Luna’s Prose Ramblings

For previous chapters in this review, click here or go there by clicking on the The Graveyard Book tag in the tagcloud in the bottom right hand column.

If you have not already done so, watch Neil read chapter four here.

Chapter 4 The Witch’s Headstone

After foreshadowing being the central subject of the last chapter’s read-through, it becomes clear soon enough that the time has come for Bod to undertake the classical hero’s quest.

At the start of the chapter, Bod, as the central hero of the story, is warned not to go looking beyond the edge of the graveyard. Bod has heard this warning often in the past and since Bod is an obedient boy, he satisfies himself by only asking questions of Silas.

‘[I]n your land, they blessed the churches and the ground they set aside to bury people in, to make it holy. But they left ground unconsecrated beside the sacred ground, potter’s fields to bury the criminals and the suicides, or those who were not of the faith.’

In his favourite thinking spot, the apple tree that he eats the fruit of readily, Bod oversees the potter’s field. While trying to get at a particular nice-looking red ripe apple, Bod breaks the branch that he is on and lands himself right where he wasn’t supposed to go.

It’s great to see the apple as the of symbol of knowledge return in so many forms in as many stories. Here it particularly strikes me that Bod, in his search and reach for knowledge, he finds himself to have ended up in exactly that one place he wasn’t suppose to go. It shows us clearly enough, that while absorbing knowledge, we will never know where we travel until we are there and there is no turning back.

And there indeed seems no turning back for Bod either, when he meets the young girl witch in the potter’s field and hears the tale of her trial. When the attempted drowning didn’t suffice, she surfaced to curse the onlookers to unrest in their lives beyond, which gained her a spot atop a pyre and the unmarked grave at which she still lives. Elizabeth Hemstock with a big E, for Elizabeth, like the old queen that died when she was born, and a big Haitch, for Hempstock.

As befitting a hero, Bod decides that he will have to get Liza a headstone. Since his savings only go as far as the coins that were left in the graveyard by its frequenters, he goes back to the Celt’s tomb and the guardian Sleer to retrieve a treasure large enough to buy a headstone in town. The jewel Bod picks is the red snakestone inlaid in a silver snake with too many heads. But the Sleer warn him that the jewel always comes back.

This passage reminds me of the concept of the false quest object. Although in this case, the jewel that Bod retrieves from the tomb is indeed valuable, it was never his to take and the stolen treasure will never serve Bod’s intended purpose. Hinting at this fact are several things. One is the Sleer’s assertion that ‘It comes back. Always comes back’. Also, the jewel itself. The red snakestone is mounted on a silver body of a snake with too many heads. The trickster serpent symbolism is abound here and the many snake heads leads me to think of another trickster, Medusa. The jewel is a false object in the quest. In truth, it is not, like Bod hoped, the treasure that will bring the quest to a good end, it’s the hero’s cunning and wit that will help him to complete his task and this not without effort and sacrifice on the hero’s part.

Bod goes into town, into the pawn shop of Abanazar Bolger. The name is cleverly chosen. Abanazar is the name of the evil sorcerer that disguises himself as a lamp trader in the tale of Aladdin and who locks the unsuspecting youth in the treasure vault. As soon as Bod shows Abanazar the treasure, Bod is locked in the back room and the snakestone is taken from him. Abanazar remembers the man Jack, who was looking for a boy fitting Bod’s description and weighs the pros and cons of keeping Bod to find more treasure or contacting Jack to gain a reward. As Bod tries unsuccessfully to recall Mr. Pennyworth’s directions for Fading, Liza, who is buried in unconsecrated grounds and therefore not bound to them, shows up to pitch in her tuppence. She overhears enough conversation between Abanazar and his business partner, Tom, to know that they mean Bod harm.

Bod arms himself with a paperweight and paint to chuck at his captors in case of emergency and with help of Liza manages to Fade. Abanazar and Tom believe Bod to have escaped and a fight over the ownership of the snakestone breaks out. Abanazar and Tom manage to take each other down into unconsciousness, which gives Bod the chance to use a piece of paper, a paintbrush, his wit and cunning to get himself safely out of the store room. On the way out, Bod and Liza snatch the snakestone and Jack’s contact card with them.

