3 BOOK REVIEW: Neil Gaiman
I’ve read quite a lot from the pen of Neil Gaiman. Most people have heard of him (if nothing else then because of his involvement in the Good Omens and American Gods shows). The reason I like Gaiman’s writing so much, is his ability to make even the strangest of universes to seem familiar.
I first met Gaiman through Coraline (which we read in school). An just as Coraline, a lot of Gaiman’s writings walk the line between fantasy and reality. Some of his works might even court to the notion of magical realism.
Fragile Things
An enjoyable mix of short stories and poetry. Ghost stories with titles such as Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slave of the Secret House of the Night of Dread and Desire mingles with poems with title as simple as Instructions. Hear the twelve months tell what happened for Susan after Narnia, and the life of a sock monkey.
Surrealistic, caught in the fading light of twilight, and filled with a lot of dark humor and scary turns. An exciting reading experience.
The Graveyard Book
Jack breaks into a house killing the family who lives there. No one was supposed to survive, but the toddler escaped his crib, bumped down the stairs, and out the house. Crawling through the night the toddler found sanctuary at the graveyard long before Jack could get his hands on him.
The Graveyard Book is the story of Nobody Owens. Of how it is to grow up at a graveyard. Of friendships, and school, and facing the world. With as much enthusiasm as always Gaiman spins a story of a world that right as well could have been our own.
The Ocean at the End of The Lane
Sitting by the lake that’s actually an Ocean, he remembers. He remembers his childhood and the dead man in the car. He remembers Ursula Monkton and the desarstors that followed. He remembers the women of the Hempstoke family - capable of wondrous things such as stitching time together. And he remembers Lettie Hempstock: a girl almost as old as time itself.
The Ocean at the End of The Lane is told from the view of a man remembering how it is to be seven years old and even though I have known no Ursula Monkton and none such as Lettie, even though I have not been stuck in a pocket of reality filled with magic and monsters, I recognised myself at once. It was a nice read for a week’s vacation with the family, highly recommendable.
52 Weeks of Reading - A book to read at your vacation