From the Bookshelf of Mostly Sapphic…

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Neil Gaiman

Start date: April 13, 2015

Discussion: Buddy Reads

Discussion leader: Nikki

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What Members Thought

Nov 05, 2013 Sara rated it liked it

Shelves: 2013

*Revisited this after my spider-sense was vindicated and wound up fixing a few typos.

There's a type who mistakes book love for specialness. They'll post pictures of libraries, or book sculptures, or witty quotes about books. Should you have met them in person--pre-streaming--they were the first to tell you that they didn't own a TV. What gets me is that this avowed book love is always so generic. How about that five-volume set on tax law? Love that? Or just WHAT books? It's the same reason, I s *Revisited this after my spider-sense was vindicated and wound up fixing a few typos.

There's a type who mistakes book love for specialness. They'll post pictures of libraries, or book sculptures, or witty quotes about books. Should you have met them in person--pre-streaming--they were the first to tell you that they didn't own a TV. What gets me is that this avowed book love is always so generic. How about that five-volume set on tax law? Love that? Or just WHAT books? It's the same reason, I suspect, writer blogs and bios are filling up with self-conscious claims to precocity: I learned to read when I was four... I read everything when I was a child...I’m reading X for the 10th time.
Maybe it’s a reaction to depressing reading numbers, or the oft-blamed cookie-cutter influence of the MFA -- or the desire to belong to a middle class that’s quickly being eaten away and whose most revered and disappearing consumable is time. But it's still the the same bland cry for attention, a claim to uniqueness that like being a geek gets blander and less defined every day. In Ocean, Neil Gaiman uses this book love as a stand in for character development.
“Books were safer than other people anyway…I lived in books more than I lived anywhere else.”
This sentiment has appeared often of late, but in Ocean it’s cloying and calculated, more like Gaiman's online persona and those of his emulators than a real person. The self-pity abounds as well: “Nobody came to my seventh birthday…I had never felt so alone…She said nothing, just smiled, with no warmth in it, and no love.” Why should she? Even if she's an evil stepmother, she's only just met you, but she's a woman and therefore...

Otherwise this is an engaging story and there are enough dark and horrible things happening to resonate with anyone who's had a marginally bumpy childhood. The book love and pity plays, however, have all the impact of those posters of violins and wine glasses, and let's not forget -- books. ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Jun 30, 2013 Darlene rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: adult, paranormal, sci-fi, kindle, magick, fantasy, urban-fantasy, kindle-library, supernatural

I can see my friends faces as they shake their heads and murmur, "It's about time!" So. Yeah. This is my first Neil Gaiman. Note the five stars. I know! He's written Doctor Who episodes that I loved. How could I not love his other writing? I do have another book and narration sitting around waiting for me to get around to it. But this one took priority. Library book. They always take top of the list because of their due date. So, sorry other authors, waiting for me to get to your books. When a b I can see my friends faces as they shake their heads and murmur, "It's about time!" So. Yeah. This is my first Neil Gaiman. Note the five stars. I know! He's written Doctor Who episodes that I loved. How could I not love his other writing? I do have another book and narration sitting around waiting for me to get around to it. But this one took priority. Library book. They always take top of the list because of their due date. So, sorry other authors, waiting for me to get to your books. When a book comes off hold and lands in my lap, I have to read it first.

Do I dare say I would have love to have a teacher read this aloud to my class as a kid. You know the chapter books that you would have to put your head on your desk as the teacher read. Yeah, it had it's scary parts, but I think a child could handle it.

Okay. I can, also, hear mumbling about my reading goals of strictly female writers with strong female characters. Well, it's not written in stone is it? Sometimes a person has to stray to see the color of the grass or, in this case, interesting writing of the others.

Though the main character is a young boy, the heroes of this story were women. Strong women! Witchy, magickal womyn! Without these womyn, this story would be BORING! But you never get to know them or get inside their heads. This is all from the boy's head. In fact, you never even learn his name or where he is. And since there are references to place in gestures, food, accents, it seems unnecessary to name it. Funny how that bothered me, but I didn't care if I had the kid's name. Really. Did I miss something? My guess is this is somewhere in southern US. But other clues made me wonder if it were in some British colony (Australia? South Africa?). Hmmm.

But enough about needing labels. This story was the most imaginative I have read in a while. And yet, maybe because it is coming from inside the head of a kid, the most believable. Ocean in a bucket. I want that bucket! I miss the ocean so here in the Nevada desert I could have my beach!

Oh, and talk about brilliant! The transitions between the boy and his adult self, are seamless. And the character remains the same person. I am more amazed by the book the more I think about it! How is that possible?

So I plan to read more Gaiman very soon! And watch more Doctor Who. Thanks, my friends, for being patient while I catch up! ;-) ...more

3 likes · Like · see review