The Graveyard Book ~Neil Gaiman
–recorded 2008
–HarperCollins Audio
–unabridged, 7.5 hours
–Novel winner of the 2010 Carnegie Medal
Book lovers the world over understand that while there are many authors, living and dead, whose talent with words and grasp of subject matter can keep one enthralled for hours in a world that exists between the front and back cover, there are those authors who rise above that. They enchant us. They have a way with words that sings a melody directly to our hearts and when asked we readily describe them by that overused word: favorite. Neil Gaiman is one such author for me. The Sandman series opened up a world of comic books for discerning readers that I had not previously been aware even existed. And when I read Gaiman’s novel, Neverwhere, I felt as if somehow he had mined the richer parts of my dreams and concocted exactly the kind of story that I always wanted to read. It isn’t that I hadn’t read good, engaging books before that. I had. And I have read many since then. But something about the way Neil Gaiman writes, and the access he provides readers through his blog, endeared him to me in a way that is very powerful.
In other words, I like his stuff. And whether you are a fan of Neil Gaiman, have never read any of his work, or have and just find him a bit, “meh”, I know that if you are a book lover you know exactly what I mean, and merely need to insert your own particular author’s name into the above paragraph.
When Neil’s latest book, The Graveyard Book was released in late September 2008, I wasted no time in picking it up from the store that very day. I began reading it shortly after midnight that night and had finished it by the end of the day. I was deeply engaged in the story, was moved to tears on a couple of occasions, and promptly set out to order the audio book version so that I could share it with my wife on a trip we had coming up.
That was two years ago. It seemed highly fitting to revisit the story now, two years later, as the season slowly makes its way towards cool autumn nights.
Not every author is a good reader, but Neil Gaiman is. Anyone who has listened to a significant number of audio books knows just what a good reader can bring to a story. I have had stories come alive because the reader was so superb and other stories which fell apart because the reader wasn’t good, even though I knew for a fact that I enjoyed the author and was bound to actually like the story. There is something about hearing an author read their own work when they are a talented verbal storyteller because they are able to inflect mood and atmosphere into the tale in a way that reflects what they meant when they wrote it. This is certainly the case with The Graveyard Book. It was an incredible reading experience for me, but now that I can have Neil just tell me the story it makes me wonder if I’ll ever actually read it again. I know for a fact this won’t be my last time listening to it.
The Graveyard Book opens with a knife in the dark and some very nasty doings and soon leaves the reader with a young male toddler wandering alone into a graveyard only to find himself being raised by the ghosts of some of the cemetery’s more lively inhabitants. It is a coming of age tale inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s novel, The Jungle Book. And like many stories for adults and for children that feature living and dead characters, it is a story about connection, and about what it means to be alive.
The story of Nobody “Bod” Owens is told in chapters that each have some stand alone element to them and yet each also connects with the chapters preceding and following it as Bod grows up and his relationships with various graveyard residents grow and change. It is a story full of adventure and sinister danger, but also with the more mundane parts of growing up, like going to school and learning how to relate to others. It is the combination of the aspects of “real” life with storybook adventure that fleshes out this story so that it becomes so much more than just a good story for children. We have all grown up, and in doing so can relate to the bittersweet melancholy that goes hand in hand with doing so. And for those who have had children, we also can relate to Mr. and Mrs. Owens, to Silas, Bod’s guardian, and to all the other adults who have to make their own adjustments as they watch someone they love grow into their own.
The Graveyard Book is a book rich with a shared mythology that I believe most readers can relate to. In my 2008 review of this book I wrote:
“Not every author can successfully navigate the waters of young adult fiction and produce something that works on many levels for readers at all different stages of growth and maturity. Neil Gaiman can and Neil Gaiman does. When Gaiman is at his best, on top of his game as he is in The Graveyard Book, one gets the sense that there is something lingering there, just under the surface, that he is not quite telling you. That feeling is the delicious ecstasy that makes Neil Gaiman my favorite living author. Whether real or simply well-crafted you get the sense that references and characters are based on [actual], perhaps even forgotten, history and mythology. Writing in that way is truly a gift and I must express my most sincere thanks to Neil Gaiman for another story that will join the elite list of books I re-read regularly.”
