(Post) Book Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

"The rock star of literature bring us another chilling yet magical tale of childhood memoirs"

I’m sure many of us can not just forget and throw away memories as easy as throwing the wrapper of your favorite junk foods. And I bet childhood memories are probably are as precious (perhaps more precious) than any kind of treasure the whole world can offer to us. The days of innocence and bliss is by far one of the most significant period of our lives that whether we are all grown up now and raising our kids and taking care of the bills, we can always have own throwback to our little world back then when superheroes are real and our imagination is the only limitation that we have.

But what if your childhood memory is something different from the normal ones? Something magical yet simultaneously terrifying that even adults would not dare to reminisce?

Neil Gaiman’s latest novel put us into the shoes of a middle age man who suddenly gain access to his seemingly lost and forgotten memory when he is only but 7 years old during the time when they are still living near a farm where a peculiar family lives.  Consisting of her friend Letty Hempstock together with her mother and grandmother they will play a big role on the man’s childhood as he encounter strange and scary experiences and creatures that are both intertwined with reality and fantasy that nearly endanger his life to the point of losing it together with his innocence and sanity. Of course I won’t spoil the story for you to have the element of surprise (and to me to avoid being bashed and threatened) but let me dissect it further by giving some chunks of ideas from the novel. The story’s plot is mainly attuned to a continuous flashback of the man’s memory beginning from his birthday where no one really comes for admittedly it is said the he is not a happy kid yet he is content with his life (I can relate to that so much) until he meet the Hempstock family and made his own adventure with Letty in a bizarre yet magical world.  Their encounter with the entity that causes a growing chaos in their community is actually the start of the complexities in the kid’s life that roughly and terribly affects his family and in time, he nearly lost it too .What is really satisfying with the story is that as it develop is the way Gaiman portray the whole scenes in the eyes of the children as he saw lots of things that ranging from nightmarish to almost explicit ( hint: there’s a “Legal Wife” issue on the story but it is beyond the normal trend) sight that little by little he face with a brave soul without pushing himself to be a mucho-macho wannbe but just a plain child who tries to solved things with hope and faith only in his arsenal. Later on the climax of the story, the kid will made a bold decision that even adults are having a problem to do sometimes: to sacrifice himself to save everyone else. Gaiman created a small protagonist against conflicts which is beyond anyone’s capability to endure and yet he made it possible in a terrific and witty way without making it too glorified but simply thrilling and at the same time scary ( it’s his style to create stories that are seems  deceptive and yet beautifully executed). 

I also love the way he puts the antagonists in the story that made me confused at the middle of the climax if whether they are the real opposing force or whether just like what the grandmother of Letty say’s: “they just doing what is their nature”. Perhaps we can gain insight about this as we go along our own life that nothing really matters whether who is good and bad but what matters most is how we strike the perfect balance between being who we are and how we will live to by not meddling with other’s own way of life. But that’s another argument to be discussed later on this blog.

The ending will make some readers quite in the cliffhanger room but we all know this makes the whole story delicious and tasty in our minds. Though the novel is somewhat short, it never runs out of vivid moments that twinkle with rich storytelling prowess of Gaiman with his matching fantasy and grim themes that leave you wonder if all memories are worth to be forgotten or worth to be treasured.

The Ocean at The End of The Lane is available now at your nearest National Book Store. By the way it’s my first time to write a review so please understand how and why I rant this way.