Off back to safety, Bod runs into Silas, who unfortunately for Bod plays up the ‘I am disappointed in you’ tactic. Bod gives Silas Jack’s card to dispose of and returns the snakestone to the Sleer. Bod realises that he was unable to get Liza the headstone that he had in mind, but gives her an even more precious token. With the paint and paintbrush from the pawn shop, Bod makes a headstone out of the paperweight, swirling with colour. On it he writes, E.H. we don’t forget.

Two hundred miles away, Jack wakes up knowing something has happened.

There are a few more remarkable things hidden in the story that complement the theme of the hero’s journey of this chapter. The snakestone is an item that will corrupt the minds of the greedy and can only be retrieved and wielded by the fearless and pure at heart. A similar item was the One Ring in the epic hero tales of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. The One Ring was also an object that exuded power over the weak and greedy and could only be handled and withstood by the strong and brave.

Also, the hero in a quest will often have to bring a sacrifice of their own to win one of the trials of the task. In this tale, Bod quite literally gives himself up to escape the store room. With help of his friend Liza, he all but fades away completely. If dissolution of one’s self is not the ultimate sacrifice, I do not know what is !

For previous chapters in this review, click here or go there by clicking on the The Graveyard Book tag in the tagcloud in the bottom right hand column.

If you have not already done so, watch Neil read chapter three here.

Chapter 3 The Hounds of God

I am in two minds about this chapter. This chapter has some exquisite foreshadowing in it and that will be the main topic in today’s read-through review. On the other hand, the way Neil uses the vast majority of the elements of foreshadowing in this chapter is a bit disappointing to me.

Maybe I am thinking too complex. Maybe I have become used to foreshadowing being ingeniously hidden in the depths of a story. And maybe I should step away from that expectation to just enjoy the simple, glaringly obvious foreshadowing if it has been lain on the surface with intent and is happy to wave at us passers-by every chance it gets. Maybe I should just stop whining.

The chapter starts with a mood-setting description of a ghoul gate. Water-stained, with scraggly grass or rank weeds and often adorned with a headless statue or coated in fungus. And it’s not being concealed that we are going to see one of them from up close very soon.

Bod is six now and being confronted not only with a leaving Silas, but also a strict, puckering Russian-sounding woman with a pinched face and disapproving expression, who will be continuing Bod’s lessons while Silas is away. I, myself, thought at the initial meeting that Bod could have done without this teacher, but we soon learn otherwise. The woman goes by the name of Lupescu and anyone etymologically inclined will immediately recognise the wolf implication in the name. The new teacher has rented a house alongside the graveyard and will see Bod on a daily basis. Score two for foreshadowing.

Meanwhile, Silas has packed his antique black leather bag, which could have belonged to a Victorian doctor or undertaker, complete with padlock and heavy contents. Silas tells Bod that he will be away to gather information and uncover things. Why, Mr. Silas, would you need an extraordinarily heavy bag to gather information, dear sir ? Is there no such thing as a vampire travelling light ?

Miss Lupescu is here to take on Silas’s duties while he is away, most important of which is providing Bod with the food that the ghosts cannot. And she does this with verve. So much so that she manages to estrange Bod even more than she already had in their first meeting. Let’s just say that that was not a point for the team. And although Silas’s teachings had always been pragmatic and insightful, Lupescu chooses to take the more authoritative approach. She drills Bod on the different peoples of the world – the living, the dead, the day-folk, the night-folk, the ghouls, the mist-walkers, the high-hunters, the Hounds of God and the solitary types – and how to ask for help in all languages known to her. Foreshadowing number three and, yes… four. She even goes a far as reminding Bod that night-gaunts fly the red skies above Ghûlheim. Being Dutch, it’s not much of a secret that the German word Heim means home and it doesn’t take much imagination to figure out that Ghûlheim must be where the ghouls rest their weary heads. That makes five counts of foreshadowing so far.