I feel every bit as strongly about what I wrote then as I do know, having experienced The Graveyard Book twice on audio since that time. If you enjoy stories about growing up that feature characters that you can relate to I have no doubt that The Graveyard Book is for you. It has just the right amount of suspenseful chill to thrill adults and children without scaring them, and it has a depth of meaning to it that makes it worth the expenditure of your quality reading time.
The Graveyard Book is subtly brilliant and was well deserving of the Carnegie Medal (and the Hugo and Locus awards). The Graveyard Book also won the Newbery Medal and, at least for now, has the distinction of being the only novel to have won both the Newbery and Carnegie. As a fan of Neil Gaiman, and this book in particular, that makes me immensely happy. The Carnegie Medal is awarded by library and information professionals. I know many of us have a great deal of fondness for the local library and while there are many great things about progress and technology, any threat that makes towards local libraries is something I find disturbing. What makes that worse is that libraries are one thing easy to target in an increasingly bad economy. In closing this review I wanted to point you to a link that has a short video of Neil Gaiman being awarded the 2010 Carnegie Medal. While I enjoyed the entire speech, I found the end bit about libraries particularly moving.
Click here to watch awards speech.
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This audio book reading was a selection for the R.I.P. V Challenge.
I really want to listen to a Neil Gaiman book, but the library has nothing. They have this new feature where you can download them but for some reason my computer hates it. lol Believe me, the service guys just stopped emailing me back, so I think they were baffled! Long story short, I want to listen to this book sometime!
I read this last year and truly adored it. I remember crying as well at the end. I think I listened to him read this on his chapter tour which he recorded. He has a truly wonderful voice.
Ladytink: I’m glad to hear it. He really does. I got to hear him read some of Anansi Boys when he was touring for that book and it was a great experience.
Kailana: That is a pain. I’m sorry you can’t get them from the library. If I even come across any copies here cheap I will keep you in mind.
I read this last year (I think) and gave it to my grandson who loved it too! While I am not the Gaiman fan that you are I did really like this book!
Deslily: Reading AND passing on Gaiman to others. You’re a saint!!! Yes, I’m a much bigger fan and try to proselytize any chance I get.
this is definitely a book I need to read. I have just recently picked up Neverwhere, so I hope to read that soon. The way you described Gaiman, is the way I feel about Charles De Lint. The Onion Girl came alive for me and I love every word of it.
What a beautiful review. I loved this book and can’t wait to read it again. I think I’ll go with your idea and listen to it next time. By the way, thank you for posting the video link. As a recent library and information graduate (and user of the library since I can remember) I appreciate what he said and believe it to be absolutely true.
I really need to listen to something he’s narrated!
at one point there was a link up on his blog that led to each chapter of the book as he read it on the introductory book tour of the Graveyard book, i believe it’s still live. That way Amanda could check out his narration and see if she wanted to purchase something else.
I think the man is a genius author and narrator, he’s got such a lovely voice!
I read the book and gave it to my Mom, who’s immediate response after finishing it was “when’s the sequel going to be out!”, then passed it on to my brother, who gave it to his wife, who returned it about a year later. ^_^
This made me want to check the stores for the audiobook 🙂 I adore Gaiman reading his own stories (I have the one with the short stories) and I’m quite sure I’d love this one just as much!
Lightheaded: I think you would as well. Check your library system as well, given that it has won the Newbery and Carnegie they may actually have the audio version that you could check out.
sgist: Good call. I know you can find several videos on You Tube of him at various readings as well so you can get an idea of how he sounds, though the quality is rarely as good as that of the book recorded in a studio. Heck, I think you get a good sense of him as narrator, minus the voices he does, just listening to his Carnegie speech.
Love that your family also enjoyed it. I wouldn’t be holding out any hope for a sequel. Neil seems to rarely go in for that sort of thing. I know people have been waiting for a sequel to Neverwhere for a looooong time and he has said that he has another idea for a novel in that universe but it wouldn’t be a sequel.
Amanda: Me too. If you look elsewhere on that Carnegie page there are author profiles for all the people nominated and at the end of his are several quotes of things he has said about libraries that are very good.
Vivienne: Neil Gaiman and Charles de Lint, though very different writers, have a common talent in my opinion, if that is the right way to put it, in that they are able to take myth, folklore, fairy tale and weave it into their stories in a way that you can feel that connection with the long tradition of story telling and myth building. They are able to thread elements of long told stories into contemporary or fantastic settings so deftly that you don’t always know what is “real” (in other words what parts are based on stories that have been around forever) and what parts are simply part of their creative imaginations. Both authors expertly tap into a type of storytelling that resonates with readers who have their own lifetime of reading and being told stories. It is an incredible gift to be able to write that way.
