“This novel is why your geeky friends rave about Neil Gaiman,” reads the headline from Robert J. Wiersema’s review of The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Having just finished Neil Gaiman’s latest novel, I’m hurriedly writing this review to ensure that I capture it as you might try to capture a dream, fresh from waking. Like a dream, Gaiman’s story unfolds in bits and pieces, leading you deeper into an unknown world that began as your own and, somewhere just beyond your backyard, veered off into something altogether unlike anything you ever knew before.
Hesitant as I am to give away the plot (it is worth the journey you take, along with the narrator, to learn about the ocean and the family on whose farm it sits, looking very much like a duck pond), I will say that following the 7-year-old narrator as he uncovers the truth about grown ups, opal miners, and care givers is a gift from Mr. Gaiman. Seen through the eyes of the child narrator, fields glow golden, wormy things become house-sized tunnels, and age doesn’t really mean anything because no one in the world (except one person) is really a grown up.
Similar in feel to Coraline
If you are at all partial to audiobooks, I’d recommend getting that version and letting Mr. Gaiman read the story to you. His velvety voice tricks you into a sense of calm while his ability to dance from character to character will keep you up on your toes and biting your nails for what may come next.
Get it and enjoy it being a 7-year-old again… and being a frightened child, discovering the world (yours and the one beyond your backyard) anew.
Tommy Karr 