Neil Gaiman: El océano al final del camino (Spanish language, 2014, Rocabolsillo)
297 pages
Spanish language
Published April 7, 2014 by Rocabolsillo.
Hace cuarenta años, cuando nuestro narrador contaba apenas siete, el hombre que alquilaba la habitación sobrante en la casa familiar se suicido dentro del coche de su padre, un acontecimiento que provoco que antiguos poderes dormidos cobraran vida y que criaturas de más alla de este mundo se liberaran. El horror, la amenaza, se congregan a partir de entonces para destruir a la familia del protagonista. Su única defensa la constituiran las tres mujeres que viven en la granja desvencijada al final del camino. La más joven de ellas, Lettie, afirma que el estanque es, en realidad, un oceano. La mayor dice que recuerda el Big Bang.
It began for our narrator forty years ago when the family lodger stole their car and committed suicide in it, stirring up ancient powers best left undisturbed. Dark creatures from beyond the world are on the loose, and it will take everything our …
Hace cuarenta años, cuando nuestro narrador contaba apenas siete, el hombre que alquilaba la habitación sobrante en la casa familiar se suicido dentro del coche de su padre, un acontecimiento que provoco que antiguos poderes dormidos cobraran vida y que criaturas de más alla de este mundo se liberaran. El horror, la amenaza, se congregan a partir de entonces para destruir a la familia del protagonista. Su única defensa la constituiran las tres mujeres que viven en la granja desvencijada al final del camino. La más joven de ellas, Lettie, afirma que el estanque es, en realidad, un oceano. La mayor dice que recuerda el Big Bang.
It began for our narrator forty years ago when the family lodger stole their car and committed suicide in it, stirring up ancient powers best left undisturbed. Dark creatures from beyond the world are on the loose, and it will take everything our narrator has just to stay alive: there is primal horror here, and menace unleashed - within his family and from the forces that have gathered to destroy it. His only defense is three women, on a farm at the end of the lane. The youngest of them claims that her duckpond is ocean. The oldest can remember the Big Bang.
After reading the Vulture/New Yorker article I have chosen to remove my reviews of this man's content from my accounts. I choose to place this text here because I think it is important to juxtaposition these things. I also don't think that pretending I never read these things is particularly helpful either.
Šiurpulingas gėris.
This was like reading Neverwhere again. Except the main character is a child not 30ish. And I'm 30 odd, not a child.
It pretty much hits all the beats of Gaiman story, but here the structure creaks and groans. He mixes Coraline with Neverwhere, with American Gods, all the elements are there, and none of them feel original, or interesting. The quirky mystery of the Hempstocks was just annoying rather than alluring.
The main character has no agency, he just gets thrown from event to event, and his big heroic moment has him literally sitting still for hours.
No, I didn't like this at all. It's so bad that it may have tainted the earlier, better Gaiman stories, and that makes me kinda sad...
I don't think you should read anything about this book beforehand, just pick it up and enjoy diving into the magic and get scared - after all, it's a story by Neil Gaiman. If you have the chance, listen to the audio because it is read by Gaiman himself and he did an amazing job. And mind you, I rarely listen to audiobooks because I think they are boring and rather read the books myself.
That being said, this book is about a 7 year old living amongst adults he doesn't understand and how he came to have a hole in his heart. I won't say anything else about this story, except that Gaiman has an incredible affinity with children's way of thinking and that I got more scared reading this than I care to admit. Great book!
