A review by inhonoredglory
Neverwhere Illustrated Edition by Neil Gaiman

5.0

I really fell in love with this book on my second read of it. The imagination, the inherent compassion of its purpose––giving dignity and magic and life to the homeless of London. That was what hit me most, the metaphor of the whole thing. How it brings meaning and importance to everyday, silly things, silly only because we in “proper society” judge them childlike or vacuous or below us. Like in the scene of Richard chasing after the troll toy at Blackfriars station… when it feels like just reaching that toy will give him his life back, restore his humanity. How when you’ve lost everything and don’t belong anywhere, you put your soul into the things you have, and those things are important and they have meaning and they are you. And you’re not crazy; you’re just human. Richard becomes the homeless; he sees their life and realizes they’re just the same as his, and maybe something more. For in Gaiman’s London Below, the homeless also come to symbolize the outsiders, the people who find meaning where society has denied it, the people who wander the outskirts of the norm and realize life isn’t just work, home, the pub, meeting girls, living in the city (as Richard's friend so sadly sums it up). “Life,” Richard asks, “Is that all there is?” Of course it isn’t. Life has a magic that isn’t snuffed by the humdrum of what life ought to be, if we open our souls to how life can be, full of wonder and charm and danger and adventure, a life where things matter because you truly care.