THE AGE OF MAGIC

A fantasy written by Booker Prize–winner Okri.

This most unusual journey of eight characters to “a mythic, a magical, state of being” called Arcadia is perhaps a novel, perhaps a poem; one might read it either way, the author suggests. It is a work of vivid imagination and language in which reality bends and blends with unreality. The plot is minimal, and the protagonists—mainly Lao and Mistletoe—face no antagonist. They are part of a documentary film crew, which gives them a reason for their train journey from Paris to Switzerland. Along the way, a Quylph (whatever that is) speaks to Lao in his sleep, asking what he is afraid of—Malasso, perhaps, as everyone else is? Malasso, he who has “featureless power and malignity” and a name that sounds like Badass, is a vague threat: Film crew director Jim must “transcend Faust, and solve the enigma of the Devil.” The word Arcadia seems to carry special meaning: The first letter of the alphabet begins a journey, while the last takes you home. And “a” is also in the middle, so you can begin again. “Never move far from the alpha of life.” Lao and Mistletoe engage in a highly poetic sex scene: “no longer of this world” and “low rhythmic wail”? Okay. But then, “Somewhere up in the mountains a stray rocket went off.” What? With all the buildup, there should be an 8.3 magnitude earthquake. Anyway, expect plenty of white space—Chapter 1 is only one sentence, for example: “Some things only become clear much later.” Such clarity will not illuminate every reader’s mind, though. Some will reach the end of the book and think, Huh? Or worse, shrug. To quote Gertrude Stein about Oakland, there is no there there.

Enjoyable for much of the prose, but not a strong story.