The Graveyard Book provides an eccentric interpretation of Kipling’s classic book of short stories, The Jungle Book. At first the award winning young adult novel, penned by Neil Gaiman, seems an odd reinterpretation; it is the story of a boy who lives in a graveyard after the loss of his family. While many parallels can be drawn from the old version to the new, Gaiman’s text employs innovative and creative ways to convey characters, plots and themes. The reader is immediately drawn to the portrayals of characters and the techniques used to describe the plethora of traits belonging to each one.
Since the majority of story takes place in a graveyard, supernatural beings are essential components. From the start the reader learns that Nobody Owens or Bod, the protagonist, is brought to the spirits of the graveyard as an infant by his mother, a ghost, after his parents and sister are murdered. The boy has no memory of his old life, thus ghosts, werewolves, witches, and ghouls become his family and teach him a variety of lessons about life, death, and the supernatural world. Gaiman makes the details of what life would be like in a cemetery come alive with special abilities and ideas Bod learns because he has a connection to the lifeless, such as fading and dream walking. These special powers allow him to navigate the world of the living as he struggles to discover the murderer of his family.
Bod is grateful for his unique way of life and new family in the graveyard, but a few important pieces in his life remain missing. Bod needs to find the man who murdered his parents, or he can never safely leave the protected grounds of the graveyard to lead a normal life. The longer Bod stays away from the living world, forced to learn about it from a distance, the more he craves a place in it. Like any growing boy, he develops a curiosity and need to experience everything the world has to offer. Perhaps, more importantly, he craves human contact. He longs to hear humans breathing. Despite the love he feels for his caretakers, the dead cannot provide the stimulation he desires. Gaiman writes to express Bod’s thoughts and emotions, “In the graveyard, no one ever changed.“(p. 229) Both a blessing and a curse, this concept was helpful to a younger Bod who required stability, but as he grows into young adulthood, he realizes that he needs humans in his life too. The dead will remain stuck in the time period in which they lived and keep only the knowledge they had when they died. But is safe to leave? What will he discover on the outside?
As Bod is given more autonomy, he finds answers to his questions, but he also runs into trouble along the way. His story becomes a thought provoking and multifaceted journey as the worlds of the living and supernatural collide. Like all young people, Bod must come to understand the importance of those older and wiser than he is. In a fashion difficult to predict, danger ensues and the secrets of his past including the reason he requires the protection of the undead come to light.
The combination of age old themes juxtaposed with new actions and abilities of ghosts, werewolves, and sleers, make for a fascinating reading experience. The older version of the tale paved the way for this new story. Of course both have merit, and The Jungle Book is a classic, but The Graveyard Book does an exceptional job of conveying the message of alienation a person feels in an unfamiliar environment. Readers, both young and old, will appreciate and enjoy this novel.
I watched and enjoyed the popular HBO series, Game of Thrones. I had heard that the TV series accurately depicted the novel. However, in most cases, film or TV interpretations of novels alter important aspects of the story or things are left out. I began reading the first novel in Martin’s A Songof Fire and Ice series in the hope that I could delve more deeply into the story. Upon reading the novel, I was both enlightened and disappointed. I found that the writers of the HBO series had successfully communicated the plotline, characters, and setting of the novel. Aside from a few slight details that made the book worth reading, I could have just as easily watched the show and considered myself equally informed about information the text offered.
Game of Thrones has a large cast of important characters and interwoven story lines. In watching the show, especially at the beginning, I was often confused about characters’ roles, names, and the families they belonged to. Reading the book cleared up any questions I had about roles of different people, their families, and where in the land of the Seven Kingdoms or beyond, they come from. Martin titles each chapter with the name of a character. He depicts the chapter from the title character’s point-of-view. Although a viewer can infer most of the information the author provides a reader about the characters’ thought processes and knowledge from watching scenes and listening to dialogue, which is taken straight from the text in most cases, one novel receives special insight from each individual character via the novel. Watching the story unfold on screen, a person must come to their own conclusions about characters’ emotions and possible literary devices such as dramatic irony, communicated only in the mind of the person the chapter alludes to.
My maternal grandmother was a Roman Catholic born and raised in New England. Due in part to these two facts, a framed photograph of the John F. Kennedy once hung on her wall at home. On the day Kennedy was shot, my mom was a nine-year-old little girl attending grade school somewhere in the south side of Chicago. The assassination of a President so close to their hearts and minds was devastating. Over the years I have learned most of what I know about that day and the lives of the Kennedy family from my mother’s perspective. When Stephen King underwent the task of tackling this timeless, no pun intended, topic, he knew that readers of all generations would take interest. Considering what would have happened, had Kennedy survive that day in Dallas intrigues people. In general, as humans, people like to analyze why things happen; and, how they could be different-even if life and cannot be altered. But, in the world of a science fiction writer, anything can happen.
