One of my favorite scenes is at the very beginning, when the vampire of the graveyard is trying to convince a man named Jack (a murderer) not to enter. I love Gaiman's description of Jack in comparison to the vampire:
"The man Jack was tall. This man was taller. The man Jack wore dark clothes. This man's clothes were darker. People who noticed the man Jack when he was about his business - and he did not like to be noticed - were troubled, or made uncomfortable, or found themselves unaccountably scared. The man Jack looked up at the stranger, and it was the man Jack who was troubled."
Anyone read this book? What did you think?
I have never read his books, but this one seems interesting though. Does he always write horror books?
ReplyDeleteNot always, but his books are fantastically creepy in a Tim Burton-way. He also wrote "Coraline"
ReplyDeleteNeil Gaiman is on my never ending list of authors to read, and I'm slightly ashamed that I haven't actually read any of his work yet. Have you listened to his commencement speech for the University of the Arts class of 2012? It was pretty amazing.
ReplyDeleteRead it! Loved it! Neil Gaiman is great. He really thinks out of the box. At the bookstore, I was noticing how the premise of some of my favorite stories is really just something normal mixed with something wacky or something that doesn't exactly match.
ReplyDeleteSome examples:
Instead of "My heart is yours," "My heart is your dead ex-wife's." (Return to Me)
Instead of "I married a beautiful young woman," "I married an axe-murderer." (So I Married an Axe Murderer)
Instead of "I love you so much I'd die for you," "I love you so much, I'd die for that other guy you love." (A Tale of Two Cities)
...And, in the case of "The Graveyard Book"...
Instead of "I live in a cozy little house," "I live in a graveyard."
I also just love Gaiman's "Instructions". It's a short children's book on what to do if you ever get stuck in a fairytale. A great model of a how-to story.
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