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The Trokeville Way
The Trokeville Way
Hardcover
First published October 22, 1996
About the author
Russell Hoban
151 books418 followersRussell Conwell Hoban was an American expatriate writer. His works span many genres, including fantasy, science fiction, mainstream fiction, magical realism, poetry, and children's books. He lived in London, England, from 1969 until his death. (Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 12, 2012
Hoban books (the adult ones, at least) are to me mysterious. It's the rare non-Hoban book I read that I can't figure out within the first 25 pages. I know what's going to happen. Which is kind of boring. I mean, the whole reason why people like myself read books is to be presented with a series of completely unanticipatable developments. And, for me at least, that rule applies not only to novels but also to science books. So I've liked Hoban for a long time. He knows how to branch out into the strange and weird, not the usual strange and weird, not the only too easily foretold strange and weird of "series" books (which I detest), but the strange and weird of separate, individual stories entirely different from all others. Successive, individual strange and weird: to which only particularly ingenious authors can aspire.
And "Trokeville" certainly delivers when it comes to strange and weird. But entirely enjoyable. "Trokeville" creates its own separate reality as one goes along. An "only Hoban" reality. But even more: an only "Trokeville" reality. From whence in his brain does he (did he) dredge up these terribly individual plots and complications and characters? I couldn't do it, even on a bet. Which of course is the reason I'm happy to pay real money for a Hoban book. But since one can't at all believe that there are lots of other Hobans out there (no, Lillian, not you), it's a good idea to be very suspicious about aspiring Hobans who may claim to be continuing the master's work. Prove you're a worthy disciple FIRST and THEN I'll buy your books. Lord knows there's plenty of fantasy and weirdness around, and apparently it's catching. But I don't have it and I don't know if YOU have it, so please send me a free copy of your new post-Hoban book. I'll read it and then decide whether or not I'll buy it. But don't get your hopes up.
And "Trokeville" certainly delivers when it comes to strange and weird. But entirely enjoyable. "Trokeville" creates its own separate reality as one goes along. An "only Hoban" reality. But even more: an only "Trokeville" reality. From whence in his brain does he (did he) dredge up these terribly individual plots and complications and characters? I couldn't do it, even on a bet. Which of course is the reason I'm happy to pay real money for a Hoban book. But since one can't at all believe that there are lots of other Hobans out there (no, Lillian, not you), it's a good idea to be very suspicious about aspiring Hobans who may claim to be continuing the master's work. Prove you're a worthy disciple FIRST and THEN I'll buy your books. Lord knows there's plenty of fantasy and weirdness around, and apparently it's catching. But I don't have it and I don't know if YOU have it, so please send me a free copy of your new post-Hoban book. I'll read it and then decide whether or not I'll buy it. But don't get your hopes up.
July 19, 2012
An interesting coming of age story through a young boy’s mind.
Story:
Nick Hartley is just trying to make it through his last year of middle school in one piece. He figured it should be easy since he is your average middle school student that doesn’t stand out and doesn’t bother anyone. One thing he didn’t count on is that everybody stands out in some way especially when they are trying not to. Enter Harry Buncher. Nick’s nemesis seems to hate the world and has decided that making Nick’s as miserable as possible makes his a little better.
After coming out on the losing end of one of Harry’s lessons, and a scolding from his brain, Nick wakes up outside the school and notices that the world around him is a little… sharper. Thinking that maybe he bumped his head a little too hard this time, Nick starts walking home only to come across a man playing a circus tune. He stops to give the man some change and notices a strange picture that seems to come alive before his eyes. He learns the man’s name is Moe Nagic and that the picture is actually a jigsaw puzzle that when assembled allows a sort of portal into another world for those who’s senses are attuned to it. Moe Nagic asks him if he wants to buy it and Nick takes the offer. After explaining how to access the world Moe Nagic sends Nick on his way. This is the beginning of Nick’s Journey. Once he looks in he finds that he can’t look back. What follows is a journey through his, slightly cranky, mind to understand the person that he is and to find the person that he can become.
