The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Strange story but I did enjoy it

In sehr gutem Zustand

Received the book earlier than expected and was very happy to dive into it right away. I read the whole thing in one sitting. I absolutely loved it.

La edición en sí es hermosa, aunque hubiera deseado que fuese un libro cosido y no pegado, al ser un libro de la editorial Morrow no se podía esperar otra cosa, sin embargo he de reconocerles que el hecho de que esté impreso en papel couché, que la edición tenga un cuidado espectacular y que me recuerde tanto a la edición de A monster calls de Patrick Ness han hecho que se lleve las 5 estrellas, la ilustradora es una genio! Todo el libro tiene ilustraciones prácticamente no hay hoja que quede en blanco pues hasta las guardas del libro vienen con información.La historia es muy emotiva, nostálgica y conmovedora, ese realismo mágico que pasa de un sueño a la realidad y viceversa. Si saben inglés y quieren empezar con un libro de Neil Gaiman que no sea tan infantil como puede ser Coraline o Stardust les recomendaría a parte de El libro del cementerio, este sin lugar a dudas. Soy coleccionista y aunque está es una edición que normalmente no taeria en la calle leyendo es una edición que bien vale la pena tener en casa solo de lo hermosa que es.

Simply a literary masterpiece. The story is such a pleasure to follow, and the way it's told ought to be an art form in itself. I keep coming back to this book, again and again - its effect never ceases to encapsulate me. Cheers, Neil Gaiman. You've done it again :D

Neil Gaiman hat hier ein Buch vorgelegt, das man nur schwerlich beschreiben kann. Die Handlung ist relativ langsam und irgendwie hat man auf weiten Strecken das Gefühl, dass nicht wirklich etwas passiert und dennoch ist die märchenhafte Erzählung fesselnd und schön zu lesen.Die magischen Kindheitserinnerungen die den Protagonisten bei der Rückkehr an den Ort seiner Kindheit überkommen laden ein zu träumen, auch wenn man sich bisweilen sehr dicht an der Grenze zu den Alpträumen bewegt, denn nicht alles an das er sich beim Besuch auf der Farm seiner Jugendfreundin erinnert ist fröhlich. Genau genommen sind sogar die meisten Dinge traurig oder erschreckend und dennoch gelingt es Gaiman durch seine Sprache dem ganzen einen märchenhaften anstrich zu verleihen.Und auch wenn einem das Buch am Ende viele Antworten schuldig bleibt, ist es ein durchaus erfüllendes Leseerlebnis.

Über den Inhalt brauche ich nichts zu schreiben, dass haben anderen Rezensenten in hervorragender Form gemacht. Aber auch von mir die Höchstpunktzahl für dieses außergewöhnliche Buch. Eine Mischung aus Kindheitserinnerung, Horror, Fantasy, durchaus mit erträglichen Längen. Eigentlich lese ich keine Bücher aus diesen Genres ... hier habe ich bis zum Ende durchgehalten.

Gaiman's book is a rare treat and really marks him as one of the premier fantasy authors of our time. And when I say fantasy, I mean fantasy.The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a construct made of truely original plains and beings, that exist way beyond our understanding of the concept we call life. This book is a statement for wild and untamed fantasy in it's purest form, unbound by norms or guidelines of any genre it's visions spring up in our reality like mushrooms and unfurl a fantastic landscape unlike anything you have read before.It is a plea for the freedom of pure and unlimited fantastic thought, for it's beauty, it's terror and it's power. The power to protect us from harm, that can only be inflicted upon us within the boundaries of reality.What. A. Great. Book.

