Book Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Genre: Fantasy

Series: Stand-alone

Publisher: William Morrow

Date of Publication: June 18, 2013

Author Information: Website | Twitter

Returning to Sussex to attend a funeral, an unnamed middle-aged man visits the site of his childhood home, knowing that the house he grew up in no longer exists. But the farm at the end lane still stands and he is drawn to the pond in the back, a pond which an extraordinary girl named Lettie Hempstock once called an ocean. In this place, the man recalls a series of events in his past, of a dark time which began forty years earlier with the suicide of his family's lodger in their stolen car.

This was only the second novel I've read by Neil Gaiman (I'm not counting his short stories or comics, etc.) but I knew enough to know about his knack for storytelling, and particularly his style of using allusion in doing so. This has made me wary about picking up his stuff, because I tend not to be drawn to stories that are more metaphysical and abstract.

Because fables and mythological motifs often feature so heavily in his work, I've come to view a lot of Gaiman's stories as modern fairy tales. Ocean definitely has that vibe to it; as such, the book's description as "terrifying" and "menacing" notwithstanding, I found it more whimsical and odd than anything else. While not a negative factor by any means, admittedly I did expect the book to be somewhat more emotionally stirring.

That said, while it's not typically my kind of book, Ocean packs a pretty good punch, especially given its relatively short length. Gaiman has a way of making me care about his characters if not so much for his themes, and not to mention he also writes beautifully. Very few authors can do what he does to me with his prose, as in the case of this book where he uses such vivid imagery to paint fantastical landscapes and their creatures in my mind's eye.

3.5 of 5 stars

"Packs a good punch with beautiful

writing and vivid imagery"

The Ocean at the End of the Lane was our book club read for August 2013! See what Wendy also had to say about it in her review!

Book Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

As with the pattern of previous Neil Gaiman books I’ve read, Ocean features an average male protagonist who wouldn’t be particularly interesting, but for the magical realm he’s introduced to and the ensuing adventure. But, while the other books adhere firmly to this fairly specific pattern, Ocean quickly and mesmerizingly walks down the lane into an entirely different story. Well, not an entirely different story, but this time, the story of the man quickly becomes the story of the boy he once was and the women he met in the house at the end of the lane, including one Lettie Hempstock, a girl just a few years older than his seven years, who takes him to a pond, only to reveal an ocean.

Thus far, I’ve found Gaiman’s books to be dark but whimsical. Even the evil characters have a sense of humour and are quick with their wit, but Ocean was very melancholy and I felt connected with it far more deeply than I have the others. I thought Gaiman did an excellent job of telling the story through the eyes of a little boy who becomes bound to a frightening creature who can control his family with her desire to make them happy. The boy’s sense of hopelessness and fear and his bravery are palpable, making the story very engaging.

The men in Gaiman’s other books tend to annoy me with their refusal to believe in the magical things presented to them. Here, a child who adores books and takes so many cues from them, willingly accepts the unbelievable, both good and evil. And when he finds it in himself to fight, it feels far more real than the grown ups who suddenly realize their role as the hero. Perhaps it helps that this book doesn’t require the main character to valiantly save the girl; he has to fight to save himself.

I suspect that the men in Gaiman’s other works are loosely based on himself. Upon reading Ocean’s acknowledgements, I came to feel like this was far more personal to the author than anything else he’s written. That the little boy was far more himself than any other character he’s brought to life. He does state that the family in the story is nothing like his own and this really is a work of fiction, but his comment about the Hempstocks being with him all his life is what really struck me and made me appreciate Ocean all the more.

4 of 5 stars

Audiobook Review: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

This is the third Neil Gaiman book I’ve read and I’ve noticed a trend:

An average, unmemorable male protagonist with slightly/over-controlling girlfriend/recently turned fiancé crosses paths with an unusual human that turns out to be magical and leads the protagonist into a whole new world of magic that has always been there for those willing to see it. Apparently, this is such a common occurrence for Gaiman’s characters, that he’s even written instructions on what to do in such an occasion in A Wolf at the Door: And Other Retold Fairy Tales . Unfortunately, Richard, in this case, has never read those instructions, and, as with the other characters I’ve met in the other books, spends a frustratingly large amount of time in disbelief of the world unfolding around him. This reminded of Alif the Unseen , where the main character, an avid fantasy reader, stumbles into the same situation. The creature in question notes that North Americans in particular love science fiction and fantasy stories, but are the least likely to believe when presented with the reality of them.

In Neverwhere, Richard’s life is significantly altered when he stops to help a wounded girl. She is the Lady Door and she’s being hunted by some very dangerous men. She leads Richard to the London beneath where the people who slip through the cracks reside. Don’t be so quick to discount the street people wrapped in blankets, the story seems to say. All sorts of knowledge and magic could be wrapped up within their filthy coats and blankets.

Once Richard is forced from his dull life, the adventure becomes fairly typical and Richard works his way through various gauntlets to prove himself a hero in the end and change his perspective on life and on himself. Again, this is a similar theme in the other Gaiman books, however, each one does it in a unique way with very memorable supporting characters so, while the process might be similar, the journey is still fun and interesting each time.

