Monday, January 5, 2015

The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman



This was the January book for book club. I'm still not sure of my opinion! It was fairly short, a quick and easy read, but so full of fantasy. Nothing fully explained, but very well written with descriptions and good vs evil.

A few interesting things is that I wonder if a part of the book was to bring attention to child abuse and how a lot of times children are not believed, but the adults are believed and sometimes the adults can be the bad guy? Another idea is that even though there is great evil, some get referred to as "fleas". And if we view our temptations as fleas-things so small that want to live off of us but that we have power to get rid of, we could be better off.

Anyhow, most of the book is told by memories, of a young boy. He starts the story middle aged, back in his home town for a funeral service, finding himself driving past where his childhood home once stood and then continuing on down to the house at the end of the lane where he made friends with a girl named Lettie Hempstock. You never figure out exactly what Lettie, her mom, Ginny, and her grandmother are. At first you think they are witches of some sort, but then you find out they aren't. But they are older than time itself and have incredible knowledge of the way things work. A port of the book, where knowledge completely flows and it's as easy as taking a breath made me think of what it must be like once we get to Heaven and in the presence of God have all things made known to us. How it will just be natural to know how the world came into being, how God created everything and we won't be overwhelmed. It will just be there, in our minds, fully comprehendable.

Anyway, when I finished, I was left somewhat bewildered....wondering what I was supposed to get out of it....I'll have to see if my friend who suggested it has any thoughts to further my opinion.

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