The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Neil Gaiman always seems to have something going on.

Lately, it seems what Gaiman has going on is multimedia adaptations of his earlier works. 

So, again, to read some Neil Gaiman, one may want to dip into his past works.

“The Ocean at the End of the Lane” is a shorter Gaiman book but one well worth revisiting.

In “The Ocean at the End of the Lane,” Gaiman tells the story of a middle-aged man who encounters unexpected memories of three generations of females by the pond of his childhood home. 

A master of fantasy and an astute observer of history and cultures, Gaiman’s masterwork remains “American Gods,” but in “Ocean’s” relatively scant number of pages, he achieves a story that feels as old as the first stories yet with the revelation that it has just been discovered.

Readers can expect magic here both in the book’s content but also within Gaiman’s literary abilities to spin a yarn. He accomplishes Mark Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn” feat of capturing the perspective of childhood while retaining the experience of an adult looking back. 

“The Ocean at the End of the Lane” is worth full immersion.