jankmammal reviewed The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Review of 'The Ocean at the End of the Lane' on 'Storygraph'
4 stars
Gorgeous.
Paperback, 192 pages
Published June 18, 2013 by William Morrow.
4 stars
(452 reviews)
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.
Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly …
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.
Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.
A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. It is a stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark.
John B reviewed The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Review of 'The Ocean at the End of the Lane' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Loved it
adastra reviewed The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Review of 'The Ocean at the End of the Lane' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Neil Gaiman combines his autobiography with his own typical style of storytelling we're familiar with. It's a very decent story, however, some of the "meta passages" come off as a bit weird as they come very close to breaching the fourth wall. Neil, you can be subtler than this!
Review of 'The Ocean at the End of the Lane' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Four? How dare I rate Gaiman fewer than five (or eleven) stars! Have I lost my mind or—gasp—my heart?
First, though: [b:Ocean|15783514|The Ocean at the End of the Lane|Neil Gaiman|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1351914778s/15783514.jpg|21500681] was great. Moving, poetic, sublime. Gaiman's writing just keeps on improving. Sentences that merit savoring. Ambiance that can fill a room. There is no doubt that I'll be reading it again some day, perhaps listening. It's masterful.
It's just the substance that's lacking. Too-perfect and -wise characters; an improbably precocious seven-year-old; third-person narrative awkwardly expressed as first-person (for the intimacy, which I'll admit does work); several convenient Dei ex Machina. I never felt any real tension, perhaps because I never understood the rules. Much like the child protagonist I was just swept along for the ride, trusting that all would be taken care of... only I'm not seven any more. And as for the titular Ocean: I …
Four? How dare I rate Gaiman fewer than five (or eleven) stars! Have I lost my mind or—gasp—my heart?
First, though: [b:Ocean|15783514|The Ocean at the End of the Lane|Neil Gaiman|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1351914778s/15783514.jpg|21500681] was great. Moving, poetic, sublime. Gaiman's writing just keeps on improving. Sentences that merit savoring. Ambiance that can fill a room. There is no doubt that I'll be reading it again some day, perhaps listening. It's masterful.
It's just the substance that's lacking. Too-perfect and -wise characters; an improbably precocious seven-year-old; third-person narrative awkwardly expressed as first-person (for the intimacy, which I'll admit does work); several convenient Dei ex Machina. I never felt any real tension, perhaps because I never understood the rules. Much like the child protagonist I was just swept along for the ride, trusting that all would be taken care of... only I'm not seven any more. And as for the titular Ocean: I feel like Gaiman started with a great title but then just sort of veered off, occasionally remembering to mention it in passing. There's a story there, a rich one, but this isn't it.
I don't feel disappointed. I feel warm, even hours after having finished it. (And that's not just June in New Mexico). I am overwhelmingly grateful to Gaiman for sharing his words and worlds. I just think he can do better.
Review of 'The Ocean at the End of the Lane' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
This book pulled me along as quickly as anything has since The Sisters Brothers. An adult fairy tale with one foot in childhood and another in contemporary horror, I felt true dread for the seven-year-old protagonist several times; he doesn't quite understand how horrible a mess he's gotten himself in sometimes, but with the perspective of age, we do.
The Hempstocks, his neighbors down the lane, are a delight. They're just who you think they might be when they first appear, but also more. (I think Old Mrs. Hempstock may have been partly inspired by Galactus.)
I enjoy the way Gaiman's supernatural world doesn't lean too hard on the mythology of olden times, but rhymes with it. That way we get to experience the world of this book fresh, just as the protagonist does.
