to be at once worldly and lordly, both a deliberate artist and an intuitive one. The best biographies don’t read the life into the work, but acknowledge their parallel and sometimes contingent realities.
The book that changed my life
Cervantes’ Don Quixote. I first read it in my mid-20s, on the underground while commuting to Bush House where I worked as a World Service presenter. I began that book as one person and finished it as another. It seemed to contain not only the history of the novel , but also to hint at the many futures of the novel.
Cervantes’ Don Quixote. I first read it in my mid-20s, on the underground while commuting to Bush House where I worked as a World Service presenter. I began that book as one person and finished it as another. It seemed to contain not only the history of the novel , but also to hint at the many futures of the novel.
The book I wish I’d written
Homer’s The Odyssey. This is the work I always go back to, an immortal tale of the cosmic difficulties of the return. More than a book, it is a civilisation, and yet it is an intimate story of a man, a family, an adventure.
Homer’s The Odyssey. This is the work I always go back to, an immortal tale of the cosmic difficulties of the return. More than a book, it is a civilisation, and yet it is an intimate story of a man, a family, an adventure.
The greatest influence on my writing
My mother’s enigmatic way of telling stories. They appeared to have no point but they haunted me with their suggestiveness, and they were so fascinating that 40 years later I still contemplate their elusive meanings.
My mother’s enigmatic way of telling stories. They appeared to have no point but they haunted me with their suggestiveness, and they were so fascinating that 40 years later I still contemplate their elusive meanings.
The book that is most underrated
Alexander Pushkin’s The Captain’s Daughter. James Joyce dismissed it as a book for boys, but it is a cunningly crafted novel that manages to be quietly revolutionary and give a full picture of Russian life and pave the way for the Russian thunderers to come, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Dostoyevsky. Out of this little book came a forest.
Alexander Pushkin’s The Captain’s Daughter. James Joyce dismissed it as a book for boys, but it is a cunningly crafted novel that manages to be quietly revolutionary and give a full picture of Russian life and pave the way for the Russian thunderers to come, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Dostoyevsky. Out of this little book came a forest.
The book that changed my mindPedro Paramo, by Juan Rulfo. Didn’t think too much of it when I read it 15 years ago, but I re-read it recently twice in a row. A mysterious and compressed book.
The last book that made me cry
André Le Vot’s biography of F Scott Fitzgerald reveals the deep pathos and the formidable weight of thought behind what appeared to be a pleasure-loving, talent-squandering life.
André Le Vot’s biography of F Scott Fitzgerald reveals the deep pathos and the formidable weight of thought behind what appeared to be a pleasure-loving, talent-squandering life.
The last book that made me laugh
Albert Camus’s The Outsider, which I adapted as a play for the Coronet theatre. Absurd humour is akin to the humour of Greek tragedy, mixing the intolerable perception with the unavoidable truth of life.
Albert Camus’s The Outsider, which I adapted as a play for the Coronet theatre. Absurd humour is akin to the humour of Greek tragedy, mixing the intolerable perception with the unavoidable truth of life.
The book I couldn’t finishI always finish books I begin. Better not to start than not to finish. This is true of reading as well as writing.
The book I’m most ashamed not to have read
Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street. Such a seminal text of American naturalism, giving its name to an economic inclination, and I haven’t read it.
Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street. Such a seminal text of American naturalism, giving its name to an economic inclination, and I haven’t read it.
My earliest reading memory
Being hustled out of the living room because I was reading my father’s copy of the Times when I was about four years old.
Being hustled out of the living room because I was reading my father’s copy of the Times when I was about four years old.
My comfort read
There are few plays that one can read for the sheer pleasure they give, their unfailing humour, the abiding delight. When the world feels grim and one needs cheering up, Oscar Wilde’s plays are witty enliveners of the spirit.
There are few plays that one can read for the sheer pleasure they give, their unfailing humour, the abiding delight. When the world feels grim and one needs cheering up, Oscar Wilde’s plays are witty enliveners of the spirit.
