There are moments in this strange novel [The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz] when the full meaning is almost within grasp; but the moment passes and the reader is left hanging on to the present pleasures of comic, heroic and romantic episodes.

Russell Hoban extended his reputation beyond the small enclosed world of children's books in 1969 when The Mouse and His Child, which came out with a children's book imprint in the way that The Hobbit did, found devoted readers of all ages…. Mr Hoban has something very important to say. But it is not quite clear that he has yet found the right way of saying it.

Jachin-Boaz lives in a world without lions. The last wild lions were destroyed by hunting; the tamed specimens in zoos died in an epidemic. Jachin-Boaz is a map-maker. He makes very useful maps…. His leisure hours are devoted to a...