SOURCE: O'Brien, Sean. “In the House of Horrid Mirth.” Times Literary Supplement, no. 4832 (10 November 1995): 34.

In the following review, O'Brien examines how Soyinka balances comedy and tragedy in The Beatification of Area Boy.

At sunrise, Judge, a disbarred and derelict lawyer, wakes as usual on the steps of La Plaza, a Lagos shopping mall. Around him the commercial day of the street stallholders is beginning. Judge is quick to claim credit for a spectacular dawn: “It's a good display, is it not? And to think all I did was breathe against the horizon.” Trader, knowing Judge of old, dreads him hanging about during the working day, but can't resist being drawn into debate, pitting his practicality against Judge's deranged metaphysics. When Judge accuses him: “You have the mind of a petty commercial”, Trader ripostes: “It feeds me, you know, it feeds me. I'm not complaining.” The Beatification of Area...