Book Review: THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE

There is no denying that Neil Gaiman is a compelling writer. He comes up with cliffhangers that demand you continue reading to find out what happens next.

That said, I generally find something lacking in many of his stories. There is always that something that leaves me vaguely unsatisfied after reading his book. As a result, I generally prefer his short stories to his novels. He is one of the most celebrated fantasy writers of his time, and rightly so. But for some reason, even though I find his stories interesting, unique and original, I hesitate to call any of his works ‘great’.

Recently, I finished The Ocean at The End of The Lane. My first impression was that it was his best work yet. Unlike his previous novels, I didn’t go away with that gnawing feeling of unsatisfied expectations.

The story starts off with an unnamed narrator who went back to England for some unspecified event - but which was most probably a funeral - and prompted by an urge that was only partially explained at the end of the story, he visited his old neighbourhood and drove down the lane to the farm of his old friend, Lettie Hempstock.

SPOILERS AHEAD

As he sat on the farm, his memories returned to him and he remembered the three females on the farm: Grandmother Old Mrs Hempstock, Mother Mrs Ginnie Hempstock and daughter Lettie Hempstock, as well as the role they played in the life-and-death incident when he was seven.

When he was seven, his parents fell on hard times and had to take in boarders (tenants in American English). One of the boarders was a South African miner who came in a cab that ran over and killed the boy’s black kitten. In return, he caught a hostile tomcat and gifted it to the Boy. Not particularly important plot point but for some reason I find this part hilarious.

The significant role played by the South African in the story was that he committed suicide after losing all his money, and his friends’ money, at a casino. And he chose to die at the edge of the Hempstocks’ farm.

The problem with this was that the Hempstocks were no ordinary women. They were benign supernatural beings who ensured that order was kept in all the worlds of the universe. When the miner died at the edge of their farm, a place where the barriers between worlds run thin, he awoke a being from another world (whom we shall call Rags) who began to wreck havoc on this world.

The Hempstocks were apprised of the situation by the Boy and Lettie was given the task of reining in Rags. This seemed to be a duty that she was no stranger to. Her manner was confident and easy and she decided to bring the Boy along. Just because she could. Even though her elders advised her against it. Anyone who knows fairytales would know what happens when the young go against the well-meaning advice of the older and wiser.

And indeed, although Lettie managed to subdue Rags, the latter found a way to follow the Boy back into his world, where she materialised into Ursula Monkton, an au pair (babysitter to the rest of the world) who made the Boy’s world hell. She banned him from leaving the grounds of his house, so he could not go to the Hempstocks’ home for help. She kept an eye on him as closely as the NSA monitors the world, Americans and non-Americans alike. She seduced his father, and abetted him to almost drown the Boy.

Eventually, the Boy managed to escape to the Hempstocks’ farm. Lettie came to the rescue by calling forth some supernatural birds that feed upon beings like Rags and Rags was devoured by these creatures. Problem quite easily solved? Not quite.

That was not the end of the Boy’s woes. It turned out that Rags had used the Boy as a portal to cross over from her world to his. And a fragment of the portal was left in his heart. So the birds refused to leave until their job was done, that is until they had consumed his heart. In the ensuing face-off, Lettie was badly hurt, as close to death as a being like her could be. Her grandmother and mother released her into the ocean which resembled a pond (another manifestation of the women’s powers) so that she could heal. It was hinted that her healing could take eternities and that even then, she might not return. And if she did return, it could be in another form.

After the incident, the Boy’s memories were altered so that he didn’t remember Lettie sacrificing herself to save him. What he remembered was that she left for Australia with her father. Only at the crossroads of his life would he return to the pond/ocean. Another reason offered for his occasional returns to the pond/ocean was that Lettie wanted to see how the Boy turned out. Which was the true reason? Shrugs. With Lettie’s powers, injured as she was, she could possibly have timed her desire to see the Boy with his life-changing moments. The Boy never remembered those times he returned to the farm. Just as it was shown that the moment he left this time, at the end of the book, he began to forget again.

Gaiman is a master at world-building. It is amazing how he could use such simple language to construct a layered world imbued with magic and fantasy. There was the normal mundane world which was a struggle for the Boy who was a loner and could not fit in in school. When he met Lettie, he stumbled into her world where time travel was normal and reality could be altered, or even deleted.

The charm of this story lies in the strength of the world Gaiman built. Despite all the incredulous happenings, he made it all so realistic and believable.

It is recommended that this book be read just to see how simple words and language could be used to knit a tight and gripping story.

My only gripe with the book is that the problem of the ravenous birds who would not go away was resolved so easily that it was a little contrived. But this is a minor quibble, in view of the enjoyable hours I spent in the Boy and Lettie’s world.