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Summary: Read this! Or it's ARGA WARGA for you!
Review: "Riddley Walker" is one of the most memorable books I have ever read, and anyone who rises to the challenge will never regret it. It takes place in an England of a hazy, distant, post-apocalyptic future and is told in the first person by the title character. It seems Riddley is one of the very few people in his Neo-Iron Age culture who actually knows how to read and write, and he documents his travels and trevails in a language that takes a little getting used to. I found myself reading many sentences out loud to figure out what exactly was being said, but once I hit my stride the book was very enjoyable. By the end of this book, when you find out how young Riddley really is, you realize that there may be some hope for civilization after all. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
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Summary: The most believable post-apocalyptic hero
Review: Russell Hoban's "Riddley Walker" is more than just a novel of the post-apocalypse; it is so original and odd for the language it uses and the mythology it creates, it's clearly in a class by itself, as though it could be a relic of an imaginary civilization. Hoban chooses as his setting the county of Kent in southeastern England, now called Inland, where in 1997 something called the Power Ring, encircling what used to be Canterbury, was responsible for a nuclear cataclysm called the 1 Big 1 that nearly destroyed the earth. In the thousands of years since, mankind has undergone an evolutionary breakdown and reverted to Iron Age technology and tribal society, hunting with spears, scavenging for scrap metal, and speaking a vestigial form of Cockney English. Twelve-year-old Riddley Walker, as one of the few literate people in his community, is the voice of the novel and writes in a manner that reflects the primitive speech of his society, constructing jagged sentences and spelling words phonetically. He alone senses the greatness of the civilization that was destroyed so long ago; he wonders why his own people are unable to put "boats in the air and picters on the wind." As a "connexion" man, he channels the spirit of an entity named Eusa, a mythical figure to whom the 1 Big 1 and perhaps even all of creation are attributed. The origin of Eusa's name is associated with the most famous landmark in "Cambry," the former Canterbury; an eyeless boy Riddley meets named Lissener, who proclaims himself the "Ardship of Cambry," shows the peculiar logic with which the theologies from the two epochs have merged. One day while excavating in a place called Widders Dump, Riddley finds a Punch hand puppet -- with a severed hand still inside. Abel Goodparley, Inland's "Pry Mincer," recognizes this theatrical artifact, but its purpose is lost on the Inlanders, whose only concept of entertainment is the "shows" that retell the Eusa legend. Nevertheless, this puppet is the catalyst that inspires Riddley to escape his confinement as a connexion man and forge a new path. While the story has plenty of violence, particularly when Riddley discovers a substance which, when mixed with "Saul & Peter" and "chard coal," makes a powerful explosive, it does not try to resolve any conflicts by culminating in a violent climax. Hoban wisely avoids trite devices like a final showdown between warring factions and morality lessons about good against evil, nor does he use the novel as a public service announcement to warn us about the horrors of a post-nuclear age; the focus is purely on the awakening of a civilization to the possibilities of change. The novel is admittedly difficult to read and understand; the words require extraordinary concentration to absorb what Riddley is trying to say, but after the struggle I was left with the impression of having just read a work of brilliance. Like the fiction of Joyce and Faulkner, it creates its own bold style of communication and rewards the diligent and observant reader who enjoys the challenge of confronting an unfamiliar milieu with cryptic symbols. As Riddley says, "There aint that many sir prizes in life if you take noatis of every thing."
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Summary: An oversight.
Review: This novel is a wonderful read, if you can get over the phonetic language used by the author. It is a wonderful portrayal of a world that has been almost destroyed by man's own hand. In the mythology of the poeople of Inland there is a person called Eusa. Many people have connected him with St Eustas. But take the E off of Eusa and u get USA. In the storys about Eusa he did many of the things the USA did.
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Summary: I rank this book with Karamazov
Review: This book is a marvel, but it's not for everyone. When I first read it, I was so impressed that I ordered a dozen copies and gave them to friends, among them my future wife, who has read easily twenty times the books that I have and whose tastes are broad. The others, too, were serious readers. Obviously, I felt the people to whom I gave copies would all enjoy the book; some, I felt, would be overwhelmed by it. But not ONE even finished it. I would suggest you commit to reading twenty or thirty pages, and if you don't like it just count yourself in good company.
While the language is apparently difficult for many readers, it is most certainly a key element of the author's storytelling strategy. For those fortunate enough to find the language intuitive, the book will floor you. It's the story of the Fall, told in a way that is so imaginative, so novel, so perfectly apropos of the world's predicament today, in which our knowledge has long since and by far outstripped our collective wisdom, that you may never again feel quite the same about science. It is the clearest telling of mankind's obsession with power - the physical, action-at-a-distance sort of power capable of turning political disagreements into nightmares of destruction - that I have ever read. Moreover, it is so entirely focused on that single concern, and so artfully constructed, that it manages to transform something of an academic old saw into a frightful epiphany. For those able easily to understand the dialect, it is a thrilling - no, a shocking - experience. I rank this book with Karamazov.
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Summary: riddley walker
Review: To those who have difficulty reading this book, may I suggest reading it aloud? The language is English, written the way it sounds. The places named are mostly in Essex. It may be worth looking at a map. Riddley looks back at us the way some of us look back at Atlantis; without a clue. The story of Eusa setting the world on fire should make us all take a careful look at the present administration in Washington. This book reads like an eye-witness account of a post- apocalyptic future. So far beyond Russell Hoban's other works, its hard to believe it is by the same author. You will never look at a bottle of Jagermeister in the same way again. This book is what Canticle For Leibowitz might have been. Riddley Walker is perhaps the finest work of fiction I have ever read, and I have read more than one. Read this book and decide for yourself. Read this book.
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Summary: give me a break
Review: I am sure this book is a darling of academics, but it was a tedious read, to say the least. The artificial language was a huge impediment to understanding the story, and as a result it took forever to slog through. Russell presents nothing particularly new to learn here. Just another back-to-the-stone-age, ain't-the-modern-world-sinister diatribe, confounded for the poor reader with the very words. The point ...?
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Summary: An unforgettable masterpiece
Review: I wish there were a sixth star available, to distinguish this monumental work from your ordinary everyday Oprah novels, Atonement or House of Sand and Fog or The Shipping News, e.g. Smart people I know put this book down after a few chapters, finding it too challenging and odd. Very smart people I know find it fascinating and memorable. The smartest people I know think it may be the finest book of the last quarter century. I highly recommend reading the first three or four chapters, and then starting over, once you've mastered Riddley's dialect. Reading it aloud also helps. You will find yourself thinking and talking in Riddley-speak for months afterwards. And you will read it again and again, finding new marvels each time. I can give no higher marks to any book since Zorba The Greek.
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