ethan@utastro.UUCP (Ethan Vishniac) (09/18/84)
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This sounds like "Riddley Walker". I forget the author's name.
He doesn't normally write science fiction. In fact, his next
book was about a jewish eunuch who gets caught up in one of
the crusades. (Perhaps his name is Hoban? or something like it)
Ethan Vishniacdonn%utah-cs@sri-unix.UUCP (09/21/84)
From: donn@utah-cs (Donn Seeley) The name of the book you are looking for is RIDDLEY WALKER by Russell Hoban. A good book and highly recommended, but heavy going because it is written in a semi-literate post-holocaust dialect of Hoban's invention... But 'Eusa' is a corruption of 'St. Eustace', Donn Seeley University of Utah CS Dept donn@utah-cs.arpa 40 46' 6"N 111 50' 34"W (801) 581-5668 decvax!utah-cs!donn
ecl@hocsj.UUCP (09/21/84)
> This sounds like "Riddley Walker". I forget the author's name. > He doesn't normally write science fiction. In fact, his next > book was about a jewish eunuch who gets caught up in one of > the crusades. (Perhaps his name is Hoban? or something like it) The author of RIDDLEY WALKER is indeed Russell Hoban; his latest (refered to above) is PILGERMANN, in which the main character is castrated at the beginning of the book by a Christian mob in Germany during one of the Crusades. It is *very* good. A couple of samples: ...the fundamental flaw in God is that He will say that He requires the sacrifice of Isaac/Isma'il; the fundamental flaw in man is that he takes his knife in hand to do God's bidding. and Time after time had violent men sharpened the cross into a sword and made their silken vestments into banners; time after time had they spat out the wafer and the wine and shouted for real blood and real bodies. Hoban started out writing children's books (THE MOUSE AND HIS CHILD, among others) but has recently switched to adult fiction, generally with some sort of fantastic (in the sense of fantasy/SF) theme. His first along these lines was THE LION OF BOAZ-JACHIN AND JACHIN-BOAZ--not a great novel, but interesting. He has also written KLEINZEIT and THE TURTLE DIARY, which I haven't read yet (they're on my shelf). I would recommend starting with PILGERMANN. RIDDLEY WALKER is written in first-person dialect which some may find off-putting, but if you're up to it, go for it. Evelyn C. Leeper ...ihnp4!hocsj!ecl