The Ocean at the End of the Lane Art

The Body of water At The End Of The Lane

by Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman, ane of the world'southward almost beloved fantasy authors, has won the Hugo and Bram Stoker awards, and the Newberry Medal — and now he's written his outset novel for adults in viii years.

The Sea at the Terminate of the Lane opens with an Englishman — never named — who returns to the Sussex town where he grew up. More specifically, he returns to the business firm he lived in as a boy, and suddenly, he's lost in memories of the time his family unit's lodger (a down-on-his-luck opal miner) stole their motorcar, ran over their cat, and accidentally woke up a dark energy that threatened to swamp the globe. Luckily for both the boy and the world, a slightly older girl named Lettie Hempstock, who lived at the titular end of the lane, stepped in to salvage the twenty-four hours.

Before all that happens, though, the miner replaces poor footling kitten Fluffy with an older, snarlier cat — a sort of metaphor for the overall story. "This is a book that, on the outside, could appear very beautiful," Gaiman tells NPR's Scott Simon. "I actually had to determine, well, there'south a lot of stuff in hither that kids would like, but information technology's apparently not a children's volume, even though it has the lovely fluffy stuff, it has claws."

Interview Highlights

On deciding to make Bounding main an adult book

"Really, I kept a sort of open mind until I got to the very end, and then looked at what I'd done. ... It was meant to be just almost looking out at the world through the kind of eyes that I had when I was 7, from the kind of mural that I lived in when I was 7. And then it just didn't quite stop. I kept writing it, and information technology wasn't until I got to the end that I realized I'd actually written a novel. ... I thought — information technology's really not a kids' story — and one of the biggest reasons information technology's non a kids' story is, I feel that good kids' stories are all about promise. In the case of Ocean at the End of the Lane, information technology's a volume almost helplessness. Information technology'south a book about family unit, it'southward a book about existence 7 in a world of people who are bigger than you, and more unsafe, and stepping into territory that yous don't entirely sympathise."

On being the little male child who lived in books

"When I was vii, my proudest possession would have been my bookshelf 'cause I had alphabetized all of the books on my bookshelf. I'd got to the bespeak where I'd persuaded my parents to let me get to the local library in my summertime holidays, and they would really drop me off with sandwiches at the library, and I would just head into the children's section at the back and just start reading my way through it. It was the best place in the world."

On being a journalist

"I was never a very good journalist, but I loved beingness a journalist, and I loved it considering it taught me ii really, really important things virtually writing. It taught me compression: If I was interviewing somebody, and I talked to them, and I'd wind up with iii,000 words, four,000 words, and I'd demand to go that down, I learned how to compress what they'd said while all the same keeping spoken communication patterns, which became incredibly of import later when I was writing comics. And even more important than that, I learned well-nigh deadlines.

"I practise recollect one time, getting a phone call one evening from an editor, proverb, 'Your volume review, information technology's due in tomorrow.' And I said, 'No no no no no, it's due in on Tuesday.' And they said, 'Yes, today is Monday.' And I hadn't written it, and I looked effectually the room and I couldn't encounter the volume. And I said, 'What happens if I don't go it in?' And they said, 'Well, then nosotros'd take a bare page, and nosotros'd have to run a lilliputian photograph of y'all, with your accost and your telephone number that anybody could call back if they wanted to find out what that volume was like.' And that full-bodied the mind wonderfully."

On writing in unlike voices

"That'due south part of the job, I call back ... when I was growing upwards, some of my favorite writers, the people I respected the most, were the ones who did everything, you know. A good writer should exist able to write comedic work that made y'all express joy, and scary stuff that made you lot scared, and fantasy or science fiction that imbued you with a sense of wonder, and mainstream journalism that gave y'all articulate and concise information in a way that you wanted information technology. Information technology always seemed to me that that was what a writer should do. Yous take all these astonishing tools; it'south up to you what kinds of tunes you play on them, and you lot want to play all the tunes. As I grew older, I was fascinated to realize that actually, society to some extent frowns on those of the states who similar messing about in an awful lot of different sandboxes. From my perspective, I merely love being able to do everything. I think a good writer should be able to do everything. And if yous tin can't do everything brilliantly, at to the lowest degree you should have a bash."

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Source: https://www.npr.org/2013/06/15/191353158/gaimans-new-ocean-is-no-kiddie-pool