This month, I’m participating in a read-along of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book
I’ve read The Graveyard Book before, but it’s been a few years and some of the details have gone fuzzy. I do remember the shadowy feel of the book, and that I enjoyed it! So I’m looking forward to digging into in greater depth. (I suspect there’s a pun somewhere in that “digging in” phrase…but we’ll just move along…)
For those not familiar with the book, it tells the story of Bod, a living orphan who is being raised by a community of ghosts. The first chapter describes how this situation came about, and the next two share a couple of Bod’s childhood adventures.
The first thing that struck me on picking this up again was the pictures. The first few pages of each chapter are illustrated with wonderful black and white drawings that set the shadowy tone of the book so well.
Gaiman makes a very interesting choice by starting us out in the point of view of a murderer, the man Jack who killed Bod’s family. What’s particularly remarkable is that he manages such a deft balance of starting us in an unbelievably horrible situation–but I don’t feel inclined to slam the book and walk away. It is horrible, and it’s certainly dark and creepy (just the phrase “the man Jack” is so creepy), but it never quite becomes grotesque or too twisted. And if you’ve read the Sandman graphic novels, you know Gaiman is capable of going there! As it is, this sets up a wonderful darkness without scaring squeamish me off of the book.
I also love that it’s the living man who’s frightening–the ghosts are quite homey and pleasant. They have a close community in the graveyard, with each ghost living in his or her respective crypt, all going about much the same community relations that they had in life. And why not?
In Chapter Two, Bod makes a human friend, a little girl named Scarlett whose mother thought it made sense to bring her to play in a graveyard (a nature reserve, technically). The two of them venture into a dark depth of the graveyard and encounter very strange and sinister creatures. I enjoyed some of the contrast between Bod and Scarlett, but wish Gaiman had done more with that. Ultimately they both end up not being afraid of what appears to be a monster–and I totally get that Bod is used to the strange and the supernatural, but I don’t understand why Scarlett, as a normal little girl, calms down remarkably quickly. Perhaps I’m just meant to take her as being special too.
My favorite thing about Scarlett, though, is probably that she thinks Bod is an imaginary friend. What a wonderfully fuzzy margin between reality and imagination!
In Chapter Three, Bod gets a new tutor, Miss Lupescu (whose name makes her secret fairly obvious), and ends up captured by ghouls. The best thing about the ghouls is their names. They all receive new names when they become ghouls, names which properly reflect the high esteem ghouls hold themselves in: names like “the famous writer Victor Hugo” or “the Bishop of Bath and Wells” or “the 33rd President of the United States.” And they’re never shortened.
So far, the book is quite episodic, with each chapter almost a self-contained short story. I do seem to recall, however, that threads begun in one place will come back in another, and it’s going to be fun to watch that weaving. And the short story nature makes this good for a read-along!
Back in my early 20s, I read the first 2 volumes of Gaiman’s Sandman Chronicles, which are much darker than The Graveyard Book. I was in a dark spot of my life and Gaiman didn’t click for me then. Years later, American Gods got me hooked on Gaiman. I have enjoyed nearly all his novels, most of them multiple times.
The Sandman Chronicles are (in my experience, at least) Gaiman’s darkest writing. It really didn’t click with me either, but I’ve enjoyed some of his other writing much more!
That’s funny we’re both re-reading the book for this Read-Along. I feel like I read it so fast last time I missed so many of the interesting elements. It’s been such a treat to re-read it!
I usually go through books fast, so it’s been interesting taking this one a bit at a time.
“I also love that it’s the living man who’s frightening–the ghosts are quite homey and pleasant.”
I love that, too. The reversal of usual things. But those are one of the things I so adore in the Sandman.
I also loved the ghouls’ names.
The ghouls’ names are so fun, in a fairly creepy chapter!
I love this book! It bewilders me because I’m not a great Gaiman fan and the content of this book is precisely not what I usually want to read, but I really love it anyway. I always assumed Scarlet calmed down so quickly because of her ‘imaginary friend’ angle. If she’s with him than anything weird that happens is probably just more imaginary stuff, etc.
I have mixed feelings about Gaiman’s different books, but this one I particularly like–even though it doesn’t feel like the kind of themes I would normally read. Great point about Scarlett calming down because it all seems imaginary to her! I really like that idea. 🙂
Yes!–I loved the imaginary friend part of that. Chapter 2 was awesome. I forgot to write about the art, but it was truly good and I’d love to see more books with illustrations like this, even adult ones. Great post!
I think there are some other Gaiman books with great illustrations. I wish they were in more books too!
I love the subtle humor in this one. The graveyard is the safe place. The ghosts are friendly and so far the adult is terrifying. It must have been a fun book to write and I’m really enjoying reading it.
It is such an interesting contrast of what’s safe and what’s dangerous. I bet Gaiman had a great time putting it all together!
If it hadn’t been for the man Jack i would have thoought it’s lacking plot, it does read very episodic but he is there, in the back ground like a dark rain cloud – or a thunderstorm, waiting to strike again. That’s great. I love the choie of the name “the man Jack”, not just Jack or the man or some such thing. I enjoy every minute of reading it.
I also love that he’s always “the man Jack.” I think I would be tempted to start abbreviating a lot of these names, but Gaiman is so smart to keep these long phrases like that consistent.
I am loving this the second time around and you are right about the artwork. I flew by it the first time I read it.
I didn’t really remember it from the first read! So it was kind of a pleasant surprise this time.
Wow … the book sounds fascinating! How goes the chapter reads?
It’s been fun reading this a few chapters at a time. I don’t usually read books that way, but I think the episodic nature makes it work well for this book.