And this is where we see the titular Hound of God for the first time. After one of Miss Lupescu’s disastrous lessons, Bod walks the graveyard and sees a large grey dog prowling, keeping away and slipping between the gravestones and shadows. Later we hear Bod ask Miss Lupescu whether the dog he saw was hers since it appeared when she arrived. In response, Miss Lupescu straightens her tie and answers no. I think you shouldn’t have lobbed that lump of soil at it, Bod!

Feeling unloved, abandoned and unappreciated, Bod falls asleep on grave with a water-stained, cracked memorial stone adorned by a headless angel hung in robes which look like ugly tree fungus. Hmm… where have we heard this before ? Pay-off number one.

Three ghouls appear. They scamper the walls of the graveyard looking for a gate for them to pass through. On the way they have a conversation about smelling a ‘ware dog’. Now this concept is a glorious one. The adjective ware is a derivative of an archaic form of the verb ‘to be aware’ and stems from its Germanic origin meaning ‘to observe’ or ‘to take care’. But it naturally also puts in mind the well known term of ‘were’ as in werewolf. So the ghouls are already aware of the guard weredog that prowls the graveyard and smell it alongside the graveyard. That reminds me of the fact that Lupescu does not live far away from the graveyard. Pay-off number two. When the ghouls arrive at the gate they find Bod sleeping there. It doesn’t take much convincing for Bod to agree that he will be more appreciated in the ghoul world and through the gate they take him.

The sky is the colour red of an infected wound, hung with an old, small, distant sun. The ghouls Bod meets wear the names of the first main courses that they had after being turned and I am assuming that with it they took nothing of their meals intelligence or I would have expected a bit more eloquence from the ghoul Harry S Truman.

While on the way to Ghûlheim (pay-off number three), Bod has seen enough to have changed his mind about going. He thinks of ways to escape and realises, as we have done, that the creatures flying in the sky are the same ones that Miss Lupescu had told him about – night-gaunts. Bod tries to call one to him with the shrill shriek that he was taught in his lesson, but the attempt is futile. At daybreak, the party of ghouls is noticebly smaller and moves on while Bod starts to worry about the howling that plagued them in the night.

On the second day, to prevent Bod from crying for help again, he is carried in a sack, which he manages to damage. In a bid for freedom Bod falls out the sack and lands on the steps to Ghûlheim hurting his ankle, right under the nose of a huge, grey dog. In panic, Bod tries to flee and trips off of the stair, away from safety and an exasperated and reproachful sounding Miss Lupescu. In the swoop that Bod hoped would come when he first called out to them, a night-gaunt scoops him out of the air and delivers him safely to the ground and Miss Lupescu. She explains that the creature came to Bod’s aid thrice – once when he called out to them and they flew to Miss Lupescu to warn her, the second time when they disposed of some ghouls at the nighttime fire that meant Bod harm and now to fly him to safety. Pay-off number four.

She also explains that she is a Hound of God, the name for the being that men call werewolves or lycanthropes ‘as they claim their transformation is a gift from their creator, and they repay their gift with their tenacity, for they will pursue an evil-doer to the very gates of Hell.’ Pay-off number five.

On Silas’s return, he find Bod and Miss Lupescu in an unprecedented good relation. He arrives with a stiff right arm and a model of the Golden Gate bridge. Hmmm… I won’t say that his trip to San Fransisco is necessary another foreshadowing but the condition of his arm certainly is. Silas questions the two politely by mentioning that he heard a rumour that Bod and Lupescu went further afield than Silas would be able to follow. I wonder if this is because he is a vampire?

The tally is clear. This chapter contains so much foreshadowing, it is seeping through the cracks to the point were it becomes a tad weary. The chapter feels crowded with so many dropped hints, almost all of which are payed-off within the same self-contained tale. Only the very last passage on the return of Silas contains an element of foreshadowing that we have not seen rewarded yet. And of course I might be making the mistake of assuming that all of these instances of foreshadowing are already payed-off and do not foreshadow an even larger event which is still to come, in which case I will gladly swallow my words and not only give the hat-tip that I do now, but the deep bow that is deserved. For the moment, Neil Gaiman is a master shadower if I have ever seen one to get so many of them is so few pages, but to keep the element of surprise at a more satisfying level, I would recommend to not make it all so glaringly obvious.

