Riddley Walker [Paperback]

This came to me highly recommended; praised by mainstream literary critics when it was first published and listed in David Pringle's 'Science Fiction: The Hundred Best Novels' (which, if you can get hold of a copy, is a superb overview of one hundred SF novels published between 1949 and 1984).
Riddley writes his own story - in his own language - of his life on the outskirts of Canterbury, far in the future and long after nuclear devastation.
It's a difficult, though rewarding read. Riddley writes in a variation of English which, though degenerate, has its own dark poetic beauty.
Hoban manages to effortlessly create myths based upon our contemporary lives, using words, place names and phrases which have become corrupted into synonyms such as 'gallack seas' (galaxies) and 'deacon termination' (decontamination).
A pagan religion and philosophy has evolved - centred around ceremonies of performance and revelation - which combines beliefs involving the Moon and animal spirits and is entwined with the conflated legends of 'St Eustace' and 'Eusa' (which we presume was the USA) who split the 'littl shynin man - the Addom' in two and brought darkness to the world.
As in Anthony Burgess' 'A Clockwork Orange' with which this book is inevitably compared, the dialect is at first daunting, but one easily settles into the style and realises that this novel could not have been written any other way. It's rich and poetic and full of hidden references to the past which have to be teased out of the text.
One could have forgiven Hoban for writing a tale demonstrating (as Walter M Miller did so ably in his similar novel, 'A Canticle for Leibowitz') that humans never learn, and that we are doomed as a species to repeat our mistakes.
The difference is that in Miller's novel humans were not essentially changed by disaster, whereas here, as we learn gradually, they have been, and that their beliefs in 'telling' and 'trantses' have some basis in reality. Some of the populace, including Riddley and a captive race of 'Eusa' people exhibit the ability to read each others' thoughts and also commune with packs of wild dogs who have themselves evolved and are an important part of the Folklore of the indigenous population.
It's a unique book, and one I suspect which needs to be read again. Refreshingly, it manages to avoid all the clichés of SF of its time and succeeds in creating a timeless and fabulous - though familiar - world peopled with grotesque yet believable characters.
It could so easily have become a morality tale, set as it is in the continuing aftermath of a Nuclear disaster, but its main message for me was to point out how wide might be the divide between the text of our own religious documentation and the historical truth, which can only be a good thing.

It is indeed rare for a book to evoke such passion in its readers, and it is those books so utterly idiosyncratic and unique that achieve this feat. Like one of the other reviewers I am now on my fourth copy, having given away all previous copies to friends, sometimes with a little too much fervour perhaps. Riddley Walker has a habit of turning its readers into evangelists for the cause, a statement that would no doubt horrify Russell Hoban, a modest voice throughout. The principal voice is that of Riddley Walker, who guides us selflessly through post-apocalyptic Kent and its strange denizens, inhabitants of a world much like ours. Human foibles abound in a land of strange machinery, arcane ritual, desperate survival and the archaeology of the future. It would almost be best if this book had never been written for, like Homer and Beowulf, this is a verbal narrative, an epic tale of humanity's failure and success, an oral history. This book is designed to be listened to, consumed through aural means, so that your eyes can remain transfixed by the storyteller's lucid dreaming. One can imagine the oral Riddley Walker getting the Seamus Heaney treatment, as it speaks to us from the past and the future with the voice of a poet, whilst its suggestions and its lessons are all too applicable to our present. And while you're at it, read all Hoban's other novels too...

Riddley Walker is a most unusual and rewarding novel! It is narrated by Riddley, who lives in what is left of England, about two thousand years after civilization as we know it was destroyed by a nuclear war. He describes some events that take place just after he turns twelve years of age. The remarkable feature of this book is that it is written entirely in "Riddleyspeak," a kind of pidgen English that has survived after all remnants of society and learning have disappeared. The people of Riddley's world live almost like animals, scratching out an existence, believing in superstition and legend, reduced to the most basic elements of survival. Riddley, on the other hand is semi-literate, thoughtful, and curious about the past and the future.

Riddley he ryts like this and it kan be vere hrd to desifer at tymz. You hav to read moast sentinses 2 or 3 tyms befor you understand, and even then, ther r refrenses to peapl and events that r nevr xplaned.

If you think you can read a whole book written like the above, you will enjoy the challenge of this amazing, poignant, and often humourous novel. The plot is not as important as the unique language, which speaks volumes about Riddley's life. Reading this book is a wonderful and rewarding experience!