The first of several descriptions of this boy being ejected from childhood innocence and security by his father’s decision to abandon home in search of himself, or some such.  This reference to Jonah being spewed out of the whale is memorable.

‘He felt as if the present had vomited him out like a Jonah.’

Source: Russell Hoban, The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz (London: Picador, 1979), p. 131

Photo credit: Tim Marshall at unsplash.com