Coraline

Что делать, если ты переехала в новый дом, до школы еще целая неделя, на улице дождь и туман, а родители вечно заняты? Разумеется, ИССЛЕДОВАТЬ! Так юная Коралина знакомится с весьма странными соседями и в высшей степени независимым черным котом, а потом обнаруживает запертую дверь, ведущую в… никуда? Как бы не так! За этой дверью - целый мир! Мир, в котором все точно так же - и совершенно по-другому.Мир, в show more котором тебя ждут вкусная еда и красивая одежда, но главное - другие мама и папа: точно такие же, но более внимательные и заботливые.Только кожа их тонка и бела, как бумага. Только пальцы их чересчур длинные и нервные, а вместо глаз у них - круглые пуговицы. Только слишком уж жутко от одной мысли остаться с ними навсегда… show less

Creepy, quirky, and all things to be expected of a Gaiman novel, this is one of those books that I wish had been available to me as a young 10 to 12 year old when all I had to fall back on was the Nancy Drew series. There was certainly nothing this twisted and delightfully dark on the shelves of the school library. As a heroine, Coraline is such a likable, brave girl who takes matters into her own hands when her parents are kidnapped by a dark force that should scare her shitless. Young girls, force-fed Barbie worship and Twilighty longing for a an undead mate, need exposure to more of that. I also like that Gaiman sidesteps the whole "it was just a dream" scenario and ends with enough evidence that Coraline's experience was just what show more it was--a daunting quest undertaken by an undaunted little girl. show less

Now this was a bit scary and creepy and unsettling, which I'd forgotten. I finally got around to watching the film recently and enjoyed it a lot, and it's a good example of a film that changes aspects of the book to take advantage of the medium - stop-motion animation - that add to rather than detract from the source material. Still the book is better, because it's hard to beat Gaiman's prose, with its cool, sinister economy and rich characterisation and evocation of a deliciously skewed variations of reality.

Coraline Jones discovers a doorway to a neighbouring world that's a lot like her home, filled with people that are a lot like her family and neighbours, but which isn't or aren't. Her other mother and her other father might seem show more like they want to bring her joy and happiness and interesting things, but there's something off and wrong about everything. Unfortunately now that she's passed through the door, her other mother isn't going to go away. She loves Coraline and wants to make her happy, no matter what.

Spooky and creepy but also lovely and lively and oh-so-readable. It may seem more subdued than the elaborate pyrotechnic visuals of the film, but this pulls you in and takes you along with the mounting suspense and atmosphere of foreboding. And the rats' song remains one of the creepiest things ever. show less

This a perfect, traditional fairy* tale, with a slightly surreal twenty-first century warp. The writing is as magical as the plot.

Its thirteen chapters are delightful, dark, and funny, with a heroine many can relate to, as child, parent, or both.

Coraline is intelligent, inquisitive, slightly contrary, hates being bored, and wishes her parents paid her more attention, and didn’t feed her “recipes”. Perhaps, she wishes she had different parents. And you should always be careful what you wish for, even if you don’t know you’ve wished for it.

So begins an adventure in which Coraline unlocks a door, goes down a secret passage, and finds herself in an alternate world that is eerily familiar, and scarily unfamiliar. She must show more conquer fears, discover the truth, and solve problems to find and rescue her parents, herself, and others.

"A book is not supposed to be a mirror. It's supposed to be a door." Fran Lebowitz.

There are echoes of Grimm, Lewis Carroll, Roald Dahl, Dickens, Greek myths, and others, but it's also thoroughly original. It is YYA, rather than YA. I only wish it had been published a decade ago, so I could have read when my son was YYA.

Learning Outcomes

This isn’t a remotely teachy or preachy book, but Coraline learns a lot about life, familial love, and especially herself. She finds bravery she didn’t know she had, but she faces temptation as well. “The other mother loved her… as a dragon loves gold.” The other mother offers her everything she thinks she wants. But there is a price, and Coraline has a Eureka moment, and declares:
“I don’t want whatever I want. Nobody does. Not really. What kind of fun would it be if I just got everything I ever wanted? Just like that, and it didn’t mean anything?”

The Importance of Names

Names are often endowed with supernatural power, but in this book, it’s almost the reverse.

In Coraline’s real world, there is a strange man who has an apartment in the same house; Coraline doesn’t know his name (it hadn’t even occurred to her that he had one), and he always gets hers wrong (Caroline).

The equivalent man in the alternative world always gets her name right, and yet that's also where the cat explains why names are unimportant: “We [cats] know who we are, so we don’t need names.” When Coraline asks what she'd do if she needed to call it, the cat replies, “Calling cats… tends to be a rather overrated activity. Might as well call a whirlwind.”

The Importance of Fairy Tales

In the introduction, Gaiman says that the prime message he wanted to convey to his young daughters was that bravery is “when you’re scared but still do it anyway”.

Hence, he opens with a quote from GK Chesterton:
“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”

That reminded me of an equally pertinent one from Ursula Le Guin:
“People who deny the existence of dragons are often eaten by dragons. From within.”

Chris Riddell’s Illustrations Compared with Henry Selick's Film

My edition of the book is illustrated by Chris Riddell, who has also illustrated Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. I have fond memories of his collaboration with Paul Stewart on The Edge Chronicles, read with my son a dozen years ago, and enjoy his cartoons in The Literary Review.

