The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Posted by: tygerbox in Media, tags: Audiobook, Book, Review
The Graveyard Book
Just listened through Neil Gaiman’s new offering The Graveyard Book and I must say, if any of his fans (or fans of speculative fiction in general) are avoiding picking it up because it is ostensibly a “children’s book” – you are doing yourself a disservice. This is a book that anyone (including children obviously) could read and enjoy, not a “book for children”. There is a difference.
The premise is simple enough: this is basically a riff on the Mowgli stories from Kipling’s The Jungle Book (and other literature with similar themes). But rather than having a character raised by animals and learning their ways, the protagonist “Bod” (a toddler as the story beings) is taken in and cared for by dead people. In a graveyard. Great seed idea really. I’ve always loved when this author, generally in his short stories, plays with themes and styles of other kinds of literature and this experiment is no exception.
The narrative style has a cool structure: the entire eight chapter book defines a complete story. However, every chapter is essentially a self-contained short story, each taking place approximately 2 years apart. The only thing that really jumped out at me about this being accessible for younger audiences is the prose he chose. I once heard an interview with Mr. Gaiman and when asked how he approached writing children’s books versus his regular output, he said (me paraphrasing) that when writing children’s books, every word was there for a reason, whereas in his other books (he used American Gods as an example), there were plenty of words included just because he wanted them there. So yes, the prose in The Graveyard Book is very focused and compact, but it is still descriptive and playful and the self-contained chapters keep things fresh and interesting.
Even with its accessibility to younger readers with it’s compact prose and smaller cast of characters, it can still be pretty dark in places. Bod is being raised by dead people after all, and some of the characters, like his not-dead yet not-alive guardian Silas, definitely have a sinister edge. Plus (this is not a spoiler as it happens on the first page), the book begins by the toddler Bod wandering out of his house at the exact moment that the rest of his family is being murdered by a knife-wielding intruder who likes his work a little too much. And unlike most children’s books (I would imagine) this actually has a rather melancholic ending. Made me a little sad at least.
The audiobook was a real treat as well. As with the audiobook releases of his short story collections, this is narrated by Neil himself. I understand why they get “professional narrators” to do his longer and more complex works like American Gods and Neverwhere, but there is a certain delight in listening to a storyteller read their own story. While not a professional voice actor, he assuredly brings a certain additional charm to his own work. The audiobook is just under eight hours long and the chaptering style makes it really easy to manage. Each chapter is perfect for a train ride or a run.
The other awesome thing he did was how they did the book tour for the release. At each consecutive stop, he read a chapter from the book – they videotaped the reading and made the videos available for free online. It seems that Neil in cooperation with his publisher Harper Collins has been showing that you can actually increase sales by giving away content. I wish more companies would get on board with this. If they spent as much time trying to find new and inventive ways to market their product as they do lobbying Congress, they might move some more units. I discovered Gaiman’s oeuvre from one of these giveaways and that certainly got him a fan and his publisher a new customer.
So, I need to give this one a thumbs-up. In either audio or written form, this is a compelling and inventive story that just about anyone can enjoy. Unless you’re a jerk. If you do have a child, then read it to them and you’ll both have a blast. And hey, Halloween is almost upon us so everyone can use a creepy story right about now!
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