A Book Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

"Oh, oh, oh, sweet childhood O' mine...", so sang Axl Rose, the vocalist for Guns and Roses, in their hit song, Sweet Childhood O' Mine.

What is sweet about childhood? A lot of us look back to our childhood memories with nostalgia, at the innocence lost, and at the sense of wonder and mystery that we used to feel about everything. But how much can you remember of your childhood? Furthermore, if you are able to experience again, as an adult, the unexplainable and the unfathomable from your childhood, then how much wonder can be retained? There is a disconnection between childhood and adulthood, a permanent change, like the water spilled from a glass can neither return to the glass nor remember its shape; once the childhood is gone, it is gone forever.

Neil Gaiman wrote a book called The Ocean at the End of the Lane. This is a fairy-tale like story about childhood - the friendships, the cruelty, and the resementments associated with it.

Synopsis:

The story began when a middle-aged man attended a funeral at his childhood home in Sussex, England. The man was drawn to a derelict farm at the end of the road, because when he was 11 he befriended a most unusual girl who lived on that farm and she told him that her pond was an ocean.

Can a pond be an ocean?

The man knocked on the farmhouse door, and an old woman answered. Suddenly, the man remembered a past too bizarre and dangerous to have happened to a little boy...

My thoughts on the book:

For the month of May, my book club picked The Ocean At the End of the Lane. I discovered in surprise that those in my book club have not read Neil Gaiman before. As a fantasy reader, Neil Gaiman is no stranger to me, where his books, such as American Gods and Anansi Boys, are among my favorites. However, unlike American Gods and Anansi Boys which are dark fantasy novels, The Ocean at the End of the Lane has a fairy-tale quality to it. Neil Gaiman wrote beautifully in this book, the story is simple, but it also has a few surprises, and at times the story is very moving.

Hang on, but didn't I just say this book has a fairy tale quality to it? Doesn't this mean the book is a cheery story for litten children? Well, I find it very strange that people often equate fairy tales with children's books, this is despite the fact that fairy tales are often dark and disturbing and they say a thing or two about the human conditions. Similarly, while this book has a fairy tale quality to it, but I wouldn't recommend buying this book for your 12 year old at home, especially since the story has some pretty disturbing scenes, such as child abuse. Ok, so can we expect a healthy dose of cynicism from this book if it is oriented towards adults? Well, here is another strange thing, for some reason these days people are equating being adult with cynicism, sex, and violence, but I just cannot see how sex and violence make the fiction more "mature', let alone cynicism. So no, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is not looking at the world through the lens of cynicism. No, this is a powerful book and most readers can resonate with it, because it deals with themes such as grief, loss, friendships, growing up, and the loss of innocence, which are all all parts of the human experience.

I have yet to attend my next book club meeting, so I do not know what others in my book club think of this book. Personally, I had a great time reading The Ocean at the End of the Lane. This is a very short book (only about 200 pages), and I read it in one sitting. This is a book I would like to re-read in the future and just hang out with the characters in it. Meanwhile, if you like Neil Gaiman's works, then make sure to check out this book, I highly recommend it.