"The Famished Road" by Ben Okri (Vintage, 1992)

Reading dream imagery can be tedious, especially if the images are drawn from a narrow field. In this book the opposing realism will appear exotic to many westerners, so that the fantasy lacks firm anchoring. Neither can we fall back on narrative impetus: there is some character development, but little in the narrator. We are led from one set piece to another. These set pieces are well written, drawing on surrealism (Bosch for example). Dialog is sharp.