The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman.

“Adults follow paths. Children explore. Adults are content to walk the same way, hundreds of times, or thousands; perhaps it never occurs to adults to step off the paths, to creep beneath rhododendrons, to find the spaces between fences. I was a child, which meant that I knew a dozen different ways of getting out of our property and into the lane, ways that would not involve walking down our drive.”

I'm not sure I have anything new to say about Gaiman's very recent novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, but I'll try and say something new anyway.

First, I should be upfront and admit that I haven't read a ton of Gaiman (American Gods, Neverwhere, Stardust, and Coraline), and I am pretty divided about how I feel about his writing. Sometimes it grabs me, sometimes it doesn't. So, when I saw this out at bookstores, I was incredibly hesitant to pick it up.

I finally caved after seeing so many glowing reviews. I'm glad I did because I thoroughly loved this book.

The novels opens with a man returning home after many years away for a funeral. Stifled by being home after so long, he begins to remember things from his youth and a girl who lived down at the end of the lane. As he sits by her old pond, which she called an ocean when they were kids, he begins to remember things from his childhood.

Now, I could tell you about the story itself, but that would ruin it. Instead, I want to talk about the importance of childhood memories. Because as the man begins to remember his childhood and what happened to him, it brought to mind my own memories. As he struggled with the pretty horrific images from his youth, I also thought of things from my own youth-happy and sad. And I wondered, how well do I really remember things from my past? Has my mind, as I've aged, started to change the way I remember events?

That, I think, is the magic of Gaiman's novel. There is a balance there-between the depth and romanticism of our youth with the harsh reality of adulthood. Because as we age, the horrors and monsters we faced as children become something much more real. And we cannot escape inside ourselves-we have to face those monsters and the evils of adulthood!

Ah, there is so much more I could say about the novel itself, but I don't want to spoil it. It's a magical thing that you need to read and experience for yourself.

But trust me, it's a good one.

“I do not miss childhood, but I miss the way I took pleasure in small things, even as greater things crumbled. I could not control the world I was in, could not walk away from things or people or moments that hurt, but I took joy in the things that made me happy.”

Thursday Treat #32: American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

I am really surprised that I haven't featured a novel by the wonderful Neil Gaiman yet. While I discovered him only in the last few years, he has become an author that I truly love. His work is original and marvelously written. And while I haven't read his complete backlist, I have read enough to know that I want to own everything this man has written.

My first experience with Gaiman is the book pictured at right, American Gods. I loved the title and the premise of this novel. Taken from Goodreads.com,

"After three years in prison, Shadow has done his time. But as the days, then the hours, then the minutes, then the seconds until his release tick away, he can feel a storm building. Two days before he gets out, his wife Laura dies in a mysterious car crash, in apparently adulterous circumstances. Dazed, Shadow travels home, only to encounter the bizarre Mr. Wednesday claiming to be a refugee from a distant war, a former god and the king of America. Together they embark on a very strange journey across the States, along the way solving the murders which have occurred every winter in one small American town. But they are being pursued by someone with whom Shadow must make his peace..."

What I loved most was the originality. I loved the gods that Shadow and Mr. Wednesday encountered. The novel didn't make light of any of the big names in religion, but focused on the gods of ancient people-the ones that were "dying out" from a lack of followers. It also creates new gods-the gods of technology, internet, and media that are fighting for prominence in the minds of believers. The novel is the story of their war, and of Shadow's involvement in the fight between gods.

I love the contrast between old and new in the novel. America is making a shift away from an emphasis on religion. Religion was far more prevalent in the lives of our ancestors. Today, we spend more time watching TV, seeing movies, and focusing on other things than reading the Bible with our families and celebrating our gods. Gaiman's commentary on this isn't over our heads, but gives a subtle warning of where we are going. You can make of it what you will, but it fascinated me and made me a lover of Gaiman.

I also love how Gaiman creates a dark and seedy world within modern day America. This is where he truly shines-showing us what our worlds could, and might be. The result is a world that is both wonderful and strange. He has this skill in many of his other novels (Neverwhere for example). Gaiman is truly the master of creating a mysterious urban setting.

I haven't read the "Sequel" to American Gods-Anansi Boys, but it is on that never-ending TBR list of mine. If you haven't given Gaiman a chance yet, you definitely need to!