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Loading... The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel (original 2013; edition 2013)by Neil Gaiman
Work InformationThe Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (2013)
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"The Ocean at the End of the Lane" by Neil Gaiman is a mesmerizing and enchanting tale that weaves together elements of fantasy, mystery, and coming-of-age themes. The story follows an unnamed protagonist who returns to his childhood home and is flooded with memories of a remarkable and otherworldly adventure he had as a young boy. Gaiman's masterful storytelling immerses readers in a world where the lines between reality and imagination blur, as the protagonist grapples with the complexities of innocence, fear, and the enduring power of memory. With lyrical prose and a hauntingly atmospheric setting, the novel grips readers from its opening lines and takes them on an emotional journey filled with wonder and nostalgia. "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" is a captivating and poignant ode to the magic of childhood and the timeless allure of storytelling. ( ) This is not a children's book but it might be considered a young adult book. I would classify it as an adult fairy tale due to certain sexual content and violence, and NOT a young adult book. It has won, however, many awards which might put it in the range of any age of reader. This is a story which is about a young seven-year-old Sussex boy. I had to remind myself that the narrator was a boy since I was constantly assuming, he was a female due to the last Gaiman book I had read being Coraline, which is one of the best things I’ve ever read. He is a precocious boy with few friends but embarks on a complex adventure which comes with serious consequences for deliberative and hasty choices. The book delves into fairy, Celtic, Viking, and speculative mythology, time travel, possible worlds, detestation of overt witchcraft, and self-sacrifice. Stephen King writes to scare you with the hidden nature of human and supernatural evil and the violence which that evil entails. Gaiman tries to take you on a journey which will take you beyond the normal expectations of this world. Gaiman will usually do this from the point of view of a youngster whom is trying to establish an enduring parent relationship. This book has a lot of broken relationships and thus a realism which you don’t often find in Young Adult stories. There are many emotions of remorse, but not guilt, for the unnamed narrator. Another common theme in the book is the reliability of memory and how humans can keep it relative to other beings who exist. The Acknowledgments page gives an apology for the intrusion into the lives Gaiman’s personal family for disclosing so much of his own childhood. This book is very good and I only wish I had an illustrated copy, which apparently had been available. I am late to the party on reading this Gaiman work but it is now one of my favorite fantasy stories.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane arouses, and satisfies, the expectations of the skilled reader of fairytales, and stories which draw on fairytales. Fairytales, of course, were not invented for children, and deal ferociously with the grim and the bad and the dangerous. But they promise a kind of resolution, and Gaiman keeps this promise. [Gaiman's] mind is a dark fathomless ocean, and every time I sink into it, this world fades, replaced by one far more terrible and beautiful in which I will happily drown. The story is tightly plotted and exciting. Reading it feels a lot like diving into an extremely smart, morally ambiguous fairy tale. And indeed, Gaiman's adult protagonist observes at one point that fairy tales aren't for kids or grownups — they're just stories. In Gaiman's version of the fairy tale, his protagonist's adult and child perspectives are interwoven seamlessly, giving us a sense of how he experienced his past at that time, as well as how it affected him for the rest of his life. Reading Gaiman's new novel, his first for adults since 2005's The Anansi Boys, is like listening to that rare friend whose dreams you actually want to hear about at breakfast. The narrator, an unnamed Brit, has returned to his hometown for a funeral. Drawn to a farm he dimly recalls from his youth, he's flooded with strange memories: of a suicide, the malign forces it unleashed and the three otherworldly females who helped him survive a terrifying odyssey. Gaiman's at his fantasy-master best here—the struggle between a boy and a shape-shifter with "rotting-cloth eyes" moves at a speedy, chilling clip. What distinguishes the book, though, is its evocation of the powerlessness and wonder of childhood, a time when magic seems as likely as any other answer and good stories help us through. "Why didn't adults want to read about Narnia, about secret islands and ... dangerous fairies?" the hero wonders. Sometimes, they do. AwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
It began for our narrator forty years ago when the family lodger stole their car and committed suicide in it, stirring up ancient powers best left undisturbed. Dark creatures from beyond the world are on the loose, and it will take everything our narrator has just to stay alive: there is primal horror here, and menace unleashed - within his family and from the forces that have gathered to destroy it. His only defense is three women, on a farm at the end of the lane. The youngest of them claims that her duckpond is ocean. The oldest can remember the Big Bang. No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.914Literature English English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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