Liza Hempstock kam als Geist schon in "The Graveyard Book" vor, in "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" geht es um drei Frauen aus der Hempstock Familie, die zudem viel Ähnlichkeit mit den Schicksalsgöttinnen aus "The Sandman" und den drei Schwestern aus "American Gods" haben. Wer Gaiman kennt, weiß, dass der Autor so gern an seinen eigenen Mythen oder zumindest an seiner eigenen Auslegung von Mythen spinnt.Die Hempstocks beschützen mit allen magischen Mitteln einen Jungen und dessen Familie, der durch ein Missgeschick in das Beuteschema einer finsteren Gestalt geriet. Und wie man Gaiman kennt, geht das nicht ohne Opfer und am Ende ist manches wieder gut, aber eben nicht alles.Ich liebe Gaimans Stil und fast alles, was er schreibt. Damit bekommt er schon immer Bonuspunkte. Hätte die Story jemand anders geschrieben, wäre sie für mich wahrscheinlich nicht so spannend gewesen, denn irgendwie ist sie, anders als frühere Meisterwerke Gaimans, nicht sonderlich originell. Sorry, aber ich kann es nicht anders behaupten, auch wenn mich andere Gaiman-Fans dafür nicht lieben werden. ;-)Distanziert betrachtet finde ich, dass Gaiman schon immer Höhen und Tiefen hatte, auch im "Sandmann" nicht manche Stories nicht so gut wie andere, aber bis zu "American Gods" fand ich ihn zumindest immer einzigartig und innovativ. Mittlerweile fällt mir zum wiederholten Mal auf, dass Gaiman anfängt, sich selbst und andere zu stark zu wiederholen. ("The Graveyard Book" war eine nette Kindergeschichte, aber bot nur ein bekanntes Handlungsschema, angelehnt am "Dschungelbuch" und Harry Potter. "Anansi Boys" hätte man auch als Feel-Good-Movie mit einem US-Komiker verfilmen können.)Dennoch weiß ich, dass ich weiterhin so gut wie alles von ihm lesen werden, denn, wie schon gesagt, ich liebe einfach seine Schreibe. Und hoffe nun innigst, dass der Meister bald wieder einen Geniestreich wie "Neverwhere" oder "American Gods" schafft.

Title: The Ocean at the End of the LaneAuthor: Neil GaimanRating: 5 StarsMy ReviewMy first thought as I dove into this story was that I was excited to finally acquaint myself with Gaiman's work. It was wonderful getting to know someone so beloved directly through his words. I had no preconceived notions (beyond one broken-up viewing of Coraline, the movie).And what did I think?I loved "Ocean".It was a fast and fun read and the story was never so convoluted that it felt like work following its thread. Gaiman said he wrote it intending to craft a short story and ending up with a novel instead. That seems accurate given that the arc of the story is rapid and fairly clean. It feels a lot like a great short story.My second impression as the story unfolded was that of a familiar ripple...a sense of dark déjà vous. I was transported back to my days as a young woman swimming about in Latino literature, desperate to understand its unique magnetic pull on my heart. Today, someone would explain that tug to me as "magical realism", a dull term for a provocative style. Provocative to me at least. The aplomb with which post-colonial Latino authors wove fantasy into reality was as beautiful and foreign to me as the aurora. Adrift in the stream of their tales I often tried to grip the vision and force it to take form, only to have it slip away, dancing more at the edges of my mind (like a hunger bird) than at its center. It was some of the most challenging storytelling I'd ever encountered."Ocean" struck me as a beautiful bit of magical realism. I know that magical realism is not a genre, but in some ways I feel like it should be. To call Ocean simply "fantasy" overlooks all of the other elements that make it great...and for those seeking dragons and warlocks, it will be a miss. To call it "ya" overlooks the fact that it is, in fact, the story of an adult. I feel that magical realism is the most accurate description that I can give.And in the tradition of the greats in this style (Allende, Marquez, Llosa, Oki), this story is dark. Though it is told mostly from the point of view of a young child and features fantastical things both good and evil, it's fairy-tale like elements are in the old-school style of ACTUAL danger and strife. Consider the difference between the original LITTLE MERMAID and the Disney version, for example. I love both, but when you get into magical realism, there's is always an opacity or complexity to the hybrid world. It makes me squint as if the entire thing were filmed in darkness, a la Pan's Labyrinth. There is no rescuing glitter or sparkle. Though there are "good" guys in whom you, like the narrator, place all your faith, you still sense that the evils are darker and stronger because they are INSIDE him********Small Spoiler Alert - Some Details Included*******************I love the way that this type of story allows you to feel the "lessons" often inherent in fairy-tales, but as in the style of an adept fairy-tale, the lessons are just part of the overall weave. For me, the critical moment for this character is when the hunger birds send the hallucination of his father and he finally says what he'd wanted to say in real life...that his father is abusive and his vitriol is damaging him. I also appreciated later how Gaiman reconciles this tension some through the lens of adulthood: the child understanding, finally, that he wasn't the son his father had really wanted or understood. Gaiman doesn't try to make it all better and tra-la-la, it's more of a factual assessment than a lead-up to teary reconciliations.The primary villain, the "flea" Ursula (Why do Ursula's get such a bad rap?) is an excellent portrayal, shown through a child's eyes. It's important in this type of story that the villain be as she is, with the "monstrous" part of her nature being more human than otherworldly - her encouragement of adultery and child abuse, her focus on self and material or personal gratifications, her drawing joy from rendering others powerless. When you see her "other" nature behind the facade, it's suitably horrifying, but it also serves as the reminder that utterly human villains are the most frightening, in the end. What lies beneath, if you will...And the importance of the "Ocean", in the end. It is the brass ring of human consciousness, in my opinion, and yet, as Lettie tells us, we cannot withstand it. Without giving a spoiler that ruins things, the "Ocean" represents that critical dichotomy between what we believe we want and what we actually want...or perhaps, can survive.Sundry Additional ThoughtsI think Gaiman's handling of the seven-year-old protagonist is excellent. His fears, his feelings, his impressions, and his dialogue all ring true. He even captured the very literal nature of this age group.The epigraph with Sendak is, of course, absolutely perfect, as Gaiman himself expressed in his acknowledgement. Sendak HAS to come to mind with this story, there's just no getting around it.The storytelling is incredibly well done. Surprise, right? The foreshadowing and references are subtle enough that though the "reveal" doesn't come as a total surprise, you haven't been beat to death with it the moment it happens. That's nailing it, IMHO.I also love the cover. It's perfect and haunting. I see the entire story through this lens.SummaryI recommend this book very highly to anyone who enjoys a great story. It is suitable for any age, though you may want to read or discuss this with elementary-aged children as there are a couple scenes that could be scary for children the same age as the protagonist. It is fantastical and lovely. I'm very glad I stepped off my usual sci-fi and dystopian superhighway to read this excellent book.

