Linger Awhile, by Russell Hoban

A tale of desire in old age, and of the vampires who rise to service it

Jonathan Gibbs
Tuesday 10 January 2006 01:00 GMT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

In the acknowledgements in his new novel, Russell Hoban admits he finds it "impossible to stop writing", and apologises to his publisher for this "addiction". It's a characteristically mischievous comment from this sprightly octogenarian, who has produced eight novels in the past 10 years, and several books for children.

In keeping with these recent excursions, Linger Awhile is an adult fairy tale, an outrageous and genial fantasy of love, sex, and death in contemporary London. It features recurring characters and comes peppered with the author's usual miscellany of references, here ranging from Gene Autry to AE Housman to the Algerian singer Souad Massi.

Irving Goodman is a typical Hoban protagonist, an elderly gent of creative bent, with a typical Hoban dilemma: in his 83rd year he has developed a passion for a dead 1950s Hollywood starlet, Justine Trimble. He descends into deepest Soho to visit Istvan Fallok, Hoban's long-time Mr Fixit, and asks him to bring the 25-year-old Justine back to life.

Fallok does accomplish his Frankensteinian task, through a suitably barmy process involving home-cooked primordial soup and "visual DNA", but unfortunately the reconstituted Justine is as monochrome as the movie from which she was lifted, Last Stage to El Paso - and the only way to turn her grey cheeks Technicolor is through regular draughts of human blood. She's more than happy to trade sexual favours for a transfusion, and Fallok sends her out to stalk the streets of London for prey.

Hoban revels in the clichés his vampire cowgirl affords him, introducing a poetry-loving detective to ponder the corpses, and a medical examiner to deliver the hammier-than-Hammer line, "There is absolutely no blood in this body, and look at those bite marks on the neck."

Despite the addition of a second Justine, accidentally cross-cloned with toad DNA, and some traditional stake-through-the-heart action, generic thrills are not really what Hoban is about. Goodman recoils from Justine and finds a healthier companion in Grace Kowalski.

Linger Awhile is slim enough to burn through in an evening, but it is one of Hoban's most successful attempts to juggle his various preoccupations - most importantly, the erotic life of the elderly, and how to cope with the loss of love. Nobody can mix the philosophical with the downright cheesy like he can.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in