Book Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman

I'm struggling to find a way to properly characterize this book. Perhaps Neil himself said it best: It's an adult story told by a child. It's very hard to talk about this book without going into great detail as a literary criticism because the story really lends itself to that. I attended the release/book signing of it at Symphony Space in Manhattan, and it was an interesting night, to say the least.

I'd like to say that Neil is an absolute doll and I would do it again anytime as long as I could get a seat in the first 10 rows. Book signings take quite a while.

Back to the book itself. It's a story told as a memory back to when the narrator was a young boy and chronicles a short period of his life. During this time he sees a lot of terrible, eerie, supernatural things, and defeats them with the help of a friendly young girl named Lettie Hemstock.

The book is masterfully written, with just the right amount of everything. The introduction with the adult protagonist falling into memory, the thoughts and concerns of the boy, the change in him as things get more dire, and finally the disjointed ending as everything comes together. You can tell that Mr. Gaiman poured a lot of himself into this story and created something that you are meant to view as an allegory.

Because in a review you can't really dig deep into the storyline itself and I'm dieing to do a short critcism of the work, I'll be publishing a link to another post right after this. As far as the review goes, however, buy this book, read it, and really think about what is happening. This story happens on two levels, and it would be a shame to miss either of them.