Literature
Riddley Walker
This is easily the most fascinating novel that I have ever read. It’s set several thousand years in the future, after a nuclear apocalypse and the striking feature of the novel is that it is entirely written in a degenerated form of colloquial English. The first sentence is a great example of the language:
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.
It's difficult at first, but once you get into the novel it isn't that hard to understand, and by the end of the book you really begin to appreciate the incredible task that the author, Russell Hoban, undertook in writing this. It’s a fantastic way of creating a believable post-apocalyptic society, and by the time you finish the book it really does feel like you have learnt a new language.
It isn’t simply the language and communication in the book which make this such a fantastic novel. Russell Hoban has a unique take on themes such as knowledge, power and oneness, seamlessly switching between wonderfully humorous remarks and haunting visions of the future. It is barely three pages into the book when we begin to see Hoban’s dark side, with Riddley recounting a story of two parents eating their own child, which gives the book an unsettling atmosphere throughout.
Hoban’s vision of a world where the primary forms of communication are Puppet Shows and children’s songs is truly enchanting. He takes so many irrelevant aspects of modern society, such as the Punch and Judy show, and transforms them into integral features of his post-apocalyptic world.
This is a wonderful novel, and without doubt on of the best presentations of a post-apocalyptic society that I have ever come across. Don’t be put off by the language, like some people I know, it really is a boon to the book.
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1 votes, average: 4 out of 5
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Best post-apoc novel, you say? Check out Cormack McCarthy's 'The Road': now THAT'S what could be called genius and THE best PO novel.
Best presentations of a post-apocalyptic society. Its hard to single out just one post-apocalyptic novel as the best. Impossible, I would say. In fact I was just reading A Canticle for Leibowitz the other day, which is equally fantastic. There are too many to name, but Riddley Walker just has a brilliantly crafted society in it that I can't help but love.