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Reader Reviews | |
Review by Ben Macnair (301115) Rating (7/10) Review
by Ben Macnair It concerns a loner, going home after forty years for his Father’s funeral, and it is here that he remembers the events that happened when he was seven. Starting with a birthday party which no-one goes to, it soon gets worse. A lodger commits suicide in his father’s car, and from this event, monsters are invited into his life, taking on the forms of a new, alluring housekeeper, who seduces his father, and changes his father’s behaviour towards his children, and sets in motion a series of event that would destroy him, if it wasn’t for the women at Hemstock Farm. Lettie is 11 when she helps the boy, taking him along to find monsters, but when he accidently lets go of her hand, a monster is allowed to escape through him, taking up a place in his heart, a heart which will remain altered for years. Lettie, her Mother and her Grandmother remember the earth before the moon, and have dominion in this world, and many others, power and control over time, but there are monsters that even their powers cannot stop. The Ocean at the End of the Lane is at once both elegiac for times during the 1970’s of the boy’s childhood, and the effect that it has on his life as an adult. The Hemstock’s may have power over time, and can change and alter it at will, but the results are inevitably the same, and there will always be a monster in the heart. In this case, it is real, but it is also metaphorical for all of us, for the world and our childhoods always shapes us into the adults we become. Neil Gaiman’s writing ratchets up the tension, using narrative structure and characterisation to cast a spell, and keep the reader hooked. If you are unfamiliar with his writing, this book is as good as any to make a start. |
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