Pleasant Valley Library Online Book Group discussion

Post your thoughts and comments about The Ocean at the End of the Lane here!

"Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.

"Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.

"A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. It is a stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark."

I am really looking forward to this discussion. Here's a link to Neil talking about this book on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1Z4mwSdcLoc

Enjoy!

Happy reading!
Nancy

Hi Everyone,

Have any of you had the chance to read or listen to The Ocean at the End of the Lane? If so, what do you think of the story?

I re-read the book, and also listened to the eaudiobook. I love hearing Neil Gaiman read his work. It really added a more personal tone to the story, especially having read/seen online interviews with him where he said that he wrote several autobiographical elements into it, like the family's house, the main character's love of reading, and the theft of the family car. The first-person narrative (of the unnamed main character) feels to me like Neil Gaiman could be telling his own story, and that the fantastical events in the book could really have happened in his childhood, only to be forgotten in adulthood and then remembered when he returned to his boyhood home.

What do you think of the point of view? Did you notice that Neil Gaiman never gives the names of the narrator and the boy's family members? What are some lines or passages that stood out for you?

I just picked it up from the library today!

I haven't gotten to the library yet but will probably go today or tomorrow.

It's a pretty quick read - looking forward to hearing what you both think of it!

I am about 80% through listening to it, I agree that Neil Gaiman's narration gives it more depth and really personalizes the characters in such a brilliant way. I typically love books that are narrated by the author. I feel like they can give the story a depth that just a general narrator wouldn't do justice. I've found the point of view really interesting and eye opening as far as better understanding a child's perspective goes. I'll have more once I finish the book. What do you think the fantastical events represent? They have a traumatic feel to them, as if the boy is using this fantastical way of telling his story to protect himself from and process trauma?

I really loved this! I've not read a lot of Neil Gaiman. Which of his books should I try next?

Amanda wrote: "I am about 80% through listening to it, I agree that Neil Gaiman's narration gives it more depth and really personalizes the characters in such a brilliant way. I typically love books that are narr..."

I agree that Neil Gaiman related so well to the perspective of a child. I really felt for the boy and could understand how bad he felt about the things that happened over which he had no control. He also showed the disconnect that can sometimes happen between childhood and adulthood, and how different memory can be from an adult perspective.

I also think that the book is a great example of how speculative fiction can be read in different ways. It could be seen as a fantasy, where the strange, extraordinary and scary things really happened. Or the fantastical elements could be a metaphor for the disturbing and traumatic things that happened to the boy, and, as you said, could be the way that he finds to cope with it all.
Both views are valid, and I think it's an amazing story either way.

Jeffrey wrote: "I really loved this! I've not read a lot of Neil Gaiman. Which of his books should I try next?"

So glad you loved it, Jeff! I've read most of Neil Gaiman's work and love it all. Coraline and The Graveyard Book are, like Ocean at the End of the Lane, written from a child's point of view, but I think can be enjoyed by all ages.

I've read lots of his imaginative and inventive short stories - there are several collections, and the newest one is The Neil Gaiman Reader: Selected Fiction. You can see a lot of his influences in them - Ray Bradbury, Poe, Tolkien, Lewis Carroll, fairy tales and folklore, mythology, and horror.

American Gods is an amazing epic, incorporating mythology in a modern-day setting. It's also done as a 3-volume graphic novel, and I thought it was a great illustrated adaptation. And I saw the 3-season TV series - a lot of that is very different from the book, but is interesting and well-done.

And I've read most of the Sandman graphic novels - a visionary, cool and awesome saga of the mythical personification of Dream, and his family of metaphysical, elemental characters. There are many, many volumes, but so worth the time.

In short, I think that you would enjoy anything by Neil Gaiman! :)

Linda wrote: "Jeffrey wrote: "I really loved this! I've not read a lot of Neil Gaiman. Which of his books should I try next?"

So glad you loved it, Jeff! I've read most of Neil Gaiman's work and love it all. [b..."

Great suggestions, Linda! I really enjoyed Coraline and The Graveyard Book. I haven't read American Gods yet, but I did read Norse Mythology and loved it. I also enjoyed his graphic novels, including Sandman and Snow Glass Apples. And as a writer i LOVED Art Matters.

Nancy wrote: "Linda wrote: "Jeffrey wrote: "I really loved this! I've not read a lot of Neil Gaiman. Which of his books should I try next?"

So glad you loved it, Jeff! I've read most of Neil Gaiman's work and l..."


Nancy, I really love Art Matters too - his essay, "Make Good Art" is so inspiring to me as a writer, and as a library worker I love "Why Our Future Depends on Libraries, Reading, and Daydreaming." The other 2 essays are also good, of course.

I gave Norse Mythology to my boyfriend Ian and he really liked it, but I haven't had a chance to read it yet. I plan to read it soon, though.

