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Turtle Diary/Editions

Eb — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 00:20:25 GMT

Turtle Diary

Eb — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 17:23:56 GMT

something called Original Therapy

Turtle Diary/Editions

Eb — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 01:57:51 GMT

E-books & Audio

Turtle Diary

Eb — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 01:54:26 GMT

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 {{Edition desc|language=French|translator=Brigitte Gyr|alt-title=Le journal d'une tortue|desc=Flammarion, 1982.|}}
-{{Edition desc|language=Japanese|translator=Yumiko Inui|alt-title=Sorezore no umi e|desc=Hyôronsya, 1987.}}
+{{Edition desc|language=Japanese|translator=Yumiko Inui|alt-title=Sorezore no umi e|desc=Hyōronsha, 1987.}}
 == E-books & Audio ==

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 === a new Gillian Vole story ... I have not got another furry-animal picnic or birthday party in me ===
-Neaera's ''Gillian Vole'' resembles familiar archetypes in plenty of mid-20th-century children's literature... but in a Russell Hoban novel, it's impossible not to think of the seven [http://www.ocelotfactory.com/hoban/frances.html ''Frances the Badger''] books that Hoban wrote between 1960 and 1970. Even though ''Bedtime for Frances'' wasn't Hoban's very first work for children (that was ''What Does It Do and How Does it Work?'', a picture book about heavy machinery), the Frances books were his breakthrough, and a few years before ''Turtle Diary'' it might have been easy to imagine that he would be pressured to keep writing about Frances for decades. (In real life, he went on to write dozens of other books for children on all kinds of subjects alongside his adult novels.)
+Neaera's ''Gillian Vole'' resembles familiar archetypes in plenty of mid-20th-century children's literature... but in a Russell Hoban novel, it's impossible not to think of the seven ''Frances the Badger'' books<ref>Some pieces about the Frances books: [https://www.salon.com/2001/04/17/frances/ Kate Moses in ''Salon''], [https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-book-news/article/44649-russell-hoban-celebrates-50-years-of-frances.html Sally Lodge in ''Publishers Weekly''], and [http://www.ocelotfactory.com/hoban/frances.html Dave Awl in ''The Head of Orpheus'']. There's also a short [https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Frances animated Frances series] that aired in 2008.</ref> that Hoban wrote between 1960 and 1972. Even though ''Bedtime for Frances'' wasn't Hoban's very first work for children (that was ''What Does It Do and How Does it Work?'', a picture book about heavy machinery), the Frances books were his breakthrough, and in the years before ''Turtle Diary'' it might have been easy to imagine that he would be pressured to keep writing about Frances for decades. In real life, he went on to write dozens of other books for children on all kinds of subjects alongside his adult novels.
-The series also had another kind of personal significance for Hoban, as all of the Frances books except the first one were illustrated by Lillian Hoban, his wife at the time. Their divorce, following a family trip to England which Russell chose to never return from, shows up in various forms in several of his novels. In ''Turtle Diary'', he has in effect divided up aspects of his life between William (who gets the divorce) and Neaera (who gets the creative career), although neither of them is an American expat as he was.
+The series was also personally significant for Hoban in another way, as all of the Frances books except the first one were illustrated by Lillian Hoban, his wife at the time; the last book, ''Egg Thoughts and Other Frances Songs'', was their final collaboration after they had separated but not yet divorced. The breakup of their marriage, following a family trip to England which Russell chose to never return from, shows up in various forms in several of his novels. In ''Turtle Diary'', he has in effect divided up aspects of his life between William (who gets the divorce) and Neaera (who gets the creative career), although neither of them is an American expat as he was.
 Based on the brief descriptions we get of Neaera's work, Gillian Vole is a comfortable adult who does undramatic things; that's the opposite of Frances, who is a volatile and unpredictable child. Also, an actual badger will happily eat a vole.<ref>{{cite article|title=Food: Mammals|url=https://www.badgerland.co.uk/animals/food/mammals.html|publication=Badgerland|accessed=October 5, 2026}}</ref>
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 === ''The Man in the Zoo'' ===
