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Riddley Walker, Expanded Edition Paperback – September 22, 1998

4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 710 ratings

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"A hero with Huck Finn's heart and charm, lighting by El Greco and jokes by Punch and Judy. . . . Riddley Walker is haunting and fiercely imagined and―this matters most―intensely ponderable." ―Benjamin DeMott, The New York Times Book Review

"This is what literature is meant to be." ―Anthony Burgess

"Russell Hoban has brought off an extraordinary feat of imagination and style. . . . The conviction and consistency are total. Funny, terrible, haunting and unsettling, this book is a masterpiece." ―Anthony Thwaite, Observer

"Extraordinary . . . Suffused with melancholy and wonder, beautifully written, Riddley Walker is a novel that people will be reading for a long, long time." ―Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World

"Stunning, delicious, designed to prevent the modern reader from becoming stupid." ―John Leonard, The New York Times

"Highly enjoyable . . . An intriguing plot . . . Ferociously inventive." ―Walter Clemons, Newsweek

"Astounding . . . Hoban's soaring flight of imagination is that golden rarity, a dazzlingly realized work of genius." ―Jane Clapperton, Cosmopolitan

"An imaginative intensity that is rare in contemporary fiction.' ―Paul Gray, Time

Riddley Walker is a brilliant, unique, completely realized work of fiction. One reads it again and again, discovering new wonders every time through. Set in a remote future in a post-nuclear holocaust England (Inland), Hoban has imagined a humanity regressed to an iron-age, semi-literate state―and invented a language to represent it. Riddley is at once the Huck Finn and the Stephen Dedalus of his culture―rebel, change agent, and artist. Read again or for the first time this masterpiece of 20th-century literature with new material by the author.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Riddley Walker deserves its cult status for making us feel spectral in the midst of life: it confronts us with a posterity that looks back at us as blankly as we peer at it."―Public Books

"Russell Hoban's 'Riddley Walker' is that rare novel that can be loved by doomster geeks and literary readers alike. It's narrated in a language burnt to its rudiments by nuclear holocaust and revived into new forms by survivors in England who live as hunters, and who believe in a past that's half history, half myth.Summer 2008"―Michael Helm,
Nuvo "Off the Shelf"

About the Author

Russell Hoban (1925-2011) is the author of numerous children's books, including The Mouse and His Child. Other adult novels include The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz, Kleinzeit, Turtle Diary, and Pilgermann.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Indiana University Press; Expanded edition (September 22, 1998)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0253212340
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0253212344
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.46 x 5.5 x 0.67 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 710 ratings

About the author

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Russell Hoban
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Russell Hoban was the author of A Bargain for Frances, A Baby Sister for Frances, Best Friends for Frances, A Birthday for Frances, and Bread and Jam for Frances, all illustrated by Lillian Hoban. He also wrote Bedtime for Frances, illustrated by Garth Williams.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
710 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the narrative style intriguing and believable. They praise the imagination and world-building as spectacular and original. The pacing is described as unique and vividly rendered. Readers find the characters engaging and the book bursting with personality. Opinions differ on the language, some finding it towering and degredation of language, while others find it difficult to read and intimidating at first.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

32 customers mention "Narrative style"28 positive4 negative

Customers find the narrative style intriguing and engaging. They describe the world as believable and haunting. Readers also mention it's one of the most unique post-apocalyptic books they've read.

"Reading Riddley Walker has been one of the most profound and moving experiences I've ever had with literature...." Read more

"...Hoban has created a fascinating fictional world here, loosely based on real world England in the area around Canterbury, that I found to be quite..." Read more

"...Perhaps the most intriguing element of the novel, however, is fragments of history that have been reassembled into a moral imperative for the power..." Read more

"...I say this because the dialogue is the most hilarious I have read in recent memory. The Punch show interchanges are particularly amusing...." Read more

23 customers mention "Imagination"21 positive2 negative

Customers find the book imaginative and creative. They describe the world-building as spectacular and appropriate for the world's predicament. The story is unique and captivating, with believable characters and thoughtful ideas.

