An Escape of Reality

In The Ocean At The End Of The Lane, a novel written by Neil Gaiman, the main character is never named nor described. He is simply referred to as a younger version of the narrator. At a young age the narrator had only heard of magic, he had never seen it himself before. Neil Gaiman sets the reader off into a journey never before heard of.

Escape from realism is such a great object in this book because Gaiman did a great job portraying everything as never read before. He is able to perfectly describe characters that the protagonist meets flawlessly. Neil makes you feel as if you are actually in the book and living it through another’s eyes. The title itself poses a great question that the reader will be able to answer by the end of the book. Is there really an ocean at the end of the lane or is it just a pond?

The protagonist had always been a little restless growing up. When he meets Lettie Hempstock, everything begins to change. She introduces him to a world of magic and wonder. Her farm is depicted as a portal between different worlds. So that is where the protagonist remains most of the time. The story has a great deal of internal consistency. Neil Gaiman is able to make the characters grow in all sorts of directions. He is able to help the protagonist with his fears by having him escape reality through magic and Lettie.

Overall I believe this was a great book. Very well written and engulfing, once the reading starts it never stops. I read for hours on end, completely losing track of time and reality. I did not know if I was actually living the protagonist life at times. Very highly recommended book, worth the read.