| Lancette Arts Journal Founded in 2000 |
Book Reviews From our Archives |
April 2006 |
Linger Awhile
by Russell Hoban, Bloomsbury,
paperback, $24.95, 160 pages,
ISBN 0-7475-7984-9, distributed by Raincoast Books
It's a book with a twinkle in the eye
By Alidė Kohlhaas
You might know the song, Linger Awhile, which is a song about saying goodbye. Its lyrics by David Ball open with "The time is coming soon to say goodbye/A time of sadness it will be/But honey listen to my parting sigh/And linger on awhile with me". Now Russell Hoban, one of English language literature's most unusual grand old men (at 81) of letters, has written a book about longing, about being old and still having all the feelings that one expects only of the young. His Linger Awhile is his 10th book in just nine years, the eighth since his 70th birthday. As always, his latest book refuses to be ordinary, so be prepared for a merry, yet highly unusual ride on the Last Stagecoach to El Paso.
In Linger Awhile Hoban seems to be telling us that we have a tendency to forget that the elderly do not necessarily lose their desires and longings. He also seems to be preparing us for that final goodbye, the time when there will be no more Russell Hoban novels to amuse us, to challenge us. Hoban has a skewered perspective of life which he proffers to the world with an twinkle in his eye, a twinkle that always has a . . .
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