It seems like everyone else loved this book – or if they didn’t, it was for other reasons, not because they found it nonsensical or difficult to understand what was going on or what was meant by what was said like I did. I just found myself confused or found it very bizarre. Also the writing, the way things are worded is odd to me too. So.. is it just me? I’m starting to wonder if I have some sort of comprehension problem?? There’s also certain sentences when that just don’t even seem written properly, not even a plot thing, that I found perplexing, with the author’s writing. I don’t know if it’s normal and I’m just going a little crazy because I haven’t found any similar comments about this. The way the characters communicate with each other is also so strange to me, like the exchanges between Lettie and the creatures – like Ursula, those bird creatures, etc. They say random stuff that doesn’t make sense.
Am I only the one?? I don’t have this issue with most books so I want to think I’m not, but it seems like it..
by vividcupcake1989
44 Comments
Don’t feel bad, I was the same way. My wife loved it but I just couldn’t get into the flow of the book. Maybe we both have the same comprehension problem lol
I read it and loved it. Maybe it’s one of those books you have to be in the right frame of mind for it, for it was different.
This is one of my favorite books! I don’t know if this makes sense, but with books that are written in sort of a more whimsical or lyrical way, I find it helps to let the words flow through me and not so much try to analyze every sentence. Take in the paragraph as a whole rather than making sense of each statement. Not each individual statement will make sense.
You’re definitely not dumb. I just think this is the kind of book that really speaks to you or doesn’t, and maybe it just didn’t hit the spot for you.
I read this book a few years ago and did not get it at all
Interestingly I listened to it recently as an audiobook (read by the author himself) and loved it. Maybe he reads it as he meant to write it, so the issues you caught reading the print didn’t come through via audio?
Maybe you’re “over it” and don’t want to bother/spend the time, but I wonder what you’d think if you listened to the audiobook.
It made sense to me, but I think a big reason some of us love this book so much is that is somehow captured the exact feeling of what my childhood was like. It had lines that made me tear up because they hit me a certain way. The ending had me sobbing and I couldn’t really tell you exactly why. I don’t really know what didn’t make sense to you but all books aren’t for everyone and that’s okay. I don’t think there was anything that didn’t make sense to me but I do think this book is more about capturing a feeling than the specific plot points. Art is subjective and I wouldn’t expect most people to feel the way I did about this book.
I couldn’t get into it. I’ve read many of his other books and was obsessed with Sandman in high school. This one kinda dragged for me. I’ll try it again some other time but I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who’s not raving about it.
Plenty of other amazing Gaiman books out there. I think it’s one of, if not his weakest to be honest
It definitely assumes that you’re familiar with a particular kind of faerie story, where there’s this half-sinister magical world that exists in parallel with our own, and nobody talks straight and nothing is real the way you think it is and even the friendly folks are never quite entirely helpful. It draws a lot on British and Irish folklore. It’s all over the place in Gaiman’s stuff, and in a lot of other fantasy stories. This book I think leans particularly hard into the common tropes and language, and sort of drops you in the middle without explaining anything. If you’re familiar with it – if you’ve read a bunch of Gaiman, or books like *Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell* or *Lud-in-the-Mist* or *Little,Big* – then you’ll immediately know exactly what’s going on, but otherwise I can see why most of what Lettie says sounds like total nonsense.
Without specific examples, it’s hard to know exactly what you mean.
It might be helpful to understand that the story really isn’t meant to be understood in the way that most other Fantasy stories are.
Gaiman does this in many of his novels. It creates a sense of a vast and secret world existing just off the page. And as much as we’d all like to know more about that world and its secrets, there is nothing he could show us that wouldn’t also cost us that feeling of *wanting to know*.
The wonder and mystery is the end and the goal, not a transitory point before the explanation.
In the Ocean at the End of the Lane, this is even more pronounced because it’s semi-autobiographical and told from the perspective of a child. The child’s lack of understanding of the magical world mirrors their lack of understanding of the real world–and in some ways both are equally bizarre.
The opening of the novel, in which the narrator dissociatively describes returning home for his father’s funeral, captures a very similar sense of bewilderment and out-of-placeness.
All of that said, if you pay close attention to what the various supernatural characters say and do, you can generally get a sense of what they’re alluding to. Gaiman simply doesn’t hold the reader’s hand like a lot of other writers do.
As Gaiman has aged as a writer, he seems to have less and less patience for a lot of the structure and trappings that fill the prose and storytelling of other writers. He trusts the reader to know enough about how stories work to follow along without the bits that they’ve heard before.
Have you read any of the author’s other works and are you familiar with surreal fantasy? It might have helped if you were familiar with either first. Neil Gaiman writes trippy, dark, fantasy stories, where reality as we know it blends into fantasy…and not just elves and dwarves…but really *fantastical*, mythical, fantasy.