The slightly different imagery of the film is probably familiar to more people. I saw it several years ago, and it feels like a Tim Burton work, but it was actually adapted and directed by Henry Selick, who worked with Burton on The Nightmare Before Christmas, and also directed James and The Giant Peach (Miss Spink and Miss Forcible reminded me of aunts Spiker and Sponge).

Submit to being entrapped in this tangled web of creative talent.

Quotes

• “It wasn’t the kind of rain you could go out in, it was the other kind, the kind that threw itself down from the sky and splashed where it landed. It was rain that meant business.”

• “'Go away,' he said cheerfully.”

• “An argument as old and comfortable as an armchair… that no one ever really wins or loses.”

• “The mist hung like blindness around the house.”

• “She had the feeling that the door was looking back at her, which she knew was silly, and knew on a deeper level was somehow true.”

• “There was something slightly vague about his face – like bread dough that has begun to rise.”

• “Her long white fingers fluttered gently, like a tired butterfly.”

• “Her hair was wriggling like lazy snakes on a warm day. Her black-button eyes seemed as if they had been freshly polished.”

• “If she were nowhere, then she could be anywhere. And, after all, it is always easier to be afraid of something you can’t see.”

• “Her voice did not just come from her mouth. It came from the mist, and the fog, and the house, and the sky.”

• “Mirrors… are never to be trusted.”
But Gaiman is.
This book is magical.
I already said that, but it’s worth repeating.

* No actual fairies in this fairy tale, but that's true of most of the best fairy tales, imo. show less

I’ve read Coraline (and watched the movie based on it) dozens of times, and yet somehow it never stops being one of the creepiest and most suspenseful stories I’ve read. Gaiman treads the boards of light horror in this story, which sees young Coraline Jones move into a strange old house with her parents and discovers an entirely new world through a mysterious door leading to an empty apartment next door. In this new world Coraline meets the Other Mother, a creature of Eld who is never quite defined, but definitely isn’t as kindly as she first appears. Coraline is just one in a long line of children charmed by the Other Mother’s promises of good food to eat, fun games to play, and (most importantly for the seemingly neglected show more Coraline) undivided attention, and Gaiman builds the horror of the situation which Coraline finds herself in masterfully. There are moments which reckon with recognizable folktale structures (three tasks, animal helpers, food as a charm, unbeknownst horrors from Faerie), but Gaiman’s take is far more modern as he also plies the story with themes around the modern family and the struggles of work-life balance. By the end of Coraline’s tale she has managed to escape the Other Mother, rescue the souls of the other three children trapped before her, and return her parents to their rightful place in the real world, but the ending is not quite as tied up as it seems. Has the Other Mother actually been defeated, or will the key to her world be recovered to tempt another child? show less

What I love about Coraline is that Gaiman goes all the way and turns the creepiness of this children's book up to eleven. It's not enough that Coraline has to outwit the Other Mother who lives in a nightmarishly reversed model of Coraline's own house. Other books would end when Coraline rescues her parents and returns back home, which is a nice, round, "ten" sort of place to end the book. Gaiman keeps going. It's not enough for Coraline to defeat the Other Mother over there; Coraline has to be cunning and resourceful in her own world as well.

http://andalittlewine.blogspot.com/2013/06/review-coraline-by-neil-gaiman.html

Review: Coraline by Neil Gaiman
It took me a long time to warm up to Neil Gaiman. He was one of those writers some of the guys I knew in college idolized. "Oh my god, you have to read American Gods, it's just great. It's sort of like Hercules meets Superman. I can't really describe it, you just have to read it."

I'll pass on anything that inspires that level of fanboyism. I'm never as impressed by the clever concepts and the inevitable deus ex machina plot twists.

But I finally couldn't avoid The Sandman, and I loved it. As a (stupendously long) graphic novel, it builds its own sturdy little universe. The way Sandman tucks itself into the comic book world you show more already know is a real joy to watch. And having a book (or movie or tv series) be self-supporting is important to me.

And that opened a door.

I had seen (and enjoyed) Coraline the movie, so for a recent road trip, Carol brought along the audiobook. We've found we really enjoy children's books in the car. Children's books are meant to be read aloud, so with a good narrator, they can really come to life.

The plot is largely the same: Coraline finds a door in her new house, and bored by her inattentive parents, she slips down the rabbit hole, where she meets the doting but domineering Other Mother. Coraline wants to leave, but the Other Mother has kidnapped Coraline's parents. To free them, Coraline must beat the Other Mother at a game of hide and seek.

What surprised me about the book was the how many fairytale tropes and childhood insecurities it really plays with. The fear of being ignored and forgotten. The challenge of making the wrong choice, of not knowing how to go on. The danger of being dissatisfied with life, and the danger of wishing for something different. How things are rarely what they appear to be.

Most of all, what I liked about Coraline was that it wasn't shy about being complicated. It's a big world, after all, and our decisions have consequences. Coraline made choices early on that she didn't really understand were choices, and then she had to deal with the ramifications. And life is like that, though I don't usually expect to see that kind of sentiment in a children's book. So maybe I liked Coraline because it wasn't really a children's book. show less