Riddley Walker

Russell Hoban

Editions

Review

Set in the remote future in an England that has reverted to an iron age after some nameless apocalypse, this novel has to be one of the most brilliant of recent years. First published in 1980, it is hard to see how it could date, unlike many futurist novels. I first read it as a student and just recently read it again: it’s just as impressive. Above all, it is the language that is so deeply astonishing, and it is sustained with breathtaking energy and invention. For not only does Hoban completely imagine what his world would be like and people it with convincing characters, but he tells the story in a language (re)created from the fragments that remained.

Hoban is sometimes described as a cult novelist.  While I admit that you might need to be a fan (as I am) to enjoy some of his more obscure work, this novel, which seems on the face of it so obscure, is powerful, disturbing and funny, an authentic vision of the human condition.  Difficult?  Not really, though you have to stick with him.  But then, Riddley is a sympathetic hero and you want to know what happens. It would be a pity to be put off this book by its “cult” status and miss it, because it is a work of genius - review by Johnny de Falbe

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