All The Books discussion

Hi all!

I just wanted to let anyone who hasn't gotten a hold of Ocean at the End of the Lane know that it's just been released in paperback! Here's a link http://www.indiebound.org/book/978006...

Also, I just had a derpy moment and realized I had to manually change the "currently reading" book on our group every month. So. Now, halfway through the month, the correct book is up there.

Additionally, I will try to put together a poll for Monday that runs through the end of next week so we can vote on July's book! Any and all suggestions are welcome!

I also found a free ebook copy on epubbud! That's what I've been reading. There's no signup or anything, just download and go! :D

hmm...I need to read A Wrinkle in Time...

Oooooh, Alicen, I'm up for that any time!

So, The Ocean at the End of the Lane....disturbing and beautiful. I really connected to his first chapter, as it deals with similar themes as my writing. Not sure I appreciate Gaiman as much as most of my friends, but I did enjoy this more than Stardust. His style is very lyrical and he brings just-on-the-fringe of otherworldly places/people/events into reality (which is what I find most disturbing). The way he handles this world sometimes fails to paint a full picture for me, though perhaps this is a purposeful tactic to make me as reader blur the line between the real and the surreal to maximize the tension between the two. What did everyone else think?

I actually read OATEOLA at the end of December, and I couldn't bring myself to re-read it so soon. (I rarely re-read books, though this may have to be an exception... it was just too soon for me.)

I also found it to be disturbing and beautiful, but I think for different reasons. I love that the prose is sparse and the characters are complicated. And weird.

I think the disturbing part for me wasn't so much that otherworldly places/people/events enter the real world - I feel comfortable in that arena, I think... though now I'm trying to figure out WHY that doesn't disturb me, hahah!

What I find disturbing is feeling, through the protagonist, a sense that one's own family and home is not a safe place. That a stranger could enter your home and your parents would welcome them so fully and give them so much access that you are no longer safe -- more than that, that they completely undermine your ability to feel valued in that environment. The fact that she's a wormy, otherworldly, demon creature actually feels secondary to the fact that the parents are overtrustful nincompoops.

I loved the ending actually. It's painful and beautiful and hopeful, but also still dark. I loved that the protagonist has returned to the Hempstock's farm several times, and he doesn't remember.

I went through the first half of the book loathing the idea of having to turn another page. I found the narrator's remembrance and description of childhood to be lackluster and simplistic. I also found him to be irritatingly nonchalant about how he was treated by his family and "friends." Perhaps as a child he would have swallowed that pain, but I expected at least some sort of response to this as an adult. Having become a father later on in life, I can't believe he barely touched on the fact that his own father almost drowned him in a bathtub. I just found myself not caring about him, his problems, or his story. Gaiman had some beautiful details and descriptions about certain things, but then he skipped over details of other basic things. While the story took place in the UK, in my mind it was just some farm somewhere. I wish he would've put the same effort in describing the "hunger birds" giving a more detailed account on the scenery and background. I was honestly left unimpressed. While I enjoyed the ending (not merely because it meant this novel was over), it doesn't make up for the rest of the story.

I've been curious about Neil Gaiman ever since teenaged me was into Tori Amos in the '90s and she asked "Where's Neil when you need him?" But I had never actually picked up a Neil Gaiman book until now. Unfortunately this book didn't make a fan out of me.
The back cover has a review by someone who gushes about reading it in one sitting, but it took me more like 30 sittings to grind my way through it. Kind of silly since it's such a short book! It felt like a bloated short story. I found it to be pretty depressing and not all that original. There were some lovely moments and some delightfully dark scenes, but the prose didn't inspire me. "I sipped my tea, and finished the sandwich. The mug was white, and so was the plate" (p. 173). Really, that's the best you can do?
I did enjoy these lines: "I thought about adults. I wondered if that was true: if they were all really children wrapped in adult bodies, like children's books hidden in the middle of dull, long adult books, the kind with no pictures or conversations" (p. 113). This struck me as poignant as I've recently become a parent but still feel sometimes like a kid masquerading as an adult!
Of all the fantastical things that happen in the book (ageless witch-type characters, Donnie Darko-style wormholes, an ocean that can fit into a bucket), the thing that strained credulity for me was the characters nonchalantly eating peanut butter in 1960s England! PB was such a rarity in the UK that we were bringing it from the States for our British friends into the '90s. Nitpicky, I know, but it just felt jarringly out of place in a book filled with so many other lovely descriptions of English food.
Maybe my opinion of this book will evolve if the characters and/or story stick with me. Are there other (better) Neil Gaiman books that I should try before I give up on him?

(Side note: Even though I didn't love this book, I'm really grateful for this group for giving me the motivation to read -- and to finish books! I'm notorious for not finishing books, so it's nice to have an excuse to read books cover to cover and then actual reflect on them. Thank you, Laura Jane!)

I found the Christian symbolism interesting (the Hempstocks representing the Trinity, the protagonist having a darkness in his heart that was supposed to cost him his life, Lettie "dying" in his place) but I also found the lack of detail about his life distracting.

I loved this book, the fall from grace, the holy trinity of women and the magical way the story was told.

I really enjoyed this book. Then again, I enjoy Gaiman.

I sincerely enjoyed this book. I was caught up in the creepy tone and situations described. It might have seemed depressing or too dark for some readers, but I find that kind of thing terribly fascinating. I liked how it made me question my childhood---reenter my memories and evaluate them. Gaiman specifically said that OATEOTL was just what it was...a short story. I really truly wished it was longer.