Why I love Russell Hoban!
Perhaps his most well known work is Riddley Walker. Other recent works include The Bat Tattoo, Fremder, Angelicas Grotto plus many more listed below.
Russell Hoban is also the author of many well known childrens classics such as 'The Mouse and His Child'.
Hoban writes beautifully and wittily about the BIG subjects - love, the meaning of life, the existence of god, and death. Common motifs that occur throughout his work include the tale of Orpheus, Eurydice,and Persephone.
Riddley Walker
Riddley Walker is perhaps Russell Hobans most well known (and arguably most critically acclaimed) work of fiction. This story is usually categorised as science-fiction as the story takes place in a post-apocalyptic future.It is written in a phonetic form of English, which helps to reiterate the future primitive setting for the narrative. Although the phonetic spelling does take sometime to get into, once understood the writing really flows. In fact many of the passages are spell-binding in their use of language and really need reading aloud to fully appreciate, and to fully understand the meaning.
Read this quote from Ridley Walker aloud to really get a feel for the writing (ps it helps if you try and read this is an English accent!):
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.'
Buy Riddley Walker from Amazon.com
Riddley Walker: Expanded Edition Afterword, Notes, and Glossary
Amazon Price: $15.25 (as of 07/09/2009)
List Price: $16.95
Riddley Walker is the tale of a 12 year old boy in a future post-apocalyptic world, where technology is nothing but ill-remembered mythology, and packs of dogs are the mortal enemy of mankind.
The language is incredible and is matched with a fantastic story, that bears reading again and again.
Buy this book and relish it, then get all of the other great books by Russell Hoban.
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The complete works of Adult fiction by Russell Hoban
Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz (Bloomsbury Paperbacks)
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Riddley Walker: Expanded Edition Afterword, Notes, and Glossary
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Amazon Price: $15.25 (as of 07/09/2009)
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Angelica's Grotto: A Novel
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Her Name Was Lola: A Novel
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Amazon Price: $24.00 (as of 07/09/2009)
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My Tango with Barbara Strozzi
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Amazon Price: $17.90 (as of 07/09/2009)
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Russell Hoban reading from 'Come dance with me'
Russell Hoban reading from 'Come dance with me'
Russell Hoban reading from 'Come dance with me, recorded at the Russell Hoban Some-Poasyum, London, UK, 11-13 February 2005
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Interview with the great Russell Hoban
russell hoban interview
In the morning I came awake as I always do, like a man trapped in a car going over a cliff.
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Hard to find Russell Hoban books on eBay
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Childrens fiction by Russell Hoban
The Mouse and His Child
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Amazon Price: $12.74 (as of 07/09/2009)
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How Tom Beat Captain Najork and His Hired Sportsmen
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A Near Thing for Captain Najork
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The Last of the Wallendas and Other Poems
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My favourite Hoban quotes
I don't know what I am now. A whispering out of the dust. Dried blood on a sword and the sword has crumbled into rust and the wind has blown the rust away but still I am, still I am of the world, still I have something to say, how could it be otherwise, the action never stops, it only changes, the ringing of steel is sung in the stillness of the stone.
A story is what remains when you leave out most of the action.
Quotes from Kleinzeit
'Why a barrow full of rocks?' said the creative director, ten years younger than Kleinzeit.
'Why not?' said Kleinzeit. He paused as the pain flashed from A to B. 'It's as good as anything else. It's better than a lot of things.'
Quotes from Fremder
There's more emptiness in the air than there used to be, and its spores grow flowers of dust in the lungs.
What are your other favourite book?
If you like Hoban's work perhaps you'll like one of these? Have you got any great books to recommend? What books are on your bed-side table?
If you loved Riddley Walker: Expanded Edition Afterword, Notes, and Glossary, you might also enjoy:
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