Word: riddley
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...RIDDLEY WALKER by Russell Hoban
Those whose attention spans have shrunk to the length of a station break are going to find Riddley Walker easy to bypass. The novel's first sentence, for example, is not exactly a conventional grabber: "On my naming day when I come 12 I gone front spear and kilt a wyld boar he parbly ben the las wyld pig on the Bundel Downs any how there hadnt ben none for a long time befor him nor I aint looking to see none agen." Even patient readers are likely to riffle pages at this point, trying to find...
Patchwork language is an essential part of Author Russell Hoban's story. Hoban, 55, who has written children's books and three previous novels, sets Riddley Walker in the southeast corner of England, some 2,500 years into a badly damaged and degraded future. A nuclear holocaust, which occurred near the end of the 20th century, has forced civilization to start over again at ground zero. Progress has been slow. People huddle together in small enclaves, fighting off the elements, packs of killer dogs and occasionally, one another. A semblance of central government exists in the person...