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

This was my second read of Ocean at the End of the Lane. The first time I listened to the audio book (read by Neil himself), which was delightful, but I was glad of chance to read the text. I picked up things that I missed the first time through. I usually listen to audiobooks while cooking, so my attention is divided, though I am usually more likely to burn something rather than miss a good bit of a story!

This is another book that refers to other books (Narnia being the most common), though the literary references are not as thick as in Jo Walton's Among Others. Our hero is a bookish lad, grown up to be an artist, who is back home for his father's funeral. The bookishness of the narrator and the literary references will appeal to readers who have read the Chronicles of Narnia

What I enjoyed most about this novel was the Hempstocks. In Wiersema's (2013) review in the Globe and Mail, they are compared to the pagan Triple Goddess (maiden - Lettie, mother - Ginnie, and Crone - Gran) or the fates (references to stitching the fabric of time) (para. 9). At first I thought this might be beyond the reach of the teen reader with little grounding in mythology, but reconsidered thinking of the popularity of the Percy Jackson series (which actually mentions the fates in the first book),  Further, a teen reader who is intrigued by the characters and their meaning in the story can simply go online and look it up!

One of the (many) things Gaiman does well is to portray our tendency to return to the place of our childhood when we are unsure what to do next, are grieving, or have great anxiety about the world. It is in these states of flux and un-sureness that we become vulnerable like children and susceptible to the workings of the greater story or myth within our own lives. Keeping in mind Levithan's definition of YA, we think about who and what we are becoming or have become.

While saying some wise and sweet things about childhood and adulthood, such as "I thought about adults. I wondered if that was true: if they were all really children wrapped in adult bodies, like children's books hidden in the middle of dull, long adult books, the kind with no pictures or conversations"(p. 113), Gaiman is not saccharine about childhood innocence:

I was a normal child. 

Which is to say, I was selfish and I was not entirely 

convinced of the existence of things that were not me, 

and I was certain, rock-solid unshakably certain,

that I was the most important thing in creation. 

There was nothing more important to me than I was. (p. 156)

What works well here are the elements of horror and myth and magic that surround the narrator's childhood fears. Without these elements, we are left with a sad story about a boy who loses his family home, and who inexplicably comes back to sit beside a pond to think about it years later.  There is an appeal to being scared, to believing that there are magical forces at work shaping our lives or even just shaping the story we are reading. Beyond that thrill of being scared, there is an emotional truth there. I think the horror elements in Ocean at the End of the Lane work well to show how those childhood fears feel - like monsters trying to steal your parents' hearts and affection. 

Possible Challenges for this book: 
I suppose this book could be challenged on the grounds that the Hempstocks could be construed to be witches? I'm grasping here, and I admit it. There is one sexual scene, a suicide, a little nudity. OK, maybe there is enough there for an overprotective parent to worry about.

References
Gaiman, N. (2013). The ocean at the end of the lane. HarperCollins: New York.

Wiersema, R. J. (2013, June 21). This novel is why your geeky friends rave about Neil Gaiman. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/this-novel-is-why-your-geeky-friends-rave-about-neil-gaiman/article12743057/