-The 1924 ''New York Times'' review of this novella called it "delightful" and described its theme like so: "a man lives side by side with lower animals, and appears not wholly to advantage."<ref>{{cite article|date=June 15, 1924|title=David Garnett Displays Modern Man in a London Zoo|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1924/06/15/101602000.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0|publication=New York Times}}</ref>
+The 1924 ''New York Times'' review of this novella called it "delightful" and described its theme like so: "a man lives side by side with lower animals, and appears not wholly to advantage."<ref>{{cite article|date=June 15, 1924|title=David Garnett Displays Modern Man in a London Zoo|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1924/06/15/101602000.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0|publication=New York Times Book Review}}</ref>
 === The turtle in Lear's ''Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò'' looks like a hawksbill in the drawing ===
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 === An important witness in the current American government scandal ===
-Although ''Turtle Diary'' was published in 1975, it's likely that Hoban was either writing this earlier and referring to the Watergate affair, or just assuming that Watergate-type events would be a permanent fixture of US politics from then on. I'm not sure the specific quote William describes is real, but I'm guessing it's meant to be G. Gordon Liddy; it would be in character with Liddy's grandiosity and homophobia.
+Although ''Turtle Diary'' was published in 1975, there are multiple remarks ([[#God.27s_going_to_step_in_and_put_things_to_right_in_a_couple_of_years_...._We.27ve_been_interested_in_the_year_1975_for_some_time|Chapter 20]], [[#the_astronauts_on_Skylab-2_have_got_two_spiders_with_them|Chapter 24]]) suggesting that Hoban wrote much of the novel in 1973, or at least that it takes place then.
 == Chapter 16 ==
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 This bilingual pun probably isn't etymologically accurate. Shark in French is "requin", which sounds a little like "requiem", and "requiem" comes from "to rest" in Latin. But it's not clear that the words really are related; "requin" is thought to be from a different word that means showing your teeth.
 == Chapter 23 ==
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 === the astronauts on Skylab-2 have got two spiders with them ===
-It was Skylab-3<ref>{{cite article|author=Helmenstein, Anne Marie|date=July 3, 2019|title=Spiders in Space on Skylab 3|url=https://www.thoughtco.com/spiders-in-space-on-skylab-3-606024|publication=ThoughtCo|accessed=January 31, 2021}}</ref> (although the numbers don't refer to different space stations, just a series of missions on the same station), and this is more evidence (like the Watergate reference) that either a good deal of the novel was written in 1973 or it takes place then.
+It was Skylab-3<ref>{{cite article|author=Helmenstein, Anne Marie|date=July 3, 2019|title=Spiders in Space on Skylab 3|url=https://www.thoughtco.com/spiders-in-space-on-skylab-3-606024|publication=ThoughtCo|accessed=January 31, 2021}}</ref> (although the numbers don't refer to different space stations, just a series of missions on the same station); this is another reference placing the book [[#An_important_witness_in_the_current_American_government_scandal|in 1973]].
 == Chapter 25 ==
 === The place was in Maida Vale ===
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 "Cwt" here is "hundredweight", 100 pounds (or in some contexts 112 pounds), used as a measure of a vehicle's hauling capacity. {{wp|Ford Transit}} has been a popular line of vans and similar vehicles for many years, so Hoban may have simply picked it as a widely available option, but it's appropriate for a turtle heist since it was at one point allegedly the getaway vehicle used in "95 percent of bank raids."<ref>{{cite article|author=Horrell, Paul|date=October 9, 2015|title=The Ford Transit is 50 today, so we drove the oldest surviving example|url=https://www.topgear.com/car-news/british/ford-transit-50-today-so-we-drove-oldest-surviving-example|publication=Top Gear|accessed=February 7, 2021}}</ref> The one being rented here would not have the streamlined look of today's Transits; pre-1978 models had boxy snouts that emphasized how (as William notices) they were on the wide side.
 == Chapter 32 ==
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 {{wp|Belisha beacon|Belisha beacons}} are lamps at pedestrian crossings.
 === her Postal Savings book ===

← Older revision		Revision as of 01:57, 6 October 2026
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	Audible Audio, 2021. Read by Harry Myers and Lucy Patterson. ASIN B08XY3KBQL		Audible Audio, 2021. Read by Harry Myers and Lucy Patterson. ASIN B08XY3KBQL
		+
		+	BBC Radio 4, 2025. Read by Daniel Weyman and Katherine Parkinson. Episodes are listed [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0026v77/episodes/guide here], but aren't currently playable (also, the BBC site hilariously categorizes the book as "Drama > Action & Adventure").

