Tuesday, March 17, 2009
#12
I've only read a couple Neil Gaimans, and I always have the same reaction: I'm interested in the characters, but none of them is particularly appealing or sympathetic. It's hard to explain, but it's like my amygdala ceases to function when I read Gaiman and I have no emotional attachment to the people in his stories. I have therefore only an intellectual involvement, so I tend to avoid him. But when I heard there was a Newberry Award winner about a boy growing up in a graveyard I couldn't resist, because I grew up playing in a graveyard behind my house in Stewartstown PA.
I enjoyed the book, and thought it had some fine and clever moments, but once again I was more interested than truly involved. I couldn't have cared one way or another if the fates of the characters had been tragically different. Bod Owens can't hold a candle to the likes of Wilbur or that girl in Island of the Blue Dolphins.
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2 comments:
yeah, I agree... can't get into Gaimen's novels at all..
I try and I try, but I just am left thinking "Who Cares?"
but his collaborations with Dave McKean (my absolute FAV illustrator) are awesome... check out Mr. Punch, or Signal To Noise... waaaaay good.
if you like dave McKean after reading those, try HIS collaboration with Grant Morrison for batman's Arkham Asylum... talk about needing to be made into a movie...??!?!
I have liked two of Gaiman's books, but find most of his stuff as one-note as you do.
As for kids and graveyards, I remember really really loving Colby Rodowsky's The Gathering Room. She came into Borders once and paid with a credit card and I was all over her, telling her how I loved her work. She was a little freaked, understandably.
Here's a NYT review http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0DE6DB1039F936A15753C1A967948260
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