These sorts of fairy tale novels aren’t my thing either, even though the concept is fascinating. It’s just hard for me to sink my teeth through the layers of cultural reference and lyrical dialogue. Hopefully someday I’ll be in the right mind set for a read like that.
It’s a fairytale. I wasn’t initially engaged with the story until I reminded myself of that. It’s also semi-autobiographical — a coming of age story, not an intricate fantasy plot
I listened to the audiobook, which probably helped. Listening to Neil read his stories is such a treat.
I see akin to Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine.
I would try reading the graveyard book! I know a lot of folks have suggested some of his titles more geared to adults, But I think the graveyard book might give you a similar vibe to ocean at the end of the lane but with a narrative structure that might be a little less disjointed so it might be smoother for you!
Sometimes a book just does not speak to you. Nothing wrong with that. There are plenty of books that are highly praised that I just don’t think are that great.
Personally, I loved the book. The last chapter was an emotional gut punch for me so much that I went straight back to page one and read it again with a little more knowledge than I had before. I enjoyed even more the second time around.
Don’t fret over it too much. There are too many books you want to read. On to the next adventure!
You’re definitely not alone. This was my first (but not last) Gaiman experience, and I wasn’t really impressed. 😕
Neil Gaiman writes in a whimsical manner, and sometimes I can follow it easily, and other times I find it difficult to gather his cadence and rhythm. I thought this was one of his better stories because it was much more concise than many of his other works which sort of meander through metaphor and long-winded tales that take forever to not go very far at all. I liked Neverwhere a lot. “Ocean” felt more collected and put together.
I just reread this book. The first time I read it, I loved it. I felt this whimsical nostalgia for my childhood. This time around I didn’t have the same appreciation for it. I feel like a lot of it is about timing
I love Gaiman’s Sandman comics.
His novels are bunch a whimsical nonsense that I do not care for.
I’m a big Gaiman fan, so I’m biased, but ..
The thing that I felt I had to reconcile with early on while reading his work was that I was going to be somewhat perpetually clueless. In this story as well as others, the main character is a human who has stumbled into the magical world by accident. Often we learn things as the main character learns them, so the feeling of being lost really comes across to the reader.
He also tends to write in a way that is dreamlike, so ideas and thoughts aren’t linear or logical. It’s part of the “swept away” experience you get pulled into. You have to just let go of reason and enjoy it for the ethereal beauty his stories provide.
The fact that you’re brave enough to ask a question means that you’re the opposite of dumb. Dumb people are sadly usually very convinced their own opinions are correct.
You’re not dumb at all! Even though I’m an avid reader, I don’t read to analyze. I read just for fun and often miss the deeper meanings behind things. I know how to read that way from college, but I am able to turn that off while I’m reading for fun because I’m not writing an essay, I’m escaping. My son who always reads in an analytical way because that’s how he likes to enjoy books, didn’t like this book either. He’s highly intelligent and has comprehension levels higher than my own, and I was an English major. He has enjoyed some of Gaimen’s other works, including his children’s stories and young adult novels. Just because you don’t “get” something doesn’t mean you’re not smart enough for it.
You are not alone. I love of a lot Gaiman’s work. This one felt like it was on the edge of something and never gets there.
I felt the same way and have actively not read any more of his books because of it. I’m glad others liked/loved it, but to me it was kinda trash.
Try listening to the audiobook! That’s how I enjoyed it, and it comes through crystal clear as a spoken narrative. Not that this book is Shakespeare, but it reminds me of how much easier Hamlet/Macbeth/etc. are to understand when you *hear* them performed by actors who understand the lines rather than reading them off a page
I keep saying that this book needs to be read twice. For me, the story isn’t a fantasy story at all really. The fantasy is there on an explicit level of course, but on an implicit level it’s just a sad man’s memories of how he tried to make sense of the world as a kid, a beautifully told story of a dysfunctional family and various traumatic experiences. It’s heartbreaking.
To me it reads very different than most other Gaiman books.
I’ll get downvoted to oblivion for this but I hated this book and I hate Neil Gaiman. Everyone raves about him but everything of his I’ve tried to read is stupid and the writing is basic. Gaiman obsessives will then say stuff like “well maybe you don’t get his work, have you even read this genre before?” Then they’ll tell you that if you’re new to Gaiman you should have started with (insert book here – and literally everyone will give you a different title) instead of the one you chose. If you don’t like something by Neil Gaiman, it’s your fault.
I read this book, then I immediately listened to the audiobook (narrated by Neil Gaiman himself), and as soon as I finished that, I picked the book up and read it again. I loved it so much.
Neil Gaiman writes fairytale types of stories, but in a very whimsical way. It’s almost like he writes for adults, but in the language we were fluent in during childhood. I really connect with his writing, but if you read the whole book and didn’t feel anything for it except mildly confused… then maybe it’s just not for you. And that’s okay. Not everyone is going to connect with the same books. It doesn’t make you dumb or lacking in any way… it’s just not for you.