In reading about real-world events in a novel, authenticity is extremely important. A focus on the lives of the Kennedy’s I had hoped to learn more about is not portrayed in this novel. It is through King’s depiction of his narrator, Jake Epping, who time travels under the name, George Amberson, who experiences living in the past that the reader perceives in great detail what it meant to live in 1958. King paints an often times nostalgic picture of life during this times; he describes music, fashion, TV, picture shows, classic cars, and societal expectations. The fact that the author has painstakingly researched the cultural history of the time period is only amplified by his knowledge of JFK conspiracy theories.
The attempt to combine images of photographs, letters, and drawings in telling the story of Jacob Portman and his search for the truth about his grandfather, Ransom Riggs creates an aesthetically pleasing and innovative novel. Still the story itself is not exactly unprecedented in the world of the fantasy genre. What makes the novel readable does not have to do with the prose or plot line; rather, the reader is almost tricked into paging through the text in order to view the next peculiar image awaiting him or her. Although the idea that Jacob’s grandfather, Abe, has left him clues to hidden secrets that only Jacob can decipher to find the answers he seeks about his grandfather’s mysterious existence, the answers to the riddles are too easily discovered for both the reader and the narrator.
In presenting the reader with photo’s Abe has supposedly taken from a magical island he lived on as an orphaned child, the author intends to develop intrigue on the part of the reader that Jacob, the storyteller, experiences. As with any tale of peculiar or magical people, especially one which is supported by strange images, the reader wants to know more. Why does Abe own photos of a girl levitating and a young boy holding a boulder in the air with one arm? The reader and Jacob sense that the pictures may be altered or fabricated. The visions Jacob soon begins having of similar images could be real, or as his parents and psychologist pose, they are figments of his imagination. The question of what is ‘real” or ‘true’ versus things people merely want to believe despite the unlikelihood of the existence of the entities or ideas is a theme that is posed throughout the novel.
Even after the narrator discovers that his grandfather told him the truth, other characters question their reality. After Jacob convinces his parents of the need for him to travel to the small island in Wales where his grandfather’s clues lead him, the reader questions Jacob’s experiences; because, the author plants a seed of doubt in regards to the possibility of children who never age and monsters. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the novel can be attributed to the reader’s ability to choose sides: is it real or illusionary? The images included with the text encourage the reader to participate in the questioning of events as Jacob must do himself.
The problem with the believability of the story does not lie in that fact that it includes ideas that most people consider impossible such as time travel, monsters, and magic. Rather, the execution of the ideas is weak at times. Even with impossible ideas, as a reader, I tend to find myself considering the intricacies of the ideas presented. It may be acceptable; hypothetically, that the characters are able to use a loop in time to live forever. But, what happened before the loop was created? More importantly, how did the characters escape the disaster that would have killed them all on the very first day the loop began if they had not begun to travel in time until the day of the disaster? Wouldn’t they have been killed before the loop could be erected? These ideas are not discussed, and the author only elaborates in bits and pieces. The narrator is also seemingly unaware of various occurrences in the novel that the reader is already able to infer. For example, when Jacob finds the entry way to the time loop and is transported to September 3rd, 1940, he doesn’t realize what has happened, despite different people and surroundings on the island. Still, there is something redeeming in the inclusion of visual portions of the text that encourage the reader to continue Jacob’s journey with him.
For the most part, the photos the author describes as being proof of the existence of people the world has forgotten, are necessary, beautiful, and hauntingly deceptive. At the same time, some the images seem to be thrown into the story where they don’t fit. There is a photograph of a little boy pouting on the ground wearing a bunny costume. The author adds this image to his story of Jacob’s father waiting for Abe to go trick-or-treating. Although the story is included to explain that Abe was an absent father, there is no need to add an extra portion of a discussion between father and son in order to include a picture. Towards the end of the novel, more pictures that feel inauthentic or unnecessary are added for effect. While most of the photos add a thrill, some of them take away from the reliability of the tale.
This book is beautiful right down to the chapter divisions made with paper resembling old wallpaper; the melancholy images are memorable. The novel is meant to be a compellation of images and prose, so it may not be fair to separate the two. Still, without the images, the story is unexceptional. Whether the images redeem the rest of the piece is for the individual reader to determine. For me, the images were not enough to end my reading with a positive conclusion.
Final Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars
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There are moments in life so special that we stop to try to take in the sights, sounds, and smells before they fade into the past knowing the people, places and emotions are something we will never have again. Ray Bradbury’s semi-autobiographical depiction reminds the reader of the attachments to family, friends, and nature. It was the summer of 1928 in Green Town, Illinois. A twelve year old boy named Douglas Spaulding develops a life-long connection between his home town, memories, and emotions. Doug experiences and observes things which allow him to develop an understanding of the wisdom of adulthood.
