October 2016 - Neil Gaiman: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

A very select group had a lively evening and among many other topics did discuss the book. There was agreement that the opening pages, which described a man leaving a funeral and deciding to visit a childhood home, engaged the reader and suggested that the story would be an easy read of reminiscences. The first notes of something very different came after his arrival at a seemingly traditional old-fashioned farm run by a mother and a grandmother, a daughter having apparently gone to Australia after the events that had occurred many years previously. The boy who had been living nearby had, after witnessing the suicide of his parents  opal miner lodger, sought refuge from an abusive father and unlikeable mother in a friendship with the daughter who seemed to be a couple of years older than him. A sequence of bizarre events followed, many quite gruesome, involving possession and magic, harpies and a fairy ring. During these events it became apparent that the Hempstock family at the farm were not normal humans and were virtually immortal, and that they had powers to fight evil and protect the good, which they eventually succeeded in doing. As an adult the boy had only vague memories of the titanic struggle for good in which he had taken part, and seemed nearly as bewildered on re-encountering the Hempstocks as the readers of the book, who were left with a lot of questions:-

Who or what were the Hempstocks?

When was the book set?

Whose was the funeral?

How old was the boy?  said at one point to be seven, but remarkably mature thinker -

What was the point of the opal miner?

How did his mother become an optometrist?

Was it a fairy story? Was it an allegory? Was it Sci-fi?

Who are the intended readers? Settled for teenagers but it did grip adults.

Despite all these questions there was general agreement that the book had strengths. The plotting was bold, the characters were vividly portrayed, especially the Hempstocks, and the writing had clarity and style.

Marks (from 5 people) Average 6.5 Range 6-7