Irving Goodman, self-confessed dirty old man, is 83 years old and has just fallen in love. Unfortunately, Justine Trimble, pert star of 1950s cowboy B-movies, has been dead for 47 years. He saw her first in Last Stage to El Paso, a black-and-white Western, and has been unable to think of anything else since. Desperate and undeterred, Goodman invokes the help of his old friend, Istvan Fallock, to see if they can't somehow conjure the 25-year-old Justine from a videotape. So with a test tube, distillation of frog, a soupcon of primordial soup mixed with a suspension of disbelief, they attempt to summon her back to life. To their surprise and consternation, she materializes with a hunger for blood so that she can live her new life. As a reward for lust and hubris, Irving gets a lot more than the affection and attention he'd bargained for.
Thus begins a tale of murder and mayhem in contemporary London, where sexy vampire cowgirls run amok, chased by men old enough to know better.
In the last 10 years Hoban has experienced an astounding burst in creative energy. At the age of 83 Hoban is producing some of the strongest fiction of his career as he knocks out almost a book a year. But this end run shouldn’t come as a surprise. The man hasnt stopped writing in more then 5 decades.
From his children’s book's which include the long running Francis the Badger series to his classic children’s novel The Mouse and His Child to his adult novels that run the gamut of literary fiction (Turtle Diary), Science Fiction (Fremder & Riddly Walker), Fantasy (The Medusa Frequency & Kleinzeit), Historical fiction (Pilgermann) to librettos, poetry, essays and short fiction Hoban has been continuously writing in as many styles as possible all the while producing one of the more impressive bodies of work.
Linger Awhile is one of the strongest of his late period books that ranks up there with The Bat Tattoo and Amaryllis Night and Days. It’s a highly original take on the vampire tale that is quirky, engaging and above all else fun. There isn’t a "stop and smell the roses" moment in sight as Hoban starts off running and maintains a quick pace throughout the book. The story was very compelling and once I started reading I couldn’t stop until I was finished.
I think that Linger Awhile may also be Hoban’s most accessible book. It provides a great starting point for someone who is new to his work. From the poetry quoting Detective to the Chinese restaurant named after the prophet Elijah, who makes appearances in dreams, to the central conceit of the novel itself there are a lot of Hoban's recurring themes and motifs present in Linger Awhile that are present in his larger body of work. Piled on top of all that are Hoban's wry observations on art, poetry, life & relationships mixed with a healthy dose of puns. There's a lot that’s happening in these 132 pages.
Though their styles are very different I would think that readers who like the works of Jonathan Carroll and Graham Joyce would also like the books of Russell Hoban.
--Brian Lindenmuth
