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4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
Updated 2021:
It’s nice to have an old review you wrote 7 years ago. I’m quite sure this blog is defunct now as it will not load. Not sure why I had a blog in the first place. I believe I reviewed advance copies in exchange for free books, and that was why there was a blog.
Just as Ocean at the End of the Lane is about change and memory, I have changed and barely remember reading this book. My taste in books has changed. I like the uncertainty now. The dark parts don’t bother me as much at 25 as it did at 18. I don’t find its strange that it’s narrated by a 7 year old boy, although if I were him, I hope I could have been just as brave. Sometimes he doesn’t react as much, but it’s the small changes in dialogue and interior monologue that lend to character development. You can see how he challenges the rules of the Ocean and asks for answers about halfway through the book. I wrote below that I was confused by the cross between magical realism and fantasy, and that perhaps there was too much magic for magical realism. I think now that there are many ways to write magical realism. At times I’m disappointed by Murakami’s realism. Heh. What magical realism is is a way to write, not an atmosphere and not a cult experience — you can certainly create atmosphere with it, though, but it’s maybe only half of the way there. I confused the two.
Other thoughts:
*The Hempstocks are amazing women.
*From a writing perspective, the sequence of set up events is amazing: lonely boy is gifted a kitten, kitten is run over by the opal miner tenant, opal miner is suicidal and disappears into a doll, boy wakes up with coin in mouth (Vita Nostra also has this coin idea), coin is examined by Lettie Hempstock.
*Perspective upon growing up: who the MC see the Hempstocks as, if changes. Reality changes in the space of a few paragraphs as MC’s mind changes, memory challenges, begins to believe what the Hempstocks said
For a select book or two, might be nice to have records like this, a bit easier to sort through than a notebook. But then you contend with the internet.
Review from 2014:
This review originally appeared on my blog Tangled Inkspills
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Target: Fantasy for Everybody
Category: Fine Read With Some Deep Tidbits but Not Quite Off the Deep End
Review: I began The Ocean at the End of the Lane, not exactly sure what to expect out of it. Turns out Gaiman started it as a short story, then later extended it to a novel. I loved the character of Lettie and the friendship between her and the unnamed main character. However, the magic events happening in the book felt a little off. I think maybe it was too much outright magic. Perhaps it should have been just a pinch of magic, just a little mysterious sprinkling of it. That would have tied in better. In addition, I would have liked some more character development in the main character. I empathized a lot with the 7-year-old boy, especially when I read the lines, “I was not happy as a child, although from time to time I was content. I lived in books more than I lived anywhere else.” I would have liked more insight into his character, perhaps in a more linear time frame as he ages a few years. I probably won’t be rereading The Ocean at the End of the Lane, but I will take some interesting thoughts from it.
Writerly thoughts: strong points are the ocean at the end of the lane, Lettie, and the main character’s trust in Lettie
It’s nice to have an old review you wrote 7 years ago. I’m quite sure this blog is defunct now as it will not load. Not sure why I had a blog in the first place. I believe I reviewed advance copies in exchange for free books, and that was why there was a blog.
Just as Ocean at the End of the Lane is about change and memory, I have changed and barely remember reading this book. My taste in books has changed. I like the uncertainty now. The dark parts don’t bother me as much at 25 as it did at 18. I don’t find its strange that it’s narrated by a 7 year old boy, although if I were him, I hope I could have been just as brave. Sometimes he doesn’t react as much, but it’s the small changes in dialogue and interior monologue that lend to character development. You can see how he challenges the rules of the Ocean and asks for answers about halfway through the book. I wrote below that I was confused by the cross between magical realism and fantasy, and that perhaps there was too much magic for magical realism. I think now that there are many ways to write magical realism. At times I’m disappointed by Murakami’s realism. Heh. What magical realism is is a way to write, not an atmosphere and not a cult experience — you can certainly create atmosphere with it, though, but it’s maybe only half of the way there. I confused the two.
Other thoughts:
*The Hempstocks are amazing women.
*From a writing perspective, the sequence of set up events is amazing: lonely boy is gifted a kitten, kitten is run over by the opal miner tenant, opal miner is suicidal and disappears into a doll, boy wakes up with coin in mouth (Vita Nostra also has this coin idea), coin is examined by Lettie Hempstock.
