![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The world of Riddley Walker is very much a world on the cusp, and as the book ends, that point has been reached and the characters haven't even begun to sort out the new world order. He's also thought through that this history would be a mutable thing to these people, that individuals would seize upon the story of humanity's fate to serve their own political ends, as when Goodparley and Orfing subtly twist the Eusa story in their first show to seem to exalt the idea of agriculture above a life of foraging. ![]() I'd say the best novels create whole places for us to get lost in (even if we don't want to), and I'd put Inland on the same level as Fitzgerald's Jazz Age New York or Crowley's Edgewood or, yes, Adams' Watership Down as a world that seems at once timeless and doomed, a place that is both full of potential and shot through with loss.Įven better, he's thought through a lot of the history of this world, and even if he doesn't explain completely how everything came to be as it was, he's left us lots of tantalizing hints. Everything here is nicely thought out, and you always get the sense that there's more to all of the people Riddley encounters than what he tells us, that Hoban could probably write a fairly exciting book about Lorna or Granser or the Eusa folk. Even though I didn't like Riddley Walker as much on my first read as I did on this re-read (when I'd say it legitimately vaulted into the short list of books I name when I am asked what my favorite novels of all time are), I could sense the care and effort Russell Hoban put into building his world. ![]()
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