Neil Gaiman has written a marvellous book here, poised beautifully between literary fiction, fantasy and horror, and adult (or child) fairy storyThe central character, a man in middle age, with the disappointments of adult life upon him, turns down memory lane, when the death of a parent and the funeral gathering will unite him with the years passed. A failed marriage, work, creativity and the dreams of youth not having quite turned out in the way the younger man or boy might have wished he physically revisits where he once lived, as a seven year old boy, and recounts and remembers what the adult man has forgotten.What makes this different from other 'revisit childhood' books is that the revisited land is large with powerful myths, and presided over by 3 potent female figures who live by 'the ocean at the end of the lane' The 3 powerful women a grandmother, a mother and an 11 year old (crone, mother, maiden)are constantly reminding this reader of other pagan and indeed religious threes - a matriachy of power and goodness to rival patriarchal religion, - including a willing sacrifice - the three Fates of Greek mythology, even as they appear to be initially easily dismissed perhaps as the three witches.Gaiman narrates a brilliant story - more than a battle between good and ill (is it really good to have all desires met - even the desire to be happy?) but under the tight and page turning narrative drive, the fine writing, the believable characters and relationships, philosophical and psychological insights are placed for the reader to chew on.Its certainly a book which might be enjoyed by a child, even read to a child, especially as the central character is a child, but it reaches, I think, to the wisdom within a child, and to the child within an adult:As Gaiman has his central character say:I liked myths. They weren't adult stories and they weren't children's stories. They were better than that. They just were.I also liked the absolute truth (so it seems to me) of this:Grown-ups don't look like grown-ups on the inside. Outside, they're big and thoughtless and they always know what they're doing. Inside, they look just like they always have. like they did when they were your age. The truth is, there aren't any grown-ups. Not one, in the whole wide world.And, if you don't like that sort of psychology, what about the plunges into transcendental experience - perhaps the experience much fine poetry and music takes us towards:In those dreams I spoke that language too, the first language, and i had dominion over the nature of all that was real. In my dream, it was the tongue of what is, and anything spoken in it becomes real,, because nothing said in that language can be a lie. it is the most basic building block of everything.As adults, we have (in the main) forgotten the power of words, of the naming of things, of how potent the dominion of naming and language must have been to our species. And why (some of us) venerate poets, who give us back that place

Neil Gaiman is a wordsmith. A magician when it comes to storytelling. The bar is set high when he publishes a new book or a story. Mr Gaiman also never disappoints me.“The Ocean at the End of the Lane” is a story about the memories of a childhood but clearly not a children’s book. The world is so full of mysteries and puzzles and strange things when you see through the eyes of a seven year old. What seems to be small and unimportant for grown ups is something huge and sometimes horrible for a mind that explores, learns and experiments in order to understand how some things are working or being meant.“The Ocean at the End of the Lane” is a journey back to childhood wonders and fears. The feeling strangers cause and thunderstorms and what death is and friendship and how an ocean that saves you can fit into a bucket.The story is full of images, twisted and strange and so powerful that it is difficult to put the book aside.It sucks you in and makes you taste and cherish all those words and structures Mr Gaiman so skillfully weaves. Once you are finished you will carry the impressions around with you; the feeling some happenings within the story caused to you and the “after read” quakes are tangible for quite a while.It is a book full of horror and nightmares, of goodbyes and wonders and a very wise view of the world.