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This is one of the more interesting books I have come across lately. As I read the book it changed from a kid finds a magic portal to another world coming of age story, to a trip through the subconscious, to a ghost story. It does keep the coming of age story theme throughout the book but it is definitely one of the more interesting takes on that theme that I have come across. Nick’s cranky brain makes an interesting companion as travels through a kind of shared subconscious that lets him sort the motivations of the important people in his life. Even though this is considered a “kid’s” book I would recommend it to any one that likes adventures that have a little psychological kick to them and also to anyone who likes a story that takes a few set genres and turns them on their head. M.a.c
Story:
Nick Hartley is just trying to make it through his last year of middle school in one piece. He figured it should be easy since he is your average middle school student that doesn’t stand out and doesn’t bother anyone. One thing he didn’t count on is that everybody stands out in some way especially when they are trying not to. Enter Harry Buncher. Nick’s nemesis seems to hate the world and has decided that making Nick’s as miserable as possible makes his a little better.
After coming out on the losing end of one of Harry’s lessons, and a scolding from his brain, Nick wakes up outside the school and notices that the world around him is a little… sharper. Thinking that maybe he bumped his head a little too hard this time, Nick starts walking home only to come across a man playing a circus tune. He stops to give the man some change and notices a strange picture that seems to come alive before his eyes. He learns the man’s name is Moe Nagic and that the picture is actually a jigsaw puzzle that when assembled allows a sort of portal into another world for those who’s senses are attuned to it. Moe Nagic asks him if he wants to buy it and Nick takes the offer. After explaining how to access the world Moe Nagic sends Nick on his way. This is the beginning of Nick’s Journey. Once he looks in he finds that he can’t look back. What follows is a journey through his, slightly cranky, mind to understand the person that he is and to find the person that he can become.
-----------
This is one of the more interesting books I have come across lately. As I read the book it changed from a kid finds a magic portal to another world coming of age story, to a trip through the subconscious, to a ghost story. It does keep the coming of age story theme throughout the book but it is definitely one of the more interesting takes on that theme that I have come across. Nick’s cranky brain makes an interesting companion as travels through a kind of shared subconscious that lets him sort the motivations of the important people in his life. Even though this is considered a “kid’s” book I would recommend it to any one that likes adventures that have a little psychological kick to them and also to anyone who likes a story that takes a few set genres and turns them on their head. M.a.c
January 31, 2023
Coming of age story that does a delicate balancing act between YA tone and mature content, but offers some interesting insights into growing up (at any age ...)
I should say that I defer to no one in my admiration of Russell Hoban. Riddley Walker would be first in the bag for my Desert Island books. Novels (adult and children's) like Fremder, The Mouse and His Child, The Marzipan Pig are little gems. And then there are the Frances the Badger series of children's books .... each one of which I have read, in the line of parental duty, about a million times, and would cheerfully read a million more ...
Hoban's work invariably involves a private mythology that he spins into a Universal Truth (whether we are talking abut a family of badgers with a child who is inclined to poeticising and prim literal-mindedness, or whether we are talking about how Punch and Judy might represent the salvation of a post-apocalyptic world ...) Hoban's mythology, whatever it is, can be a little, er, obscure but he usually offers enough of a lifeline for the reader to get onboard and hang on. And he makes the ride worth it.
Here, the myth is constructed around a mysterious jigsaw puzzle (or juzzle) showing a bridge (or brudge) in the foreground of a shadowy landscape. The juzzle is bought by unhappy schoolboy Nick Hartley (a boy on the cusp of that awkward age when he is technically a teenager, at the age of 13, but hasn't quite achieved any of the "advantages," physical or social, that being a teen brings). It is sold by busker Moe Nagic, a man with a sad past, who gives him a few pointers on how to enter the scene in the picture, and then kills himself ....
Yeah, that went dark, very fast. Something to remember is that this was written in the heady days before young people were encouraged to consider themself children, who must be shielded from any unpleasantness, up to the age of about 21. There's plenty of unpleasantness, treated quite matter-of-factly, in this short novella. Hoban obviously thought that his readers were mature enough to handle it, and remembering my own pre-teen years, I'm inclined to agree with him.