What did you like best about The Ocean at the End of the Lane?

Gaiman has crafted a true fairytale in The Ocean at the End of the Lane that has magic, obstacles, well-developed characters, and a childhood perspective, with the ocean representing knowledge. Looking at the world through the eyes of a seven-year-old made the landscape fresh, scary, exhilarating, and beautiful. It's supposed to be the most autobiographical book he's written - I think that explains why it is so moving, heartbreaking, and fantastical.

Nancy wrote: "Gaiman has crafted a true fairytale in The Ocean at the End of the Lane that has magic, obstacles, well-developed characters, and a childhood perspective, with the ocean representing knowledge. Loo..."

That's a great appraisal of the book, Nancy. And I agree that the ocean can be seen as a symbol of knowledge - that there is so much more to life and the world than what appears to be on the surface, and that children are open-minded and imaginative enough to be able to access that knowledge in a way that most adults no longer can. The story truly is a modern fairytale.

I am just starting! I’ll make it by the end of the month!

Kacie wrote: "I am just starting! I’ll make it by the end of the month!"

Looking forward to hearing what you think of it!

Okay! Finished!

I started out not loving it for like 15 pages and thennnn I really really liked it! Four stars.

I read it as a metaphor for childhood trauma. Isn’t it true that looking back on said traumas that evil witches, monsters and other things that go bump in the night truly do exist.

This book reads as a dark fairytale but i definitely envisioned the real enemies of my childhood and my husbands as well. It was so very real to me

I’m having my husband read this too.

I read they’re making this into a limited series because the film never happened. Too bad. Would have loved to see this as a Guillermo del Toro film.

Xox

Kacie wrote: "Okay! Finished!

I started out not loving it for like 15 pages and thennnn I really really liked it! Four stars.

I read it as a metaphor for childhood trauma. Isn’t it true that looking back on s..."

Glad you liked it, Kacie!

I agree that Guillermo del Toro would have been perfect to direct a film adaptation - it would be so imaginative and fantastical.

It was adapted as a stage play in 2019, and is now in London's West End through this April. It would be great if it could come to Broadway, but even better if the production was filmed for a streaming release so more people could see it. There's a trailer on Youtube - it looks amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zDZe...

I read online that Simon Pegg (co-writer and star of the horror-comedy Shaun of the Dead) is co-writing the planned limited TV/streaming series. I don't know how he would handle the serious theme of childhood trauma - an important part of the story. I think it would be best if Neil Gaiman were involved in writing/producing a limited series. He has a very personal connection to the story, so he should have creative control over it.

Whatever happens with an adaptation, I will watch it!

Same. I’ll watch it too ❤️

I thought it would be an interesting movie.
I finished reading a few days ago. There was a lot to unpack!
Was the boy an unreliable narrator? At the end did he realize Lettie's mom didn't exist? Only the grandma? Was there really a Lettie at all?
It's almost like either you have to suspend your disbelief or maybe know all of those things happened to the boy only in his dreams.
I wonder if, when he became an adult, if he ever told anyone about what happened when he was a kid. It seems like he had forgotten a lot of it and only remembered when he returned back.

Ohh, interesting questions. Indeed he is an unreliable narrator. Was there a Lettie? Were they all just a part of his coping mechanisms? Or do we jump into the fantasy of it all?

PugMom wrote: "I thought it would be an interesting movie.
I finished reading a few days ago. There was a lot to unpack!
Was the boy an unreliable narrator? At the end did he realize Lettie's mom didn't exist? ..."

I love when I finish a book and am still pondering it days (or even longer) later!

I agree that the boy is an unreliable narrator. And whether the events of the story were real or a fantasy of his mind, I think he definitely forgot/repressed the memories as he became an adult. I wondered whether he ever told his ex-wife about his childhood. But I don't think he remembered enough of it to share it with anyone.

I do think that Lettie, her mother and grandmother did exist, whether on a "real" level or a "fantasy" level.

If the events are interpreted as a metaphor or coping mechanism, then Lettie was the only friend of a lonely little boy, who was struggling with emotional and physical abuse and trauma. And her mother and grandmother were the only adults who showed him kindness and comfort. Lettie helped him fight imaginary monsters, because he had no way to deal with the monster of alienation and helplessness in a dysfunctional family. It's somewhat like in Katherine Paterson's "Bridge To Terabithia," where the two kids, Jess and Leslie, invent their fantasyland that helps them cope with their real-life troubles.

If, like Nancy said, "we jump into the fantasy of it all," then I think Lettie and the Hempstock women gave the boy the knowledge of the fantastical levels of reality beyond his surroundings. They could be aspects of the Triple Goddess - Maiden, Mother, Crone - or guardian spirits or benevolent witches.

They could also represent childhood's imaginative and open-minded way of looking at the world, that is usually cast aside for the concerns of "the real world" in adulthood.

Great discussion, everyone!