*Perspective upon growing up: who the MC see the Hempstocks as, if changes. Reality changes in the space of a few paragraphs as MC’s mind changes, memory challenges, begins to believe what the Hempstocks said
For a select book or two, might be nice to have records like this, a bit easier to sort through than a notebook. But then you contend with the internet.
Review from 2014:
This review originally appeared on my blog Tangled Inkspills
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Target: Fantasy for Everybody
Category: Fine Read With Some Deep Tidbits but Not Quite Off the Deep End
Review: I began The Ocean at the End of the Lane, not exactly sure what to expect out of it. Turns out Gaiman started it as a short story, then later extended it to a novel. I loved the character of Lettie and the friendship between her and the unnamed main character. However, the magic events happening in the book felt a little off. I think maybe it was too much outright magic. Perhaps it should have been just a pinch of magic, just a little mysterious sprinkling of it. That would have tied in better. In addition, I would have liked some more character development in the main character. I empathized a lot with the 7-year-old boy, especially when I read the lines, “I was not happy as a child, although from time to time I was content. I lived in books more than I lived anywhere else.” I would have liked more insight into his character, perhaps in a more linear time frame as he ages a few years. I probably won’t be rereading The Ocean at the End of the Lane, but I will take some interesting thoughts from it.
Writerly thoughts: strong points are the ocean at the end of the lane, Lettie, and the main character’s trust in Lettie
Beautiful! Haunting! Magical! Terrifying! I loved this book!
adventurous
dark
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Pure magic. Thankful for the way Neil Gaiman’s books make me feel.
I am so glad the I gave Neil Gaiman another chance! After being somewhat disappointed by "The Graveyard Book" I was shocked at how much I liked "The Ocean at the End of the Lane"! This book was thought-provoking and a very interesting mix of fantasy, sci-fi, mythology, and fairy tale (all things I love!!!)
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I was really excited to read a Neil Gaiman book and found that I was actually kind of disappointed. This is the first Neil Gaiman book I've read and I read it for book club. I am a huge fane of science-fiction/fantasy but I had a hard time with this book. I found it to be too out there for me and a little too confusing because there wasn't a reference point for the magical beings he had created.
Wow. It felt like a short story, I finished it fairly quickly. The book defies being pigeon-holed into a genre, I felt. Is it fantasy? Is it plain ol' fiction? Is it a children's tale? What is it? Gaiman's power of weaving tales stays strong in this book as it charts a specific time period in the narrator's childhood, which I cannot explain here. You need to read to understand. But you will feel the narrator's terror, his happiness, his relief and his confusion. Brilliant book, can't wait for Gaiman's next.
This had everything I love. It was nostalgic, whimsical, creepy, reflective and cozy . It's about so many things it's insane how short but satisfying it is. It's about childhood and how confusing it can be, memory, and the way it warps and shifts over time, it is about adulthood and power, and uhhhhh it was just so good!
This is my third Neil Gaiman book and I went to the library today and checked out three more of his books and I'll be reading them during the next few weeks :)
This is my third Neil Gaiman book and I went to the library today and checked out three more of his books and I'll be reading them during the next few weeks :)
I heard Neil Gaiman being interviewed on "Fresh Air," and liked what he had to say about his book, and the couple of sentences he read, so, though I no longer seek out fantasy or science fiction unless I'm reading books with my students in mind, I downloaded it for a summer read. It's a very, very quick read; although it's billed as a book for adults, it's short enough, simple enough, fast-paced enough for a book for younger readers, though there is a little bit of "adult content." The protagonist tells of events shortly after his seventh birthday, when a death of the family's boarder lets loose some otherworldly mayhem, and some otherworldly forces of order are needed to return the unsuspecting world to itself. It is a novel that has some very scary things, but the narrative distance keeps the horror from breaking through (which for me is a good thing, as I absolutely hate to feel horrified and never ever read horror stories because they give me nightmares). The book reminds me of "A Wrinkle in Time," by Madeline L'Engle, in that what Gaiman conjures up in a few words and scenes grows in my imagination so that it seems to be a much longer story than it is. Also, though "Ocean" has a different theme from "A Wrinkle in Time," it similarly uses fantasy to tell an important human truth. Certain events in the story, because they are viewed through the long lens of the adult narrator's sometimes fallible, sometimes visceral, memory, stand in for the reader's own touchstones that shaped one's later drives and fears. This is a book that reminds you that our choices are sometimes attempts to atone for deeds we did with the best intentions that were simply the wrong thing to do. And back to the fantasy: Gaiman has a virtuoso touch.