Linger Awhile

Linger Awhile
Russell Hoban
Bloomsbury
ISBN: 0-7475-7984-9
Science Fiction
Reviewed by Betsy Gallup

Linger Awhile by Russell Hoban takes the traditional vampire tale and adds a modern day science fiction twist. When Irving Goodman falls in love with the image of a long- deceased western movie starlet, he enlists the aid of his technology-savvy friend Istvan Fallok to bring her to life. Istvan uses a still from one of her films as a catalyst and succeeds. Little does either man realize the starlet will need a steady infusion of donor blood, since she has none of her own, to not only become technicolored but to sustain her new existence among the living.
While Hoban openly states one must "suspend disbelief" to accept the concept that an image created out of film particles can be generated into a living being, the process makes the story worth reading. At the same time, do not expect the characters to find a place in your heart. They are treated more like vehicles for telling the story than as individuals. The author jumps from point of view to point of view with each new chapter. Unfortunately, the voice of each character does not read as unique, which will often lead you to looking back to determine which character is the focus of any given chapter.
On the upside, Hoban does a nice job of balancing technical babble with actual plot, which makes his story palatable by both the dark fantasy lover and science fiction fanatic.