I came to this Reddit by accident and oh my, one of my favourite books straight away!
My copy of the book has a short interview with Gaiman at the end of it. I think it’s pretty cool to read as it kind of explains the “target audience” and also mentions that he stared a book as a short story for his wife who doesn’t like fantasy very much (now ex wife I think, but anyways).
I feel like you probably need two things to enjoy this book as much as I did. First, be into sort of magical realism that is characteristic to Gaiman’s work (like Koraline) or lots of Spanish content. It’s that sort of thing when you enjoy not knowing what reality really is.
Second, I guess having a difficult childhood helps. I know this sounds kinda awful but given events of the book I think it’s fitting.
That being said, there would be lots of people who don’t “get” the book or don’t feel like it’s special to them in any way. After I read it I was in so much awe that I only wanted to read books in this style for a while, I just felt a connection to it. I enjoyed the ending so much too or adding meaning to certain things that happened there.
That’s kind of the point though? Like, we’re watching this kid cross the boundary between childhood and adulthood, and it’s all very scary and confusing, and you go through the whole book with this feeling of “There’s something bigger going on here, but I’m not quite getting it”, because you’re MEANT to. It is evoking that feeling in you ON PURPOSE. It’s not just a book that *talks about* that confusing transition into adulthood, it’s a book that puts you IN that mindset again.
I thought the writing was very simple and easy to understand.
Ocean at the End of the Lane reads like a child’s fever dream, but that’s kind of the point. I personally loved the book, but I think it’s a ‘love it or hate it’ kind of book. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with your comprehension, it sounds like it just wasn’t your cup of tea.
Did you read other books by the author?
It’s completely different, but try reading “Good Omens” by Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.
The shorter the story, the slower you need to read it.
I’m glad you posted this. I read it years ago because my Dad loves Gaiman and I heard good things.
I’m an intelligent person who has read many, many books over my life, but I was also incredibly confused. I really had almost no idea what the point of the book was or what was even happening really.
I guess it’s not for everyone.
You’re not the only one. Some fantasy/speculative fiction is pretty esoteric. I appreciated this book, but I didn’t like it.
I feel similarly about Kelly Link or Karen Russell. Imaginative, award winning stories, and I just don’t get it.
I recommend the stage show! I came to the book after watching the theatre production and being blown away – the show gives you more of an idea of the narrative structure.
I am one of those people that really enjoyed it. That said, I’m not entirely sure I could explain it or the plot… In as much as there is a real plot. I think it’s more about senses than it is about story. He paints a feeling, not a picture. Some things don’t make sense because they aren’t supposed to. I couldn’t even really explain why I liked it considering I’m not usually one to go for the more abstract type of storytelling he has a tendency to go for. I think In a way, this book is a little like looking at the world on mind altering substances (at least as portrayed in movies) where everything is wrong to different degrees and once you think you’ve figured something out it might just change shape on you and you’re back to square one and I think that’s kind of the point.
I felt it was pitched at 12 year olds, like the Graveyard Book, and unlike American Gods.
It’s a story which deals with unreliable narration, memory, nostalgia and fantasy. It’s very much about your own interpretation and what you take out of it, but if it helps:
My overwhelming feeling when reading this, at 44 years old, was the feeling I got as a child reading Winnie the Pooh and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (among others) – wonder, awe, confusion, a filling in of the gaps and a questioning of what took place. It’s hard to tell Gaimans intent for the “truth” of the story and to be honest, I don’t think it really matters (I also think it’s a deliberate move to not answer those questions). That said, I think it’s important to understand that many of the creatures act on instinct, not necessarily malice, but it could be interpreted as malice when you are a child on the receiving end.
And moreso – the ending made me cry real tears. Beautiful examination of loss, and helped me put together my own interpretation of how the story deals with grief and the loss of innocence. But YMMV, and I don’t think there is a right or wrong way to read it.
Get the audiobook and listen at 1.5 speed. It’s a great book, I found it difficult to keep my attention when I was reading the paperback. Get past the beginning about the guy going to a funeral and it’s all magical realism that comes together at the end
I sort of understand how you feel and it is totally normal with Gaiman’s writing. I have had sections in some of his books with the feeling he’s gone somewhere where I can’t follow as a reader.
The plot and some events descriptions in this book were bizarre, for want of a better word. Thing is to appreciate his books you got to read them through a child’s lens- like a kid reading a fairytale….Gaiman frequently summons those exact emotions while giving us plots which have metaphorical layers an adult would understand.
So you kind of got to be child as well as adult simultaneously to read eeesh, a tough ask.
This book to me was more about understanding the fear, terror that kids feel due to many reasons. It was all about the writing, the emotions and the environment created of ‘something closing in’.
To be honest I thought it was extremely dull and lacking in substance. But then I think that of basically every Gaiman book.