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 [[File:{{#setmainimage:turtlediarycover.jpg}}|frameless|right|200px]]
 {{#css:Turtle Diary.css}}{{#addbodyclass:tiled-toc}}
-These are notes for '''''Turtle Diary''''' (1975), [[Russell Hoban]]'s third non-children's novel. It's a bittersweet philosophical semi-comic non-romance about two desperately lonely middle-aged Londoners who connect over a mutual obsession with stealing sea turtles from the zoo and returning them to the ocean.
+These are notes for '''''Turtle Diary''''' (1975), [[Russell Hoban]]'s third non-children's novel. It's a bittersweet philosophical semi-comic non-romance about two lonely middle-aged Londoners who connect over a mutual obsession with stealing sea turtles from the zoo and returning them to the ocean.
-The novel was adapted into a {{wp|Turtle Diary|1985 film}} written by Harold Pinter and directed by John Irvin. Hoban disliked the movie (which omitted basically everything that was conveyed in the book's interior monologues), calling it "feeble and flabby";<ref>{{cite article|author=Carter, James|date=1995|title=Nutrition for the Eyes: An Interview with Russell Hoban from 1995|url=https://www.russellhoban.org/essay/nutrition-for-the-eyes-an-interview-with-russell-hoban-from-1995|publication=RussellHoban.org|pub-date=November 2, 2015|accessed=January 31, 2021}}.</ref> a radio adaptation<ref>[https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/9ded818092b04cdfb4acd0b5be3a6830 ''The Saturday Play: Turtle Diary''], dramatised by Alison Joseph, directed by Gaynor Macfarlane. BBC Radio 4 FM, April 19, 2003.</ref> in 2003 was more positively received by the author.<ref>{{cite article|author=Cooper, Richard|date=June 20, 2015|title=Russell Hoban on the Kraken|url=http://www.russellhoban.org/essay/russell-hoban-on-the-kraken-part-1|publication=RussellHoban.org|accessed=January 31, 2021}}</ref>
+The novel was adapted into a {{wp|Turtle Diary|1985 film}} written by Harold Pinter and directed by John Irvin. Hoban disliked the movie (which omitted basically everything that was conveyed in the book's interior monologues), calling it "feeble and flabby";<ref>{{cite article|author=Carter, James|date=1995|title=Nutrition for the Eyes: An Interview with Russell Hoban from 1995|url=https://www.russellhoban.org/essay/nutrition-for-the-eyes-an-interview-with-russell-hoban-from-1995|publication=RussellHoban.org|pub-date=November 2, 2015|accessed=January 31, 2021}}.</ref> a radio adaptation<ref>[https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/9ded818092b04cdfb4acd0b5be3a6830 ''The Saturday Play: Turtle Diary''], dramatised by Alison Joseph, directed by Gaynor Macfarlane. BBC Radio 4 FM, April 19, 2003. The [https://russellhoban.org/2025/01/10/bbc-radio-broadcasting-new-reading-of-turtle-diary/ later BBC broadcast of ''Turtle Diary''], in 2025, was a reading rather than an adaptation.</ref> in 2003 was more positively received by the author.<ref>{{cite article|author=Cooper, Richard|date=June 20, 2015|title=Russell Hoban on the Kraken|url=http://www.russellhoban.org/essay/russell-hoban-on-the-kraken-part-1|publication=RussellHoban.org|accessed=January 31, 2021}}</ref>
 There are 53 chapters, with William narrating the odd-numbered chapters and Neaera the even-numbered ones. The notes below refer to the 2013 edition from New York Review Books; see '''[[/Editions/]]''' for others.
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 == Chapter 2 ==
 === Great Water-Beetle, ''Dysticus marginalis'' ===
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 A Cornish {{wp|Polperro|seaside town}} with a population of about 1,500. One travel guide claims that the touristy gift shops do not ''quite'' manage to spoil it.<ref>{{cite article|title=Polperro|url=https://www.cornwalls.co.uk/polperro|publication=Cornwall Guide|accessed=January 31, 2021}}</ref>
 == Chapter 10 ==
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 === They go on such strange geometrical hinges / You may open them both ways ===
-Besides being an evocative line in itself, this quote from Webster puts one of Hoban's earlier jokes in a different light: [[Turtle Diary#Procurer_to_the_King_by_Fallopia_Bothways|"Fallopia Bothways"]]'s last name, in the context of steamy romance novels, was obviously a reference to "swinging both ways" but in this passage the Duchess is talking about the doors between this world and the next, saying that not only are they many in number (as there are many ways to die) but they might have less straightforward rules than we assume.
