The Ocean at the End
of the Lane
Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman
The Ocean at the End
of the Lane is vintage Gaiman, and is not unlike his film Coraline - a solitary, lonely child
accidentally becoming the center of a conflict between good and evil; real and
the unreal; the Facts and the Truth.
A middle-aged man returns for the first time to his
childhood village in Sussex, England, to attend a family funeral. As he strolls through the physical remains of
his childhood, he remembers an old farmhouse at the end of the lane, and a very old friend long since moved to
Australia, across the ocean.
As he finds himself on the front porch of his old home, the
shadows that move within the house awaken a memory that unfolds like a trail of
breadcrumbs, leading him to remember a time when he stumbled into a place where
boundaries between real and other are
thin, when three harmless-seeming women guarded him against monsters both human
and other, and, in the process,
brought him to an understanding about the universe so profound that his mind forgets
it all - every time he leaves.
Gaiman has proven himself to be the master of the modern faery
tale in earlier works, and The Ocean at
the End of the Lane is no exception. He is plainly familiar with esoteric
tradition, and incorporates everything from Greek to Norse mythology; from
Celtic fae lore to Lovecraftian monstrosities. And more importantly, he uses
them well, in context and with great respect.
If I have any criticism, it’s simply that Gaiman tends to
tell the same story over and over again; but he does it well, and with great
creativity and depth. If you liked Coraline,
or Sandman, or Good Omens, you’ll enjoy The
Ocean at the End of the Lane.
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