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

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.