Doug Spaulding and his little brother Tom spend much of their time visiting their grandma and grandpa’s boarding house each summer. Grandpa truly appreciates the small joys which come from the world around him such as the smell of recently mowed grass. He passes this and his belief about dandelions being a ‘noble flower’ to his grandsons. One of the children’s favorite summer activities involves the family ritual of making dandelion wine. The dandelion harvest puts a smile on everyone’s face not only because of their ability to view the beauty of nature in the task, but due to the repetitive pictures the yearly tradition instills in the memories of the family members by eliciting emotions and the sights, smells, and sounds of the season. ‘Hold summer in your hand and pour summer in a glass.’ Doug is able to reflect that the life cycle of the dandelion when the yellow flower turns to white fluff reminds one of winter snow. He recalls his grandma going to the cellar in winter months for a sip of dandelion wine as a mode of escape. For him, the wine is a way to use sense of smell, the best way to recollect, in order to revert back to another time. In addition, as an older man, he will still think of his grandma with the wine and know what she and summers in Green Town as a child meant to him.
As readers, we know from Bradbury’s introduction to the novel that the childhood memories are a ‘germination of all the summers of my life.’ At the onset of the season, Doug decides to use two notebooks to record events. He calls the notebooks RITES and CERMONIES and DISCOVERIES and REVELATIONS. Although the character of Douglas grows from innocence to experience over the course of the summer, the kids are extremely mature and his ruminations are at times, beyond the scope of observation for a twelve year old boy. Yet this may be attributed to Bradbury’s writing about his own past as an adult. All of Doug’s reflections are beautiful. For instance, his appreciation for iced-tea, lemonade, and the front porch swing is something kids and adults share. His largest and most important revelation comes when he realizes he is alive. After he knows this, his observations of older people in town lead him to a conclusion later in the summer that changes his young life forever.
Kathy H., the novel’s protagonist, reflects back upon growing-up with her friends Tommy and Ruth at a mysterious place in the English countryside called Hailsham. Their lives are steeped in unanswered questions and confusion. They have a sense that the ‘guardians’ keep things from them. Still, having known no other life, the children cannot begin to imagine what secrets are being hidden. It is only as adults they find out the truth.
Hailsham is the only home the students have ever known. Kathy describes an atmosphere of questioning, secrecy and lack of emotion. No mention of how the children arrived at Hailsham or who their parents are is ever made. It is clear that they are ‘special’ and the ‘guardians’ are parent-like figures. However, ‘guardians’ don’t show affection and do not show favoritism. The children meet secretly to converse about things they don’t understand.
Art Exhibitions are one of the most controversial and enigmatic of Hailsham’s mysteries. The children are expected to produce art for Madame, who, in turn, comes 3 to 4 times per year to collect the best pieces for ‘the Gallery.’ ‘How you were regarded at Hailsham, how much you were liked and respected, had to do with how good you were at “creating.”’ The children have a sense for things. They know this must be important, but why?
As with younger children, for a while no thought is given as to why things occur the way they do at Hailsham. There comes a turning point in the minds of Kathy and Tommy when they begin to wonder the purpose of their work. Tommy is especially sensitive about the subject because he is a great athlete, but is laughed at for his lack of artistic ability. What does it mean that he doesn’t have any work in ‘the Gallery?’ While Tommy shares his concerns with Kathy, he is becoming physically close to Ruth.
When the Hailsham kids grow a bit older, the answer to some of their most longed-after questions is finally given. One day in class, as a student discusses his dreams of becoming an actor, the ‘guardian,’ Miss Lucy, stops him abruptly. She tells them not to imagine they can be like people they see in films. ‘Your lives are set out for you. You’ll become adults, and then before you’re old, you’ll start to donate your vital organs.’ Among the students, there had been little reaction to the news. Was this due to the unemotional lifestyle they had been brought up in? A lack of familial ties? Or had their being raised in an enclosed environment limited their ability to envision a life outside of confinement? Kathy ruminated that they had always known in a way.
Among the chaos of attempting to discover answers- Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy explore their personal relationships. Kathy and Ruth are best girlfriends. Ruth and Tommy are physically attracted to each other. Through it all, Kathy and Tommy have a deep emotional bond. All three are aware of these things, but continue for years as though Kathy and Tommy have no feelings for each other. Perhaps in any other situation, the girls would have ceased being friends, and Tommy would have found another girl. There was no one else. After graduating from Hailsham, the three were sent to lives at an old farm called the Cottages for two years before becoming donors.