+Besides being an evocative line in itself, this quote from Webster puts one of Hoban's earlier jokes in a different light: [[Turtle Diary#Procurer_to_the_King_by_Fallopia_Bothways|"Fallopia Bothways"]]'s last name, in the context of steamy romance novels, was obviously a reference to "swinging both ways", but in this passage the Duchess is talking about the doors between this world and the next, saying that not only are they many in number (as there are many ways to die) but they might have less straightforward rules than we assume.
-While ''Turtle Diary'' takes place in a basically realistic world, the many synchronicities between William's and Neaera's thoughts, and the ways that references often show up in one context early on and turn out to have been foreshadowing or echoing-in-reverse a later event, suggest that it's not entirely separate from the world of Hoban's earlier comic fantasy ''{{wp|Kleinzeit}}'', in which an idea or a phrase can take on a life of its own and pass through different people's lives without regard for cause and effect.
+While ''Turtle Diary'' takes place in a basically realistic world, the many synchronicities between William's and Neaera's thoughts, and the ways that references often show up in one context early on and turn out to have been foreshadowing or echoing-in-reverse a later event, suggest that it's not entirely separate from the world of Hoban's earlier comic fantasy ''{{wp|Kleinzeit}}'', in which an idea or a phrase can take on a life of its own and pass through different people's lives without regard for cause and effect. "Both ways" may be one of these—or, Neaera may have been unconsciously inspired to reread ''The Duchess of Malfi'' due to hearing about Fallopia.
 === the shark's mouth ... a place of rest, they call them ''requin'' ===
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 === an old German film ... Harry Bauer was in it ===
-This would be [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035402/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 ''Symphony of a Life''] (1943), Baur's only non-French film (Bauer is a typo)—also his last film, and possibly the indirect cause of his death. Baur was a star in France but after the Nazi invasion he was blacklisted by the collaborationists, and (either as a desperate career move or against his will, it's unclear) ended up joining the German film industry instead, traveling to Germany to make this. He finished the movie but was then arrested by the Gestapo, and died shortly after his release from prison, either due to lingering effects of his ordeal or by foul play. It's possible that Hoban didn't know this story; I feel like if he had, he wouldn't have been able to resist working it in somehow.
+This would be [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035402/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 ''Symphony of a Life''] (1943), Baur's only non-French film (Bauer is a typo)—also his last film, and possibly the indirect cause of his death. Baur was a star in France but after the Nazi invasion he was blacklisted by the collaborationists, and (either as a desperate career move or against his will, it's unclear) ended up joining the German film industry instead, traveling to Germany to make this movie. After finishing it he was arrested by the Gestapo, and died shortly after his release from prison, either due to lingering effects of his ordeal or by foul play. It's possible that Hoban didn't know this story; I feel like if he had, he wouldn't have been able to resist working it in somehow.
 == Chapter 42 ==
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 === How did he know that I knew where Tortuguero was? ===
-This is one of the few places in the novel where the apparent synchronicity of a repeated idea is actually noticed by one of the narrators—except it's been set up in a way that, probably deliberately, highlights the mundane ability of our minds to manufacture these out of nothing. The hand of the author is certainly apparent at other points where William and Neaera have arrived at matching thoughts with no prompting, encouraging us to feel that they're unusually tuned-in to the same frequency. Here, however, there's no reason—besides her anxious state at the moment—for Neaera to think there's anything very odd about a stranger mentioning Tortuguero: it's Spanish for "turtle place", it's also a real place that the shell could plausibly be from, a person from the Caribbean would be particularly likely to know about it, and he's talking to someone who's obviously looking at the same tortoise shell he's looking at. He doesn't have to be aware that she knows the name, or to care, since it's not unusual for people to mention things that have come to mind regardless of whether other people are familiar with those things—in fact our two narrators both do so all the time, it's a major feature of the book. But being certain that someone else's remark is really about ''your'' state of mind is also common and also a major feature of the book.