Nick is drawn into the world of the "juzzle," getting trapped there as he tries to work though his real-life crushes, clash with his class bully, figure out his relationship with parents and brother, and come to terms with his own Mind. Which is a character in its own right, and -- nice joke -- has a mind of its own ...
Much to like, and the way it all works out has a pleasing quality of a fairy-tale for one on the cusp of puberty, but it didn't entirely feel like it all came together in a way that made me say, yes, that's how it was. That makes sense of it all ...
Like other reviewers, I was more than a bit disappointed that, in the end, Nick's problems with Harry Buncher the bully are solved
I also felt that, amusing as the exchanges that Nick had with his Mind were to begin with, they got a bit old, and began to feel like padding.
I loved his parents. His Mum, whose constant playing of Clair de Lune, "hesitantly but with a light touch," may signal sad memories of lost loves (or may not), and his Dad, whose dad-jokes and "hale fellow, well met" affect with his sons are his way of concealing his own life disappointments. It's dryly amusing to see Nick's misconceptions about his parents, the alternative backstories that the juzzle creates for them, and how Nick comes to realise that, there doesn't necessarily have to be any drama or mystery -- his parents are people, with hopes and disappointments, too.
When I asked Mum about her pre-Dad days it developed that she'd never had a bassoon-playing boyfriend with whom she'd read Proust ...
That, of course, is her story -- what Nick, and we the readers, learn from the juzzle is that each life contains multitudes ....
I should say that I defer to no one in my admiration of Russell Hoban. Riddley Walker would be first in the bag for my Desert Island books. Novels (adult and children's) like Fremder, The Mouse and His Child, The Marzipan Pig are little gems. And then there are the Frances the Badger series of children's books .... each one of which I have read, in the line of parental duty, about a million times, and would cheerfully read a million more ...
Hoban's work invariably involves a private mythology that he spins into a Universal Truth (whether we are talking abut a family of badgers with a child who is inclined to poeticising and prim literal-mindedness, or whether we are talking about how Punch and Judy might represent the salvation of a post-apocalyptic world ...) Hoban's mythology, whatever it is, can be a little, er, obscure but he usually offers enough of a lifeline for the reader to get onboard and hang on. And he makes the ride worth it.
Here, the myth is constructed around a mysterious jigsaw puzzle (or juzzle) showing a bridge (or brudge) in the foreground of a shadowy landscape. The juzzle is bought by unhappy schoolboy Nick Hartley (a boy on the cusp of that awkward age when he is technically a teenager, at the age of 13, but hasn't quite achieved any of the "advantages," physical or social, that being a teen brings). It is sold by busker Moe Nagic, a man with a sad past, who gives him a few pointers on how to enter the scene in the picture, and then kills himself ....
Yeah, that went dark, very fast. Something to remember is that this was written in the heady days before young people were encouraged to consider themself children, who must be shielded from any unpleasantness, up to the age of about 21. There's plenty of unpleasantness, treated quite matter-of-factly, in this short novella. Hoban obviously thought that his readers were mature enough to handle it, and remembering my own pre-teen years, I'm inclined to agree with him.
Nick is drawn into the world of the "juzzle," getting trapped there as he tries to work though his real-life crushes, clash with his class bully, figure out his relationship with parents and brother, and come to terms with his own Mind. Which is a character in its own right, and -- nice joke -- has a mind of its own ...
Much to like, and the way it all works out has a pleasing quality of a fairy-tale for one on the cusp of puberty, but it didn't entirely feel like it all came together in a way that made me say, yes, that's how it was. That makes sense of it all ...
Like other reviewers, I was more than a bit disappointed that, in the end, Nick's problems with Harry Buncher the bully are solved
I also felt that, amusing as the exchanges that Nick had with his Mind were to begin with, they got a bit old, and began to feel like padding.
I loved his parents. His Mum, whose constant playing of Clair de Lune, "hesitantly but with a light touch," may signal sad memories of lost loves (or may not), and his Dad, whose dad-jokes and "hale fellow, well met" affect with his sons are his way of concealing his own life disappointments. It's dryly amusing to see Nick's misconceptions about his parents, the alternative backstories that the juzzle creates for them, and how Nick comes to realise that, there doesn't necessarily have to be any drama or mystery -- his parents are people, with hopes and disappointments, too.
