I picked up Ocean at
the End of the Lane late last year, but with graduation looming in the fall
it got pushed to the bookshelf waiting to be read with a plethora of others in
the ‘to read’ pile. While most people ‘binge’ watch television, I binge on
books (well books by certain authors at least). I tend to be analyze a lot when I read, so it can take me awhile to get through a book, especially if I am
not familiar with the author, or it has been awhile since I've read anything of
theirs. So reading as much as I can by one author back to back, the patterns
and voice of the writer become familiar and I can usually move through much
quicker. I’m still pretty lazy reader though (scatter brained would be the best way to put it).
With Neil Gaiman’s work, I had read four or five over the
summer of 2013 until school broke up my reading cycle, and after graduation decided
to clear up a few other of my ‘to read’ list before I knocked out Ocean. Gaiman had quickly climbed the
ranks of my favorite author’s during the last year, and I was savoring the opportunity
to read his latest work, even if I was behind the times from everyone else.
Even though I had taken a break from Neil’s work, Ocean was a
quick read for me and not simply because it was only 180 pages. There wasn't much
of a need to analyze this one since it was pure Gaiman from get start: There’s
the touch on ancient mythology (a prerequisite for most of his work), the
alluded to but not specifically named creatures (think Silas from the Graveyard Book), the presence of the evil
‘thing’ that is bound and determined to hurt a child, and a story that seems to
walk the line between a children’s tale and an adult one.
I’m sure many might look at some deeper meaning to the
story, but for me it was how we tend to remember things that happened very
differently from the way other who were involved might. Sometimes it’s
intentional, and sometimes it just happens and we don’t know why. But
regardless of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, we will hang on to what we
believe because they are ‘our’ memories, and they belong to us.
I enjoyed Ocean
and would probably put it behind Graveyard
Book and American Gods, but ahead
of Coraline and Stardust in my rankings of Gaiman’s work. Only gripe, if I have one,
is that it could have been a bit longer. I understand that it was a short story
that kept growing, but I felt like it could have been fleshed out a little more.
Otherwise it was very enjoyable, and of course, highly recommended.