This was an audiobook listen, and I was pleased to discover that it was narrated by Gaiman himself. Since beginning my foray into the wonderful world of audiobooks, I’ve wondered how much the narrators deal with the authors (not much or at all, it seems). Do they get the pronunciations right? Have they captured the author’s intent with the various characters and situations? For the most part, the answer seems to be yes to the latter, at least, but with Gaiman reading his own works, the answer is absolute

3 of 5 stars

August Book Club Read: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

From this list of recommended summer reads, members of the LeVar's Rainbow Book Club selected Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane for August.

A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.

Audiobook Review: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

It has long been a shameful secret of mine that I've never read a Neil Gaiman novel. Sure, I've read his Sandman comics and a few of his short stories, but somehow, the opportunity to read a full-length novel of his has never come up, despite the fact that books like American Gods and Neverwhere have been sitting in my Kindle gathering metaphorical dust for like, oh, I don't know...the past two or three years.

That's why this summer I made it a point to lose my Neil Gaiman virginity, and decided to give the honor to American Gods first of all because it is considered one of his "classics", and second of all because the Tenth Anniversary Edition of the book I owned also had the added benefit of an audiobook Whispersync bundle deal, which I'd picked up as well. As it turned out, this worked out for the best.

And now I have the hefty task of actually trying to describe what American Gods is about. The book begins with the introduction of Shadow, a man coming up on the end of his three-year prison sentence and looking forward to get back to his life. Days before his release, however, he gets news that his beloved wife was killed in a car accident, along with his best friend. Freed from prison now but with his life in tatters, Shadow agrees to work for a mysterious stranger he meets on the way home, a man who calls himself "Mr. Wednesday".

Shadow travels across America with Wednesday, meeting his new boss' unusual friends and colleagues, and here's where things start to get cryptic and mystical. Wednesday and his peers turn out to be incarnations of the Old Gods of ancient mythology, whose powers are waned since the rise of modern life and the technological era, these aspects themselves manifesting as the American "New Gods". Everything Shadow thought he knew has been turned upside down. Nothing is as it seems; legends and myths are real, secrets are everywhere, everything is connected...and war is coming.

You ever read a book where you know very early on that it's not the kind for you, but you end up enjoying it a lot anyway, because it's just so beautifully written and profound? This was definitely one of those for me. I'd known what I was in for, of course; like I said, I've had some experience with Neil Gaiman's style of writing and know that his stuff is often allusive and metaphysical, surreal and abstract in nature.

In other words, totally not my thing at all. And thematically, the book turned out to be exactly as I'd expected. By all rights, I shouldn't have liked it, but I did. Wow. And now I finally understand the reason it's considered a contemporary masterpiece, and why Mr. Gaiman has so many fans.

Recall how I said I also had an Audible copy of American Gods, and that's actually how I read this novel, going back and forth between the ebook and the audiobook. I wanted to bring this up because I feel the excellent production quality of the latter definitely bears mentioning. Sometimes, great voice actors can bring the words to life, and that can also certainly make me enjoy a book much more than I normally would. The Tenth Anniversary version I had included a full cast featuring excellent narrators, which made it all the more engrossing, not to mention Neil Gaiman himself narrated some sections of the novel as well as the foreword, afterword, and other extras.

This edition is also the newly updated and expanded version with the author’s preferred text, so I definitely appreciated the chance to read this book in a state that's closer to what it's meant to be. One thing I think everyone agrees about Neil Gaiman is that you can count on him to be original and innovative, and the uniqueness of the themes and ideas in American Gods unquestionably reflects that. The extras included in this version really tied everything together and provided a lot of insight into this intellectual work of art -- because yes, after having experienced this book, I definitely consider it art.

Final verdict:

 4.5 of 5 stars

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

As a sequel of sorts to American Gods and based on word of mouth that told me that this was very much unlike the much darker predecessor, I wasn't sure what to expect, although, anything centred around Anansi promised to be charming.

The book started rather slowly with an intentionally boring character, Fat Charlie Nancy, who's greatest stress was an embarrassing father, something many a teenager can sympathize with. Knowing what we know of his father, the trickster god Anansi - which Fat Charlie did not learn until his father's death - made the dull circumstances of Charlie's life oddly compelling as, at some point it was certain that things would change. Change came in the form of his brother, Spider, who was very much Charlie's opposite and proceeded to take over Charlie's life, literally, with everyone falling in love with Spider, including Charlie's fiance.

From there, the story continued on a reasonably expected path, with Charlie growing increasingly upset with his brother's infiltration, until suddenly, the mythology of the Anansi stories and the reality truly came crashing together in odd and unpredictable ways that resulted in a book that I'm adding to my favourites list, if only for the strange smile it left me with.

I've known Anansi stories, but some how, I won't look at spiders the same way again. Charlie and Spider are fascinating characters and their twisted relationship with each other and with their father is frustrating and endearing at the same time.

I understand now why Neil Gaiman is a favourite among fans. His imagination is immense and enjoyable. His reimagining of mythologies is impressive. Special consideration for the accurate portrayal of delightful old Jamaican ladies!

4 of 5 stars