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

How do childhood memories affect our adult selves? That is the question at the heart of The Ocean at the End of the Lane, a novel that is about childhood, though not necessarily written for children. The novel opens with the protagonist returning to his childhood home following on from the funeral of his parents. He finds himself inexplicably drawn to the house next door. Settling there for a while with his elderly former neighbour, he begins to recall a long-forgotten adventure that has helped to shape his entire life.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a fantasy story, about a boy who unintentionally becomes a gateway for something rather otherworldly to join his world, and who is helped by the older girl next door and her mother and grandmother, who know exactly what needs to be done and how to keep him safe, in spite of the insidious creature who wants to use him. On the flip side, it is also the story of a seven year old boy who is just trying to survive in the face of untrustworthy adults, and his parents who have forgotten what it is like to be a child and just how much bigger and stronger they are. Although the boy's story was nothing like my own childhood (after all, I grew up in a different era, in a different part of the world,) there was a familiarity to some of the injustices he experienced--in particular there is a line in the book where he asks an adult if it makes them feel big to make a little boy cry. (Something that, sadly, we all experience at one time or another.) 

However, where the book really shines is in its example of how, and perhaps why, children are not believed when they are telling the absolutely truth, and how abusers get away with their behaviour. In one part of the book, new boarder Ursula carefully befriends and manipulates the rest of the family, while isolating the protagonist from anyone who can possibly help him. And then his father is basically brainwashed into causing further harm. It is a chilling parallel to what happens to real life victims of many different types of abuse. 

There are also some wonderful moments, the novel highlights the kindness of the women who help him, and the huge sacrifice that Lottie makes in order to keep her friend safe. (And something that she does because she knows that it is right.) It also highlights the joy that children take in little things--the arrival of a new kitten for example, or the little yellow sink in the bedroom that was installed just for the protagonist. 

Overall, this is a well written fantasy novel and a deep exploration of childhood memories, and how they shape us--even if they are easily forgotten.

Highly recommended. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Peppermint Patty: I Cried and Cried and Cried

Image
Unrequited love is a common theme in the Peanuts Comics and is one that I have previously explored on this blog. We know that Lucy loves Schroeder, Sally loves Linus and Charlie Brown has a crush on the unseen, unnamed and utterly unattainable Little Redhaired Girl. But perhaps the saddest unrequited love stories from the comic is that which ran in late June 1972. It was the series of strips where the usually self-confident Peppermint Patty came face-to-face with the Little Redhaired Girl with the intention of thumping her and then something surprising happened: Here we have a usually self-confident girl, who is funny, unashamedly herself and talented at sports reduced to tears by the realisation of who she is not and never can be. I really feel for her in this series of comic strips. She knows that Charlie Brown can never love her, when he is so hung up over a girl who represents a supposedly ideal feminine beauty. Fortunately Linus, the most spiritual member of the Pean
Read more

Charlie Brown, Lucy Van Pelt and the Football

Image
One of the longest, and arguably, most infuriating, running gags in Charles Schulz's otherwise brilliant Peanuts comic strip, is where Lucy promises to hold a football for Charlie Brown and then pulls it away at the last minute, causing Charlie Brown to fall flat on his back. A typical strip looks like this: Source: Go Comics The gag is one of the darker themes in the strip. It works on the concept that every year, Lucy promises to hold a football for Charlie Brown. Every year, Charlie Brown is initially filled with doubt but is eventually pushed on by a kind of optimism that perhaps, this time, Lucy might just let him kick it after all. As a metaphor for life, it is pretty simple. It talks of the moments when we choose to put our trust in people who have let us down only to be taken by surprise when they let us down, again. Lucy is, arguably, one of the crueller characters in the comic. Described as crabby by the other characters, she is often selfish, takes delight in wilfully hu
Read more

Phrases and Idioms: Tickets on Himself

To have tickets on himself: (Australian slang.) To be conceited or vain. To have an overinflated opinion of oneself.  He's got tickets on himself if he thinks that any woman would fall for that. I was thinking about this particular bit of Australian slang the other day, after my boss said, "He's got tickets on himself," to describe the actions of a particular individual. At the time, I smiled, knowing exactly what the boss meant. Later on, I started to ponder on this unusual phrase and wondered where it might have come from. A search on google helped me find the definition, but that was about all. There are no references to it being used in pop culture or literature (if you find one, let me know,) and at the time of writing this post, Tickets on Himself was not listed on Urban Dictionary. (I tried to add it, but the fuckers rejected my definition. They probably think I have tickets on myself or something for trying to add a relatively common piece of A
Read more