“The dread had not left my soul. But there was a kitten on my pillow, and it was purring in my face and vibrating gently with every purr.”
Neil Gaiman has a great talent for seeing the sinister and malevolent under the everyday and mundane. But he also has a talent for pointing out the beauty and wonder that simultaneously exist in the same everyday and mundane things. The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told mainly through the eyes of a seven-year-old boy, which gives the book a simple, direct style as the boy is without preconceptions. He reports matter-of-factly that his new nanny is an evil monster who rode out of another dimension in a worm hole in his own foot, but this is not the sort of thing that adults believe.
The book starts as a middle-aged man returns to his childhood village to attend a funeral, so we know that the narrator survives (something I would not have been sure of otherwise). Forty years ago, the tragic suicide of an almost-stranger and a series of seemingly small, but bad, decisions, lead to dramatic and possibly world-ending events, all under the eyes of oblivious adults.
Neil Gaiman has created a complete, but never fully explained, fantasy world living just under the surface of the world we see. His Hunger Birds are close to the creepiest fantasy creatures I have ever encountered. I can see glimmers of the best of other British fantasy. The woods that the boy first enters with Lettie Hempstock reminds me of the damaged, dimensionless woods in Diana Wynne Jones’s The Pinhoe Egg. Lettie Hempstock herself, being a non-human in human form, with her Universe-saving sentiments, reminds me of Doctor Who. These may be plausible connections: Neil Gaiman knew Diana Wynne Jones and considered her his mentor, and he has written for Doctor Who.
This book is being marketed as an adult novel and lots of adults and teens love it. I think older children who are strong readers and fantasy fans will also enjoy it. They will appreciate the main character’s impotence in the face of the seamlessly complacent adult world. It has a few oblique references to sex, but they will probably go over the heads of many children. Simply, but poetically written, this a beautiful short book that I wanted to come back to and immerse myself in. I listen to a lot of audiobooks, and have heard several read by the author. Neil Gaiman is by far the best reader of his own work that I have come across. From his pleasant English accent to the menace in the voice of the monster, I can’t wait to hear more.
Check the WRL catalog for The Ocean at the End of the Lane.
Blogging for a Good Book 
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My 16 year old daughter counts this as one of her favourite books, despite not being a fan of fantasy. It has been added to my ever-growing list of must-reads, although I must say that his other books do little to peak my interest. Have you read any of his other books, Jan? Is Ocean a radical departure from his usual writing?
Kathy
This book has to count as fantasy because it has an evil monster and other-worldly beings, but it is very grounded in a very believable and poignant childhood in England in the 1970’s. We were discussing here at the library that maybe it is better described as “Magical Realism” because it has a lot of “reality” as well.
I think what really happens is that Neil Gaiman does such a good job of convincing me that the monsters are real and hidden, that it doesn’t seem like fantasy at all…
Jan
I’ve been looking at this book and wondering if I would like it. I think I’ll try it out!
Very interesting! I am his fan and would love to read this book!
So eager to read this book!
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I read this with my book club and we all loved it. This is one of the best books I have ever read. I enjoyed reading this review :)
I didn’t think of this for my book club, as we usually lean towards women’s fiction, but it sounds like a good suggestion. Thank you!
Jan
I loved this book. It was so beautifully written and otherworldly. Neil Gaiman has a talent for dreamlike writing.
Jeff
I agree. It is very dreamlike. And although it was nightmarish in parts, I still wanted to stay in the world Neil Gaiman created.
Jan
Me too. Whenever I’m done reading a book of his, I feel like you would after waking up from a good dream. I’ve already forgotten many of the details, but there’s that lingering sense of beauty and wonder that makes me wish I could go back.