"It was only a duck pond, out at the back of the farm. It wasn't very big."
The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman
I like Neil Gaiman. I've read almost everything he's written - certainly all of his novels (though I guess I read them before 2009, because I can't find any to link to. Oh, well, all the more reason to keep slogging along with my copying over of the archives). And because I like Neil Gaiman, I liked this book. It's slight (178 pages), and it's about a man who comes home for a funeral, and ends up wandering to a neighboring farm where he played as a child. And as he gets there he remembers an amazing thing that happened to him as a child…
I'm loathe to say more - as I said, this is a slight book, and to tell much more would be to give it away. If you like Gaiman's fairytales, you'll like this. My one complaint is that this is so Gaiman-y that it's almost well, expected. I wasn't surprised or delighted by this like I was by American Gods or Sandman or Coraline. It's textbook Gaiman - so Gaimany, and when I was done I thought, well, that was nice, but I wasn't blown away. It's good, don't get me wrong, but unlike his best stuff, it's not, well, new, or exciting. It just is.