"...There's an obvious quest motif, and some fairly banal stuff about the difficulty of communication, but any kind of deeper meaning eluded me...." Read more

"...That said, Hoban's creation is fairly logical, and is easily followed with a little bit of thought...." Read more

"...The story is riveting, the world Hoban created is believable and deep, the characters are easy to fall in love with and relate to...." Read more

"...If you love apocalypse books, don't miss out on this unique and uniquely told tale. Enjoy!" Read more

10 customers mention "Pacing"10 positive0 negative

Customers find the book's presentation unique and engaging. They describe the world as vividly rendered and artfully constructed. The book includes an interesting map, but there is no introduction to it.

"...the quality of the narrative of this novel because of the uniqueness of its presentation, but there is much more to "Riddley Walker" than that...." Read more

"...Honestly, it was not a horrible and there were many enjoyable spots, it just does not live up to the hype and there are many books out there which..." Read more

"...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..." Read more

"...While it does include an interesting map, there is no introduction and only one "afterword"...." Read more

4 customers mention "Character development"4 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the character development. They find the book fascinating with an engaging character.

"...the world Hoban created is believable and deep, the characters are easy to fall in love with and relate to...." Read more

"...Hoban's dystopian novel has everything -- humor, pathos, a richly-drawn central character reminiscent of Huckleberry Finn, and a chilling vision of..." Read more

"Riddley Walker is a fascinating book and an engaging character...." Read more

"...An extraordinary novel. Unique in every aspect: dialog, plot, characters… surprise Big Bang ending...." Read more

3 customers mention "Brain power"3 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the book's brain power. They find it evokes the natural mind free from baggage. The book is described as bursting with personality, sadness, and hope.

"...For me, it's a book bursting with personality, with sadness, but also with hope. In truly desperate times human beings show their true character...." Read more

"...Hard to get used to it first but it gets your brain working. Awesome novel, amazin world the author has created." Read more

"Successfully evokes the primitive, natural mind, free from all the baggage and artifice of current english usage...." Read more

48 customers mention "Language"21 positive27 negative

Customers have different opinions about the language. Some praise it as a great linguistic achievement and appreciate how the author uses language. Others find it difficult to read due to the slang language and strict phonetic spellings.

"Okay, so the fact that this entire novel is written in a corrupted version of English is going to turn many readers off...." Read more

"...Riddley Walker’s difficult at times, but is balanced enough between catchy lyricism and a Joycean nightmare that its messy style is more a boon than..." Read more

"Riddley Walker is a difficult book to read, not merely because the language is a futurespeak English that has been eroded by time and distance from..." Read more

"...It obviously holds deep significance for the author, and possibly for English readers, but its specificity to English culture precludes any broader..." Read more

6 customers mention "Ease of use"3 positive3 negative

Customers have different views on the book's ease of use. Some find it easy to understand and maintain, while others find the format difficult to get into.

"...said, Hoban's creation is fairly logical, and is easily followed with a little bit of thought...." Read more

"...For the average reader, the format is going to be difficult to get into...." Read more

"...to "get" how to read the story, once I did, it was practically effortless to maintain...." Read more

"...It will not be easy - certainly wasn't for me as English is not my native language - but the atmosphere and the story make it one of the best books I..." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2015
    Reading Riddley Walker has been one of the most profound and moving experiences I've ever had with literature. Every sentence and every word stuck to me, and I couldn't help but want to get lost in the corrupted language.

    Some 2347 years, give or take, after a nuclear holocaust has wiped out our present civilization, the world's been stagnating in its earliest stages. Riddley Walker's is a text written by its eponymous connexion man after his naming day (i.e., 12th birthday), which means the text is written in a form of English quite transformed from our own. His short-lived role of connexion man ties him as a go-between to the ruling elite of the local Inland and Eusa folk. In a dead world with no electricity, communications, methods of transportation, science, literature, &c., he’s trained to translate the Mincery’s (‘Ministry’) puppet renditions of Punch & Pooty (‘Judy’) shows and the teachings of Eusa (‘St. Eustace,’ taken from the Cambry (‘Canterbury’) cathedral).