As a huge fan of Sandman, and I particularly enjoyed American Gods and Anansi Boys, I’ve not read much else by Gaiman. Even so, I still think of him as possibly one of the greatest story tellers alive. After reading this, I just checked the library and they have the audio and book-copy available. I think I’ll swing by there after work today and snatch it up.
Neverwhere is on my TBR pile, as is Stardust, though I’ve not got around to them yet. One of these days.
Fantastic speech and I had to copy the library bit. I usually have a hard time with audio books, but Gaiman reading is different. I attended one of his readings a couple years ago and damn! His are up there with Cat Valente and you know how much I like her. Graveyard’s been in the queue, but I’ll have to listen to it as well.
Mish: Yes, it is a great book to listen to. It hits all the emotional notes so well. Which makes sense as he is the one who wrote it.
Logankstewart: Good choice, as are Neverwhere and Stardust. Have you read any of his short stories? If you liked American Gods I strongly recommend picking up Fragile Things if only for the Shadow novella at the end, Monarch of the Glen. It is excellent.
Aye, the only one though was “The Truth in a Cave in the Mountains” from the Stories collection that came out earlier this year. However, it was probably one of my favorites from the book. Is it Shadow as in Shadow from American Gods?
lovely post.. i really enjoyed watching his speech, thank you for linking it.
i heard The Graveyard Book before i read it, actually. he is so pleasurable to listen to. it was fun to read the book after and hear his voice at times.
L: I do the same thing whenever I read any of Gaiman’s stories now because I’ve listened to him reading so many times.
Logankstewart: I will be reading that soon. And yes, the story in Fragile Things takes place about 6 months after the end of American Gods.
Neil Gaiman rocks my world. I adore him. Great review!
Love the photo with the book and the audio. Did you take the picture? I have been thinking of different background ideas and such for my book photos. Your blog, actually, is what gave me the thought that I should take my own book photos….months, and months ago.
I finished the audiobook. Did not read it, but listened because you seem so high on Gaiman’s narration. I can see why. Man, it was fantastic. He knows how to tell a story. I was thinking, while he was writing the story that I bet he had each of the characters’ voices and idiosyncrasies in his head.
I have not written up my review yet. For that reason, I have not read yours yet, but will. I am waiting for Elliana to be done with the reading. She opted to read the book first, but will listen to the audiobook too…a bit down the road. Once she is done reading, I will write it up…with her thoughts too. Who knows when I will actually post it though because I am in a bit of funk right now.
Anyhow, thanks for pointing out the audio. I think it is probably one of the best audiobook narrations that I have heard.
Ibeeg: Yes I did. Managed to get my camera to not act up for a few seconds. I usually look for photos online, but if I cannot find one with the quality/resolution/size that I want I just go ahead and take my own. You can edit them for free through picnik.com and I use that a lot to resize, change brightness and contrast, etc.
Sorry to hear you are in a funk. I get in those sometimes myself, especially when it comes to reviewing stuff. Hope it passes quickly. Glad to hear that you enjoyed the audio so much. It really is a fantastic book to listen to.
Trisha: Mine too, thanks. 🙂
First and foremost one of the things I’m most thankful for in my life is my friendship with Carl. I often think how much better of a man I am through his insight and friendship.
After I get past all those mushy thoughts then I’m hugely grateful to Carl for introducing me to the works of Neil Gaiman. I will admit that at first the Graveyard Book didn’t grip me the way it did Carl but over time I’ve come to really love it. I believe when it came out I was hoping for a more adult novel and I didn’t appreciate it for what is was right off the bat. Upon reflection over the last two years I’ve come to realize how cool it really is and I’m looking forward to listening to it on audio during the RIP challenge.
Great review my friend. I seem to be on a Neil kick right now and I’m lovin it!!!!
Jeff: (Pssst…the check is in the mail) A Neil kick is never a bad thing. Great thoughts. I know I am much more into the young adult novels of his than you are, at least initially when they come out. Like you though (referencing our conversation last night) I appreciate the children’s books but they don’t really do anything for me in light of the fact that Neil’s novels are so few and far between. Obviously the time he takes with novels pays off because by and large they are really well done, but I cannot help wishing that my favorite living author was a bit more prolific when it came to novels.
