A brilliantly imaginative and poignant fairy tale from the modern master of wonder and terror, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is Neil Gaiman’s first new novel for adults since his #1 New York Times bestseller Anansi Boys.
This bewitching and harrowing tale of mystery and survival, and memory and magic, makes the impossible all too real…
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
By Neil Gaiman
This book starts off almost as simply as a book can. However, it’s the perfect beginning to this tale, and sets a melancholy mood:
“I wore a black suit and a white shirt, a black tie and black shoes, all polished and shiny: clothes that normally would make me feel uncomfortable, as If i were in a stolen uniform, or pretending to be an adult. Today they gave me comfort of a kind. I was wearing the right clothes for a hard day.”
It sets up the main character efficiently, and the tone of the book perfectly. He takes a trip down memory lane, having gone back home to attend a service after a long time away. He begins to reminisce about a past he forgot about, and one that was tucked underneath, but can’t possibly have been real, could it?
Sometimes there are reasons we don’t remember things, whether they are mundane, traumatic, or magical.
Gaiman does it all in an effortless manner that makes this book daily my favorite of all his works.
I cannot recommend this book enough!
It’s really hard for me to describe this book. I almost started with a quote like so many reviewers did, but there were so many good ones. Neil Gaiman is an artful storyteller. Returning home for a funeral, the middle aged narrator finds himself drawn to the farm at the end of his road where Lettie Hempstock lived. As he visits the old farm, he begins to remember meeting her when he was seven years old. It was an alarming and magical time, a little strange and very dangerous for a young boy. A remarkable fantasy read.
My favorite book. It’s totally engrossing. I actually read it about 3 years ago, and I was so obsessed with it that I read it during my lunch breaks, while walking on the sidewalks of NYC. I didn’t care that people were around… honestly, all I wanted to do was to get back to the story and find out what happened. The writing is beautiful (it’s Neil Gaiman, of course), but more than that, the story stays with you. I think about it all the time. It’s emotionality is sticky, but not in a saccharine way. It truly is haunting. I was so sad when I finished it.
This is a wonderful, wonderful book. The first in a long time to bring me to tears. I had to reread the novel as soon as I had finished it. The ending is so profound and moving I am getting emotional even now. A truly affecting book. Thank you Mr Gaiman.
This was an absolutely engrossing tale of facing your fears…with a nice little bit of magical realism tossed in.
Hard to believe, but this is the first Neil Gaiman book I’ve read. I’ll definitely be adding more of his stuff to my ever-increasing to-read shelf :)) I’d have probably given it five stars, but a few descriptive areas of the story do get a bit long-winded. Still, it never slows down too much and you can’t help but feel for everything the main character is being put through.
This was so good i re-read it right away. Didn’t want it to end.
Love, love, love this book! I couldn’t stop reading and I didn’t want it to be over. I also loved the artwork!
Neil Gaiman never disappoints. Another wonderful tale.
First time I read it, I loved it, but I didn’t know exactly why. The second time I read it, I tried figuring out the “why” part. And then, like most of Neil Gaiman’s work, I’d pick it up a few times every year. I’ve done that since it came out in 2013. Still love it, and still not certain as to why.
If I listed a quick plot breakdown, you’d say, “cool idea!”. And in the hands of a lesser writer, that’s all this would have been. But it’s so much more. The reason it resonates, is that it cuts you open like a ninja surgeon. You never notice the scalpel or feel the surgeon digging around in that spot where childhood experiences are stored. Yet that’s exactly where this story will implant itself, in that moment when as a child, the sheer scale of the world and your place in it reveals itself.
I decided to pick up a Neil Gaiman book after I realized he wrote Stardust (a favorite movie of mine). I expected it to be a little out there, which it is. That doesn’t normally bother me. I’m out with “out there.” I just didn’t connect with the book though — I started it, then had to set it down for some reason and didn’t remember to pick it up again for a few days.
It’s not that the story wasn’t interesting or unique; we just didn’t click. I especially had a hard time once Ursula appeared. I have a hard time reading books where adults mistreat children, so the book became difficult for me to read. At that point, I skimmed ahead to the end to see how the books ends.
If you enjoy darker fantasy novels, you’ll probably like this book. It was just a little too dark for me and I missed the reader/character connection.
This has been on my list to read for many moons. I was excited to see the audiobook was readily available with Libby. My Mornings and chores for the over the couple weeks were a bit more interesting. Neil Gaiman doesn’t leave you disappointed at all. Keeps you guessing all the way to the end, on who are all the key players. Who, what and why? When you finally get to the end of the story. You’re left sitting there with your mouth hanging open. Going … REALLY?!?
This is literally my favorite feeling. Gaiman always leaves me just sitting there at the end of a book, needing more. He is one of the few that can actually have me looking one way the entire time and pull a rabbit out of his coat pocket and leave there going what just happened? I can never truly guess what ride I will be going on.
This author is incredible, he has written several books about magic and expansion of the imagination to new levels for me. His characters are complete and encourage empathy with them.
As the Fall season begins so does my NEED for all things creepy, scary, mysterious and dark. . I’ve had this book on my shelf for a while and man this was the perfect start to my Fall reading. This is a definite must for the Spooktober reading season.
I love this book…A unique and beautiful tale
One of his best
Not worth the time it takes to read.
Absolutely loved it.
What a surprise!
A perfectly modern fable with flourishes of fantasy and horror. Seasoned with a little allegory and you have an marvelous piece of fiction. The entire package is sublime. And the end….the end is practically perfect.
The curious beginning gives way to a strangeness that begs the reader to keep exploring. It very much reminds me of Tolkien’s essay “On Fairy Stories”. You might say, they are cut from the same cloth: real world events have cause and effect in the fairy realm. That if you believe you’ll see the underpinnings. Though like Twain and his river, after the knowing, you might wish you would have stayed ignorant.
Gaiman’s ending allows the person who chooses the knowing to come back again and again to find new wisdom and seek comfort again and again.
Neil Gaiman is simply one of the most brilliant writers of this generation. This story is lovely and sad and stunningly written.
Excellent fiction from a master of the genre.