Viv’s assertion that the greatest obstacle to human happiness is the failure of love...is not unpacked with any seriousness, but then this is a narrative that leaves a great deal suspended in the sparkling air of its sacred wood ... Literary references come thick and fast, including quotes from Homer and a great deal of archly, gnomically aphoristic dialogue that perhaps echoes Eliot’s women who come and go but can also test the reader’s patience ...
Whether hearts will mend, true selves be revealed, futures told – and whether Madame Sosostris will materialise at all–is the thread by which this novella hangs, and it is a gossamer one. If subtle characterisation is perhaps a big ask for a slender fable, magic is essential, and Okri can spin it.
Plung[es] readers into a dizzying masquerade where little is as it appears to be ... Okri creates a world that feels lush while exposing the barren landscapes—both physical and emotional—of modern humanity ... Divided into four books, each with short, dialogue-heavy chapters, Madame Sosostris often reads like a play. Many of the exchanges have a sharp, almost caustic nature, putting one in mind of the absurdities of Tom Stoppard. Punctuating these moments, however, are beautiful descriptive passages and thoughtful evaluations of culture and society, pointing up the ways people will hide behind the public faces they have created. At times, the relentlessly cyclical nature of the tale might cause readers to feel they, too, are among the enchanted, like Eliot's 'crowds of people, walking round in a ring,' but maybe that's the point.
Reading Madame Sosostris was reminiscent of reading a play. While that style may appeal to some readers, for me, long passages of uninterrupted dialogue make for a far less absorbing read, ... Farce is tough to pull off on the page, and some key elements of Okri’s novel didn’t quite land, at least for this reader ... A fixation on romantic entanglements as what fulfills or breaks our hearts seems a narrow preoccupation, and more often that of a young person, which made it all the more perplexing coming from a mature and an otherwise inventive writer like Okri ... That Okri’s central characters are defined almost completely by their lives as one-percenters make Viv, Alan, Beatrice, and Stephen not only difficult to empathize with ... Okri seems less driven to offer a nuanced portrayal of individual characters than by more abstract questions of identity ... It’s a shame that Madame Sosostris and the Festival for the Brokenhearted doesn’t have something more meaningful to say to contemporary readers.
Delightfully theatrical twists and a satisfying resolution for both women, who realize they haven’t been happy in their second marriages. Shakespeare lovers should flock to this.