+This is one of the few places in the novel where the apparent synchronicity of a repeated idea is actually noticed by one of the narrators—except it's been set up in a way that, probably deliberately, highlights the mundane ability of our minds to manufacture these out of nothing. The hand of the author is certainly apparent at other points where William and Neaera have arrived at matching thoughts with no prompting, encouraging us to feel that they're unusually tuned-in to the same frequency. Here, however, there's no reason—besides her anxious state at the moment—for Neaera to think there's anything very odd about a stranger mentioning Tortuguero: it's Spanish for "turtle place", it's also a real place that the shell could plausibly be from, a person from the Caribbean would be particularly likely to know about it, and he's talking to someone who's obviously looking at the same tortoise shell he's looking at. He doesn't have to care whether she knows the name, since it's not unusual for people to mention things that have come to mind regardless of whether other people are familiar with those things—in fact our two narrators both do so all the time, it's a major feature of the book. But being certain that someone else's remark is really about ''your'' state of mind is also common and also a major feature of the book.
 == Chapter 43 ==
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 {{wp|John C. Lilly|John Lilly}} was a multidisciplinary scientist who became best known in the 1950s and '60s, especially in counterculture circles, for his experiments with sensory deprivation and psychedelics as well as his studies of dolphin communication. By the '70s he was no longer a researcher and had drifted into New Age metaphysics. ''The Mind of the Dolphin'' (1967) was somewhere in between: it was based on detailed observation of dolphins, and bluntly dismissive of ideas about psychic phenomena (basically on the grounds that they weren't practical or necessary), but Lilly was up-front about his belief that the possibility of talking with dolphins touched on crucial requirements for human mental and spiritual health.
-The many points of contact between this book and ''Turtle Diary'', in terms of the narrators' problems and philosophical concerns, suggest that to Hoban this was not just a casual zoology-oriented reference. Here's one passage that's particularly apt (to Neaera's [[Turtle Diary#How did he know that I knew where Tortuguero was?|previous chapter]] for instance):<ref>Lilly, John Cunningham. ''The Mind of the Dolphin''. Avon Books, 1967, p. 20.</ref>
+The points of contact between this book and ''Turtle Diary'', in terms of the narrators' problems and philosophical concerns, suggest that to Hoban this was not just a casual zoology-oriented reference. Here's one passage that's particularly apt (to Neaera's [[Turtle Diary#How did he know that I knew where Tortuguero was?|previous chapter]] for instance):<ref>Lilly, John Cunningham. ''The Mind of the Dolphin''. Avon Books, 1967, p. 20.</ref>
 <blockquote>Thus our problem in our own species is achieving a basic communication with our fellow men and fellow women .... However, we must know ourselves in order to be able to communicate. We must know the kinds of things that we project into other people "as if" they are communicating them to us but are really not so doing.</blockquote>
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 === the driver was sitting in the back seat playing a muted trumpet ... ''Muskrat Ramble'' ===
-A {{wp|Muskrat Ramble|Dixieland standard}} first recorded by Louis Armstrong. A taxi driver who practices trumpet in his down time features prominently in the Hoban/Quentin Blake children's book ''{{wp|The Marzipan Pig}}'' (1986).
+A {{wp|Muskrat Ramble|Dixieland standard}} first recorded by Louis Armstrong. A taxi driver who practices trumpet in his down time appears in the Hoban/Quentin Blake children's book ''{{wp|The Marzipan Pig}}'' (1986).
 == Chapter 49 ==