The stress and fear about making donations combined with jealousy and resentment builds up to do unalterable damage to the relations of the young friends. Ruth and Tommy have always been together for the physicality of their relationship. Of course, this is Kathy’s opinion. All Kathy knows is that while Tommy sleeps with Ruth, he comes to her to talk. On a trip to a coastal town, veterans of the Cottage, confide in the three of them that if two donors can prove they are truly in love, they may be given a 3-4 year deferral from donating.
One day, Tommy shows Kathy that he has been working on art for ‘the Gallery.’ He believes ‘the Gallery’ is the way people are given deferrals. Soon after, she stumbles upon Tommy and Ruth arguing about the paintings. Ruth now knows that Tommy showed Kathy first. Kathy only knows that she doesn’t want one of them to walk away and be left with the other. She loves them both. There are indications that Ruth is only staying with Tommy to keep him away from Kathy. ‘Well Kathy, what you have to realize is Tommy doesn’t see you like that.’ Ruth knows Tommy and Kathy want to be together, so she tries to pull them apart.
Instead of staying at the Cottage in agony, Kathy signs on to care for donors and leaves. In retrospect, she realizes that it wasn’t all Ruth’s fault. She had provoked the argument by picking on Ruth. If Kathy really thought Ruth was as cruel and selfish as she seemed to at the Cottage, perhaps she might have considered betraying their friendship for Tommy.
It isn’t until years later when Ruth is dying that Kathy sees her again. Kathy agrees with Ruth’s wish to pick up Tommy from another center where he is currently donating to go for a drive. At this point both Ruth and Tommy are near completion (death). Kathy is still a carer, a person who makes donors feel comfortable until completion. Near the point of death, none of the past matters, but Ruth finally admits she was wrong. ‘I don’t really expect you to forgive me ever. I don’t really see why you should. But I’m going to ask you all the same.’ As a token she is genuine in her apology, Ruth hands over the address of Madame-she wants Tommy and Kathy to try for a deferral.
When Kathy and Tommy visit the Madame, they are told there were never any deferrals. In a time when clones were housed in brutal conditions, the women of Hailsham attempted to give them a better life. Previously, Hailsham clones were only for scientific purposes. They are very lucky to have been cultured and educated. Tommy wants to know the purpose of ‘the Gallery.’ ‘We took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls.’ The outside world wanted to pretend the students were less than human to justify taking their organs and lives.
The ‘guardians’ thought they were doing the right thing for the students at Hailsham. In much the same way as human’s fight for the rights of animals in scientific testing; the clones were given an education, better living conditions, a childhood. But why encourage critical thinking and teach people about the rest of the world only to deny them the possibilities of a real life? Is it crueler to raise a person in poor conditions having never known anything else, or to give them something good and then take it away?
The world of Never Let Me Go is a U.K. of the future. It novel depicts a dystopian society. It is reminiscent of Orwell’s1984 and Huxley’sBrave New World a in that government control impedes life, causes fear, confusion, forces submission. In this case the government is in control of people’s physical bodies. The clones in the novel live an isolated existence, completely controlled by higher power, one they know nothing about. The ‘normal’ people live in a society where people (clones) must die in order for them to live and sustain their current lifestyle. In arguing that donors have no souls, the government creates a society complacent with murder.
Little is mentioned about the government. Many questions regarding the specifics of cloning, the fate of the clones, or the society in which they live go unanswered. This may be due to the fact that Ishiguro intended for the novel to remain vague in these subject areas. The reader is left to imagine only the most terrible futuristic world order. One which would allow such a thing to occur. In this way, it may become a much more grotesque an evil a place than could be written.
The real heart of the story looks into the paths the characters choose with limited options and time they are given. One observation I found very profound about the characters is that they never once try to escape their fate. No one can tell by looking at them that they’re different. Kathy is given a car as a carer. Yet they don’t consider they have a chance to do something else. The erriness of Kathy’s constant references to them always knowing what they should do make a reader wonder what exactly she means. Are they truly different? It seems as though it is human nature to do anything to survive, so why give up so easily?
This novel could be a read a zillion times and there would still be hypotheticals and discussion questions to find. It covers a variety of topics nature vs. nurture, government, medical ethics, the future, friendship, love, fate, among them. In this assortment of themes it is impeccably organized and written. Even as a person not usually fond of the science fiction genre, I really liked it.
The Graveyard Book provides an eccentric interpretation of Kipling’s classic book of short stories, The Jungle Book. At first the award winning young adult novel, penned by Neil Gaiman, seems an odd reinterpretation; it is the story of a boy who lives in a graveyard after the loss of his family. While many parallels can be drawn from the old version to the new, Gaiman’s text employs innovative and creative ways to convey characters, plots and themes. The reader is immediately drawn to the portrayals of characters and the techniques used to describe the plethora of traits belonging to each one.
