Riddley Walker...

riddley walk this way!
Total votes: 2 (100%)
just riddley walk on by... (No votes)
Total votes: 2

Novel Novel: Riddley Walker

1
brilliant post-apocalyptic novel by russell hoban. one of my very favorite books.

don't know if it would work in translation, which makes me sad that i can't recommend it to non-native speaker friends who would have difficulties reading the original. (as far as i know, there are no published translations).

russell hoban wrote:Lorna said to me, 'You know Riddley theres some thing in us it dont have no name.'
I said, 'What thing is that?'
She said, 'Its some kind of thing it aint us but yet its in us. Its looking out thru our eye hoals. May be you dont take no noatis of it only some times. Say you get woak up suddn in the middl of the nite. 1 minim youre a sleap and the nex youre on your feet with a spear in your han. Wel it wernt you put that spear in your han it wer that other thing whats looking out thru your eye hoals. It aint you nor it don't even know your name. Its in us lorn and loan and sheltering how it can.'
I said, 'If its in every 1 of us theres moren 1 of it theres got to be a manying theres got to be a millying and mor.'
Lorna said, 'Wel there is a millying and mor.'
I said, 'Wel if theres such a manying of it whys it lorn then whys it loan?'
She said, 'Becaws the manying and the millying its all 1 thing it dont have nothing to gether with. You look at lykens on a stoan its all them tiny manyings of it and may be each part of it myt think its sepert only we can see its all 1 thing. Thats how it is with what we are its all 1 girt big thing and divvyt up amongst the many. Its all 1 girt thing bigger nor the worl and lorn and loan and oansome. Tremmering it is and feart. It puts us on like we put on our cloes. Some times we dont fit. Some times it cant fynd the arm hoals and it tears us a part.'


go pick up this book if you're in to fiercely imaginative literature!

Novel Novel: Riddley Walker

3
Was recommended by someone who said "if you like A Clockwork Orange..."

No. Reminds me more of "In Watermelon Sugar" by Richard Brautigan. It's been probably 20 years since I read it though. The main thing I remember was the "Punch and Pudy" show. I should read this again. I still have it in my library.

The only other thing I read by Hoban was "Turtle Diary". Didn't care for it. Was there anything else worth reading?
Robert Anton Wilson wrote:The totally convinced and the totally stupid have too much in common for the resemblance to be accidental

Novel Novel: Riddley Walker

4
fancyjamtime wrote:The only other thing I read by Hoban was "Turtle Diary". Didn't care for it. Was there anything else worth reading?



to be honest, i've avoided reading anything else from hoban. friends told me that his other sci-fi/fantasy books were not bad, but nowhere near riddley walker. i preferred to stick to his masterpiece, i guess.

i believe he's also written books for adolescents...might be worth checking out if you've got teens.

if you like malapropisms, this book is full of them. riddley narrates in his unschooled way & often spells words according to the associations he has with them. accelerating is "axel rating", compensation is "comping station", interference is "inner fearents", & so on.

this would be a perfect book to make an "imaginary score" for. someday...

i think elliot sharp has done something inspired by the story...anybody heard it?

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