Book of August — Nevewhere by Neil Gaiman
There is something special in paper books. I find them all around engaging, more “real” kind of reading experience and I am certainly not alone in this way if thinking. I was delighted to find this book on one of the shelves of the bookstore. I have not read any books by Gaiman himself, but I had read a collaboration of his called “Good omens” with my all times favorite — Terry Pratchett . It turned out to be a good omen indeed for further exploration of Neil Gaiman’s work.
As an aside — I got a chance to read this book a few months after I actually got it. So I was excited and somewhat apprehensive to find out what was it about and whether I like it or not. I am glad that I had an opportunity to dedicate most of my time to it, because it turned out to be delightfully immersive, I could not put it down. To some degree the format of the book helped (soft cover, easily held single-handedly) but it was quite a while since I won’t put my book down for a meal, short wait at the hotel lobby, etc. It distracted me completely from somewhat shaky ascend and landing on my flight home. I was annoyed to have to walk out of airport and talk to people and spending precious minutes not reading this book while dreading its finiteness and already craving more.
The narrative itself is a classic story of a hero on a quest in search of a thingy and his personal progress on the way in a darkish mystery sort of setting (thank you Alie Ward of “Ologies” for introducing me to the storytelling world with John Bucher). Our hero is a basic dude living his normal life under meticulous and well-calculated control of his girlfriend until it is interrupted by a another girl (but this is not a love story, thank you very much) dropping him into the previously unknown world of preternatural. The way the author describes the uncovered world, persons inhabiting it, its logic and infrastructure is definitely a major component of the realness of it all. He gives us plentiful description to re-construct it in our heads with enough space for personal details to be built-in so that when you’d re-tell, it feels like your own story.
Amid writing this I was pointed towards the similarity of “Neverwhere” to “Chronicles of Amber” by Roger Zelazny and as I was thinking about it, it became rather obvious. In Amber the protagonist is a man thrust rather violently into the fantasy realm for five consecutive books with interesting aftermath to say the least. Another point that connects this two stories is the fact that the hero is not as much of an enthusiastic savior kind of person. Which also brings him close to one of Pratchett’s heroes — well known fancier of boredom Rincewind, who spent his short tenure as librarian’s assistant and not at all looking forward to all the drama he subsequently got into. He lived his life in his groove and the “adventure” is perceived more as an uprooting rather than smooth, magical transition. Lastly, as opposed to typical saga of fabulous magical kingdoms where people (outside of obviously evil, wicked goblins/orcs/witches/etc.) are kind, ever-recently-washed and never having a bad hair day, these worlds lean to the realistic side of the fiction spectrum. So if you enjoyed your journey through Amber (and Chaos) of Zelazny’s making, you’d probably like “Neverwhere” too.
Ultimately, “Neverwhere” was absolutely worthy of a few months wait and anticipation. I thoroughly enjoyed it and certainly would’ve liked to have a follow-up but probably the lack of it makes the whole experience even more precious.
Oh, and if you’ve been to London and used the Tube, it will add a tad more interest to your reading.
https://www.alieward.com/ologies/2018/2/26/20-mythology-with-john-bucher