I feel the same way about John Scalzi to some degree. When I first started reading him there were several things out and several more about to be published. I’m looking forward to him cranking out a few novels soon. Hopefully.
And I am enriched by your friendship as well, thanks.
Me wants me some new Scalzi as well !!!
Hey – Gaiman and Scalzi less blogging and more novel writing please!!!
Yes, yes, yes! Gaiman’s voice gave an already special story a dash of something extra. I’m sure reading the book would have been a fine experience, but listening to it was engrossing and transcendent. This is one that’s destined for repeat listens.
Kaizerin: “engrossing and transcendent”… I couldn’t agree more.
Jeff: No doubt. Someone needs to bride their internet providers to cut off their service.
Wonderful review. I listened to the audiobook with my son when it came out, and I still remember the moment of revelation I had at the end – I was tearful, and my son was delighted. Each of us brought a different perspective to the end of the story and came away with different learnings; what a gift from Gaiman to connect to each of us in different ways with the same text.
Thought of this post earlier this evening, while making my way home from work, earphones plugged in, and you guessed it, the voice of the brilliant Mr Gaiman, drawing me once more into Bod’s world. 🙂
I wouldn’t say I sometimes forget how fantastic this book (and the audio) version is, but sometimes it’s nice to be reminded! 😉
Finally, I have written my review so I can now read yours.
I am not as high on Gaiman as you are, but I certainly do enjoy his writing, and am deeply enthralled with his narration. He is masterful with narrating his story.
You hit the nail on the head when you said, “one gets the sense that there is something lingering there, just under the surface, that he is not quite telling you.” Yes, that is exactly how I felt, but just could put it into words as you were able to do.
There is ceratinly richness and depth in his writing.
By the way, I frequent his blog, and greatly enjoy his posts. Actually, his blog, specifically one post, is what really tipped the scale for me, and had me in his corner…an ever willing reader.
ejly – you bring up a good point…Gaiman is able to give each of us different perspectives from his book. I too was tearful a the end of the book.
Ibeeg: Great! Glad you came back over to this post. Sounds to me as if Gaiman is winning you over! 🙂 I just love his work, and he doesn’t write fast enough to suit me, or the rest of his adoring fans. His blog is great, it was certainly an inspiration for me as I started blogging. Of course, I’m curious now which post you are referring to.
Darren: Oh, I’m exactly the same way. I don’t ever really *forget* how much I enjoy his work, in audio or paper format, but it is like a fresh reminder every time I pick it up and experience it again. Glad you are giving Graveyard Book a re-listen.
Eljy: That truly is a gift. Despite the glut of children’s books on the market, I believe it is a rare and precious thing for a YA book to connect deeply and differently with children and adults. Gaiman is one of those who have that touch.
Here is the post…
http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2010/05/political-football-in-teacup.html
Let me know what you think.
Ibeeg: Neil has always seemed very level headed and professional when it comes to how he handles things, and that link is just another good example of that. I think the controversy is extremely silly and those who complain about this stuff show their ignorance of the way government works. I have programs that are tax funded for which I can only provide the services stipulated by the tax board that funds those programs. I could bitch and moan and make any number of good arguments about better ways to spend this money. However, like the situation with the money Neil got paid, it is earmarked for certain things and has to be spent in a certain time frame or the government takes it back and who knows where it goes then. If someone didn’t like the situation with Neil, for example, they should get involved with their local tax levy board, not make silly, half-informed complaints.
Frankly, what impressed me most about that post was how clear his position is; he is up front, take it or leave it. Also, he is an author first, public speaker by default (I am thinking he would be one awesome public speaker…an author that I would LOVE to see, but probably will never). Anyway, I do not fault him at all for his speaking fee; makes complete sense to me.
The funding, yes, I hear what you are saying. When I was in the Navy, money was allocated for certain departments, and if not spent it was taken AND the budget for the next year was cut. Not good. I am sure, for you, this kind of stuff is very frustrating to have to deal with on a frequent basis.
Ibeeg: I love that about him as well. Over the years of reading his journal it has been a pleasure to get to know him in this way, to see how he handles various situations. I don’t fault him for his fee either. In fact, the first time he mentioned it I was thrilled because I liked the idea of him pricing himself out of many opportunities so that he would be doing just what he said–writing! I can live without seeing him, but I’d love some more stories from him.