When I asked Mum about her pre-Dad days it developed that she'd never had a bassoon-playing boyfriend with whom she'd read Proust ...
That, of course, is her story -- what Nick, and we the readers, learn from the juzzle is that each life contains multitudes ....
June 2, 2018
A kooky little read about how confusing life can be. Russell Hoban is such a weirdo, and it’s great.
August 1, 2014
The odd yet cosy cover picture on my edition doesn't clue one in to the fairly mature nature of this novel. There is bullying, suicide, failed relationships, a bit of swearing, used condoms - and at the less scatological end of the spectrum, references to Proust, Tennyson, Burne-Jones and more. Although a little more clearly structured than Hoban's later novels for adults, this one for teens is no less cheerfully unrestrained in its wanderings and eclectically magpie-ish in its cultural pickings.
Our narrator Nick is a 13-year-old, with normal 13-year-old problems. He buys an odd painting from a busker who turns out to be a failed conjurer, and finds he can enter the painting. In that world he encounters people he knows from the 'real' world, but here they reveal themselves in different ways as he navigates the strange landscape.
So it's a rite of passage story, though indirect and oblique. For all its melancholy, its buried sadness and lost dreams, it's a warm and positive read, as Nick reaches a settlement with life as it is.
(Still, if you only read one children's book by Russell Hoban - or by anybody - make it The Mouse and His Child.)
Our narrator Nick is a 13-year-old, with normal 13-year-old problems. He buys an odd painting from a busker who turns out to be a failed conjurer, and finds he can enter the painting. In that world he encounters people he knows from the 'real' world, but here they reveal themselves in different ways as he navigates the strange landscape.
So it's a rite of passage story, though indirect and oblique. For all its melancholy, its buried sadness and lost dreams, it's a warm and positive read, as Nick reaches a settlement with life as it is.
(Still, if you only read one children's book by Russell Hoban - or by anybody - make it The Mouse and His Child.)
September 16, 2015
Delightful pre-pubescent parable, featuring bullies, families and first loves.
I read Hoban's very adult post-apocalyptic, pidgeon-English masterwork Riddley Walker as a teenager and this, a fantasy novel for teenagers, as a thirty-eight year old.
Typical of Hoban there are the usual slightly displaced linguistic tricks designed to do unexpected and enjoyable things with semantics. The story is a rites of passage, only across a "brudge" (bridge), through a "would" (wood) and into a "mise" (maze), and thereafter to a state of adulthood formed from the voice individual conscience.
Superior teen fiction.
I read Hoban's very adult post-apocalyptic, pidgeon-English masterwork Riddley Walker as a teenager and this, a fantasy novel for teenagers, as a thirty-eight year old.
Typical of Hoban there are the usual slightly displaced linguistic tricks designed to do unexpected and enjoyable things with semantics. The story is a rites of passage, only across a "brudge" (bridge), through a "would" (wood) and into a "mise" (maze), and thereafter to a state of adulthood formed from the voice individual conscience.
Superior teen fiction.
June 20, 2007
Still in the process of reading and not sure if I am that satisfied. Hoban's style is sometimes dark and mature in content, but this still contains a boy protaganist; obviously meant for adults, not children, but this is confusing. The book doesn't flow well, and is awkward in several areas, like a boy going through puberty.
March 31, 2015
Creepy psuedo-YA "romance" with a male protagonist. Beautifully written, might go well in an English class although I would have reservations about some of the scenes, wouldn't actually give to my YA readers even though they like supernatural plot-lines.
October 11, 2008
this book was very confusing to me
July 6, 2010
Loved it!
July 30, 2011
A typically hobanesque novel, weaving in and out of a parallel (dream?) world and in and out of language. Fantastic!
July 13, 2012
It was OK (two stars), couldn't say I really liked it (three stars). Last couple of pages kind of redeemed the book. Never felt inspired to pick up this book and read it. Hey-ho, finished now.
April 9, 2017
This book was written for young adults but is a great read for adults too I loved it and was pondering whether it was going to be a 4 or 5 star but decided to give it 5 as I romped through it.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews