ghosts, ghouls, and growing boys: neil gaiman’s graveyard book
I have been a Neil Gaiman fan since I first came across Sandman sitting in pile of used books at a bookstore. Neil Gaiman’s Graveyard Book is just what I have come to expect: funny, scary, deep, and true. As always, he takes a simple story (in this case based on Kipling’s Jungle Book) and broadens it to include a world full of wonder, exploration, friendship, and free will. The characters in Gaiman’s books, whatever their age, grow and explore along with the reader, and Nobody Owens (surely one of the best names of all time) takes us with him on a wild ride.
The book begins in darkness and fright. A man creeps through a sleeping house with a sharp knife, intent on the murder of an entire family. Through chance, or luck, or fate, he is foiled in his attempt, and Nobody Owens toddles his way up the hill to the local graveyard and finds a home among the ghosts, ghouls, graves, and unique characters that inhabit it.Much of Graveyard Book is about Bod Owens’ growing up. He is lovingly cared for by his foster-parents (errhh, foster ghosts?), the Owens, and has a formidable guardian in Silas and grows up with the “freedom of the graveyard” which grants him many of the powers the ghosts themselves have. His name, Nobody, is both protection and a pun–for he is the only inhabitant of the graveyard who has a living body–but he needs the outside world to think he is nobody, nobody at all. His life is in danger, and each step he takes outside the graveyard is fraught with peril. Of course, the older Bod gets, the further he strays, and he must eventually meet his destiny head-on.
The book is enthralling. For someone who rarely listens to audio-books of books that I haven’t read multiple times (I’m impatient; it’s a flaw), I occasionally froze in place as I was cleaning or cooking to listen hard because the writing was gorgeous, and I couldn’t contemplate missing anything. It made for a much less productive day (and a vow to re-read the book immediately (As before, I got impatient with waiting for the next part)), but Gaiman’s voice and the lovely music (the apt Danse Macabre) create the perfect atmosphere. Gaiman often echoes the stories from Jungle Book, and it’s fun to make the connections between the two novel, but Graveyard Book stands on its own; it is funny, heartfelt, loving, and thrilling.
I’m sure that this book would have been a success without the Newbery award, but it is wonderful to see it receiving the recognition it deserves. It’s a tale worth reading (and listening to) and Nobody Owens is a hero for all ages.