    Eusa’s dynamic teachings are the foundation for moral authority across the Inland (present-day Kent). He was, once upon a time, a religious martyr responsible for the 1 Big 1--tricked by the devil (‘Mr Clevver’) into splitting the atom (‘Little Shynin Man the Addom’) and causing the final holocaust. His head is spoken of as still speaking law at the mysterious island of Ram, where the ruling elite presumably live and dole out the Mincery’s law through puppet theater. His guilt is a guilt of a society driven by knowledge and power to be self-destructive, and it’s a guilt carried by the Eusa folk of Riddley’s time. Like many religious followers, the Eusa folk carry the suffering of Eusa in both physical and psychological mutations--their emotions form a telepathic connection between one another, and often packs of wild dogs. Riddley, as part of his connexion duties, has one version of Eusa’s Story and its core teachings memorized. The memorized text he uses for his work reflects modern religions: Its teachings were written long after the existence of Eusa, but centuries before Riddley Walker recites them, and the language itself is slightly less corrupted compared to the language the current Inlanders speak.

    Punch & Judy pop up with significant influence throughout the book. At times, the creepy rebelliousness of Mr Punch is literally channeled through Riddley, who carries a pre-war, rotten Punch doll as a charm. For the central conflict, we even get a full performance of Punch & Judy mythologized for the people of the Inland. (Despite its unoriginality, that ranks among my favorite passages from any novel. I highly recommend those unfamiliar to give Neil Gaiman’s Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr Punch a look-see first. I’d wager his creepy graphic novel knowingly takes a lot from Hoban’s use of the doll.)

    Riddley Walker’s difficult at times, but is balanced enough between catchy lyricism and a Joycean nightmare that its messy style is more a boon than a distraction. Even though the language is of its own world, its vocabulary is as limited as the culture employing it. Keeping it simple, then, Hoban has riddled the language with as many layers and allusions as he could. You still have to slow down, but at least you'll want to--and ain't that a clear sign of great writing if ever there was one! (Indeed, the 1998 edition features an afterword by the author, with a sample from his first draft written in standard English. It carries little of the published novel's weight.)

    While some guiding themes are built from typical Cold War fears, they're written in a way that effects a timelessness in this new mythology Hoban created. The corruption of language, and mythopoeic reconstruction of a moral belief system in this future Dark Age keeps Walker's text from feeling dated by Cold War ideology and its technological trappings. E.g., the Inland's folklore is often peppered with broken references to science and technology, but the backwards, '70s understanding of it benefits the backwards state of the Inland society. Puter Leat is Computer Elite; Belnot Phist is Nobel Physicist; 1stoan Phist is Einstein Physicist; and--a favorite--the sovereign galaxies and nebulae above are the sarvering gallack seas and flaming nebyul eye.

    Knowledge is the currency of power in the Inland, particularly the lost knowledge of the industrial age. This is probably why no one ever seems to be headed anywhere in Riddley Walker: They’re fighting to take Eusa’s very steps and split the Little Shynin Man once again, taking equal movements forward and back with each Ful of the Moon. Kinda sucky world, but I really wanna go back.

    Arga Warga.
    59 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2018
    Okay, so the fact that this entire novel is written in a corrupted version of English is going to turn many readers off. There were a number of words I never did figure out the meaning of, despite repeated uses of the words in varying contexts. The tiny glossary Hoban includes at the back of the Expanded Edition is not very helpful, as it only defines a handful of the dozens of unfamiliar words the reader will come across.

    Nevertheless, despite the ~2% of the novel I didn't glean, Riddley Walker totally absorbed me. The grim setting is a future England some centuries after the entire world had quite literally been bombed back to the Stone Age during a nuclear war. The inhabitants of Inland (formerly England), generally either farmers or nomadic hunters, have been eking out a living all these centuries with barely more technology than being able to use fire. Early in the story, the teenager Riddley Walker suddenly gets thrust into the position of religious leader of his clan of nomads. This sets him off on a turbulent voyage of discovery that ultimately results in the course of history being altered significantly.

    Hoban has created a fascinating fictional world here, loosely based on real world England in the area around Canterbury, that I found to be quite believable as a post-apocalyptic setting. The characters, dialogue, and lore Hoban describes are really what make Riddley Walker so impressive. Simply an amazing feat of the imagination.

