It's been several years since Gaiman has written a novel for adult readers --- really, this book is for readers of all ages, because I predict it is that rarest and best kind of book you will come back to again and again over the years, gaining new insights and deeper understanding each time you re-read it.
A middle-aged man returns home for a funeral; restless, he finds himself on the road that leads to the house where he lived as a child. The house is of course long gone, replaced by a housing estate (subdivision); but he keeps going until he finds himself approaching the farm at the end of the road where he once found refuge with a girl and her mother and grandmother. He thought he had forgotten, but as he sits by the pond behind the farmhouse he begins to remember that time when he was a small boy caught up in strange and scary and incomprehensible events. And Lettie, his only friend, comforted him and promised to protect him from the darkness.
Places and people conjured in words wrought of power, in a story that speaks to the will to survive, the refuge of love, and the longing for home.
No comments:
Post a Comment