Mr Rinyo-Clacton's Offer (Novel, 1998)

Jonathan Fitch was shocked by Mr Rinyo-Clacton's offer of a million pounds and one year to live, but what happened next was even more shocking. In a state of desperation after being left by the beautiful Serafina, Jonathan does his best to pull up his socks (and his trousers) with varying success. Beginning with the chance meeting of two strangers (both a little strange) in Piccadilly Circus Underground Station, Mr Rinyo-Clacton's Offer is full of the loving and carefully observed London detail that Russell Hoban and his readers so enjoy. Some love stories are about triangles, but what happens between Jonathan and Serafina and Katerina and Mr Rinyo-Clacton is perhaps more of a trapezoid, in the pointy corners of which a long hard look is taken at what goes on between consenting, relenting, and dissenting adults. Sharp and witty but written with affection, Mr Rinyo-Clacton's Offer reaches parts not reached by other Hoban novels.