    A must read for those with a bent for soft science fiction rolled in with a bit of history and a bit of the macabre!
    8 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2013
    I rarely read fiction, but when my brother raves about a book, I know it's a must-read. I just wish he'd recommended "Riddley Walker" years ago.

    Set in a distant dystopian future, "Riddley Walker" presents a world that's completely strange, yet disturbingly familiar. Walker's England ("Inland") has become a nearly illiterate, iron-age culture. Language has devolved... which provides a large part of the story's immersive quality. It's written in the first person by the title character. And it takes a little getting used to.

    Riddley's world is a curious mix of hard practicality and superstition. The book presents unusual viewpoints that - in the story's context - almost begin to make complete sense.

    This book says much about human nature and technology... but mostly, it's a rollicking good read.
    2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • MMM
    5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant and important book
    Reviewed in Canada on April 17, 2022
    I have read this book five times. The first time, back in the seventies, I didn't understand what was going on and even when I finished a second read-through I was confused. So I read it again, and I was staggered by its force. Riddley Walker is the 12-year old author. His language is difficult, a disintegrating version of English. No speed-reading here: "I dont think it makes no diffrents where you start the telling of a thing. You never no where it begun realy. No more you know where you begun your oan self." Riddley lives in a post-apocalyptic England (called "Inland"), hundreds of years after "the One Big One," a world-wide atomic war, devastated the land, the sea, the people, and the language. It's a novel filled with courage, wisdom, and optimism. Last week, I finished a fifth-time marathon, reading the book to myself aloud. Lights dawned. I still have some puzzles to untangle, but I now realize that "aloud" meant I slowed down, listened, and learned. One reviewer said the book kept readers from becoming stupid. Amen. Most readers don't want to feel stupid, so they might give the book to a second-hand shop. But others might be up for the challenge. "Walker is my name and I am the same. Riddley Walker. Walking my riddels where ever theyve took me and walking them now on this paper the same." Give young Riddley a chance.
  • F
    3.0 out of 5 stars Meh
    Reviewed in Italy on October 13, 2018
    Interesting premises and technique, but the plot gets ridiculous after a few chapters
  • Michelle Morgan
    3.0 out of 5 stars Unique but the story gets lost.
    Reviewed in Australia on September 5, 2021
    I first read this book in the early 1990's then I loaned it to someone who never returned the book. During lockdown 2020 I re-purchased it and have just finished it. The first time I read it I was young and impressionable, I would say but this time, less of both. The idea behind the story of Riddley Walker, I can understand the rave reviews, to develop a language like this takes talent and dedication. Having said that, there are glimpses of how great this story could have been but I think it got lost in the zealous use of the language, the long rambling paragraphs where it was difficult to find the point and direction that went on and on. In the end, I was pleased it came to an end.
  • Frodo's Friend
    5.0 out of 5 stars HAPPY ZANTING
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 22, 2015
    This is one of the great fantasy novels of all time. I have loved and admired it for many years. Although summaries of the plot often state that this post-apocalypse world was brought about by nuclear war the mention of a 'power ring' suggests to me that it was a particle accelerator similar to the one at CERN that did the damage. When it comes to a glossary I think it's more fun to work out one for yourself as I did the first time I read it. In this edition I don't find Will Self's introduction particularly helpful. What is he on about? Somebody said, was it him? that Eusa stood for the USA. Personally I thought the European Space Administration more likely. Anyway I would recommend this book to anyone who is not afraid to let their imagination take flight. Good reading!
  • Arun Queibor
    5.0 out of 5 stars Un livre saisissant
    Reviewed in France on March 5, 2012
    Je m'attendais à quelque roman des années 80, un obscur roman-culte pour geeks, et en fait c'est l'écriture qui m'a saisi: inspirée, puissante, inattendue. La syntaxe et le vocabulaire créent un dépaysement total. C'est inoubliable et c'est le meilleur préalable à "The Book of Dave" de Will Self (qui reconnaît volontiers la filiation)...