Title: The Ocean at
the End of the Lane
Author: Neil Gaiman
Genre: Magical
Realism/Fiction
Read by: Neil Gaiman
Publisher/Date: Harper Collins Publishers/2013
Dates listened to: 7/19/17 – 7/27/17
CDs/Hours: 5/5.75
IBSN: 978-0-06-226303-2
The genre is called Magical Realism and I wasn’t familiar
with the term and thought I hadn’t read anything like it before. Yet when I googled it other author names
popped up like Alice Hoffman whom I have read but didn’t associate her stories
with magic.
The jury is still out on what I think of this type of story-telling. Gaiman does well with detail and character
development and magic. I’m thinking in
these types of stories and Ocean in
particular it’s a matter of symbolism.
Lettie, the eleven year old girl, who saves the seven year old
storyteller may be equivalent to the Biblical Jesus. Lettie’s mother could be the Holy Spirit and
the grandmother may be our Heavenly Father.
In any event the trinity seem to be ageless and when our protagonist
goes back after years of being away from the lane he meets the gramma again who
hasn’t aged a bit.
Another way of looking at the story is to just enjoy the way
it unfolds and take it for what it is – a fairy tale as seen through the eyes of
the small seven year old boy.
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