Finding your way around Riddley Walker`s world
(The Guardian Books Blog)

In this novel´s post-literate realm, it is harder to work out what is happening than in most fiction. But we can´t mistake its intensely human storyWe´ve had a go at understanding the language in Riddley Walker, but there are plenty more intriguing questions to answer. Such as: who is Riddley Walker? What is going on? When is it happening? And where? The `where` is easy. It becomes apparent early on that Riddley is roaming around Kent. `Cambry` is Canterbury, a place where huge organ pipes were found and where someone called `the Ardship Of Cambry` lives. Russell Hoban explains in his afterword: `Horny Boy is Herne Bay; Widders bel is Whistable; Father´s Ham is Faversham; Bernt Arse is Ashford; Fork Stoan is Folkestone; Do It Over is Dover.` These approximations are amusing, but I can see their logic in a society that has largely lost the ability to read. Continue reading...