The book I most often give as a gift
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It is one of those books by which friendships are determined.
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It is one of those books by which friendships are determined.
• The Freedom Artist by Ben Okri is published by Head of Zeus.
22 September 2017
Books that made me / Franzen / 'I defy anyone to finish it without wetting the pages with tears'
29 September 2017
Philip Pullman / ‘The book I wish I’d written? My next one’
Books that made me / Franzen / 'I defy anyone to finish it without wetting the pages with tears'
29 September 2017
Philip Pullman / ‘The book I wish I’d written? My next one’
13 October 2017
Eimear McBride / ‘I can never finish Dickens – it’s sacrilege’
20 October 2017
Shami Chakrabarti / ‘Harry Potter offers a great metaphor for the war on terror’
20 October 2017
Shami Chakrabarti / ‘Harry Potter offers a great metaphor for the war on terror’
1 December 2017
Penelope Lively / My debt to roasted grasshopper with ladybird sauce
Penelope Lively / My debt to roasted grasshopper with ladybird sauce
2018
25 May 201827 July 2018
Richard Powers: ‘I love sci-fi. The more 10-foot reptilians, the better’28 september 2018
Robin Robertson: ‘The poetry world is polarised. I’m in the middle, vaguely appalled’
18 January 2019
Margaret Drabble / ‘Lee Child does all the things I could never do. I’m awestruck’
1 February 2019
Leïla Sliman / ‘I’ve always been fascinated by Marilyn Monroe'
8 February 2019
Emma Glass / ‘Game of Thrones is overrated. Give me The Lord of the Rings any day'
1 March 2019
Tom Rachman / ‘Does every author read faster than I do?’
Robin Robertson: ‘The poetry world is polarised. I’m in the middle, vaguely appalled’
2019
18 January 2019
Margaret Drabble / ‘Lee Child does all the things I could never do. I’m awestruck’
1 February 2019
Leïla Sliman / ‘I’ve always been fascinated by Marilyn Monroe'
8 February 2019
Emma Glass / ‘Game of Thrones is overrated. Give me The Lord of the Rings any day'
1 March 2019
Tom Rachman / ‘Does every author read faster than I do?’
8 March 2019
Ben Okri / ‘I began Don Quixote as one person and finished as another’
17 April 2020
Sally Rooney / 'I want the next thing I do to be the best thing I’ve ever done'
Ben Okri / ‘I began Don Quixote as one person and finished as another’
2020
17 April 2020
Sally Rooney / 'I want the next thing I do to be the best thing I’ve ever done'
1 May 2020
Edna O'Brien / 'Reading Charles Darwin dislodged my religious education'
24 May 2020
André Aciman: 'I couldn’t finish Moby-Dick. I lacked the patience'
Edna O'Brien / 'Reading Charles Darwin dislodged my religious education'
24 May 2020
André Aciman: 'I couldn’t finish Moby-Dick. I lacked the patience'
9 October 2020
Neil Gaiman / 'Narnia made me want to write, to do that magic trick'
Emma Cline / ‘Reading anything because you “should” doesn’t make sense to me’
6 August 2021
Damon Galgut / ‘After reading Roald Dahl, the world never looked the same’
9 August 2021
Frank Cottrell-Boyce / ‘I read Adrian Mole every year, it gets funnier each time’
13 August 2021
Anuk Arudpragasam / ‘There’s a lot of laughter in my life, but not when I read’
Neil Gaiman / 'Narnia made me want to write, to do that magic trick'
2021
9 April 2021Emma Cline / ‘Reading anything because you “should” doesn’t make sense to me’
6 August 2021
Damon Galgut / ‘After reading Roald Dahl, the world never looked the same’
9 August 2021
Frank Cottrell-Boyce / ‘I read Adrian Mole every year, it gets funnier each time’
13 August 2021
Anuk Arudpragasam / ‘There’s a lot of laughter in my life, but not when I read’
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