On to chapter four with what I hope is more suspense.

For chapter one of this review, click here or else click on the The Graveyard Book tag in the tagcloud in the bottom right hand column.

If you have not already done so, watch Neil read chapter two here.

Chapter 2 The New Friend

Chapter two is a curious chapter. For one, it’s a very upbeat and witty chapter as compared to the first, which was less so. But it also has a lot of quirky features that one might not notice when the chapter is read at face value.

The chapter begins with exposition of the boy Bod as he has changed from the baby that we met in chapter one. Bod has grown enough for him to walk, talk, pester the graveyard’s inhabitants with questions and argue with girls who are meanies. He is a boy with grey eyes and accompanying tousled mouse-coloured hair.

At sunset, Bod often waits at the Old Chapel to ask Silas questions. Questions like ‘Why amn’t I allowed out of the graveyard ?’, ‘How do I do what he just did ?’ and ‘Who lives in here ?’. After having corrected Bod’s grammar, Silas patiently explains that it is not safe for Bod outside the graveyard and that while he is there he can see in the darkness, walk some of the ways that the living should not travel and that the eyes of the living will slip off him. That some skills – like fading, sliding and dreamwalking – are learnt and some just don’t come in life. And that Bod should learn to read so that he can discover the epitaphs and their dedicatees for himself.

Bod’s peace and quiet is disrupted with the arrival of The New Friend. Scarlett is a bright curious young girl of five who roams the graveyard whenever her parents will let her while waiting on a bench. Soon Scarlett decides that Bod must be five too and talks to imaginary friends, but after that first meeting, it was never Scarlett who saw Bod first. (I wonder if that is the acquired fading skill of Bod’s that Silas talked about.)

The pair of them go exploring and discover the oldest grave in the yard, the one mound that stems from Celtic times. There are several accounts of people going into the mound and coming out changed… or not coming out at all. While exploring, Bod indeed shows that he can see where Scarlett cannot and soon they test their courage when faced with the guardians of the mound, the Sleer. The Sleer keep the tomb of the master and his possessions. They are the guardians of the brooch, the goblet and the knife. How and where the Sleer will play their part, I don’t know, but I’ll wager that they’ll be back before long !

The great thing about this chapter is that Neil has managed to introduce us subtly to the new concepts of fading, sliding and dreamwaking and has shown two of them already in a very unobtrusive way. I’m looking forward to seeing the third.

Some other things to think about. In one of the expositions on time spent between Bod and Scarlett, Bod tells Scarlett about ‘how Sebastian Reeder had been to London Town and had seen the Queen, who had been a fat woman in a fur cap who had glared at everyone and spoke no English‘. When I read that I wondered which queen Neil had referred to and set out to see if I could find out. Funnily enough, it turned into somewhat of a personal quest for me and ended abruptly when I came across an interview in which Neil talks more fully about it. Unfortunately I lost the link after a computer crash and a new search has failed to turn up that particular interview, but I’ll continue to search.

Since Sebastian Reeder died in 1583, the queen in question is most likely one of the wives of Henry the VIII, but none of them fit the bill. Excluding the wives of English birth – of whom we can expect English language skills – leaves Katharine of Aragon and Anne of Kleves. Katharine doesn’t fit because she was a beloved queen by the English people, whom she reigned for almost 24 years. She has been known to speak and write perfect 16th century English. Anne of Kleves would be a good candidate if it were not for the fact that she was not fat.

This portrait had been commissioned by Henry the VIII of Hans Holbein the Younger before Henry’s and Anne’s betrothal, with specific instructions to represent her as accurately as possible and not to flatter. It is therefore unlikely that Anne would ever be the ‘fat queen‘ of Reeder’s description.

Because the passage does not specify that the queen was actually English, I had come to the conclusion that the most likely candidate was Mary, Queen of Scots. But then I read the interview in which Neil himself admits that he doesn’t quite know which queen Reeder describes and that he had always liked to think it was in fact Anne. This passage is a glorious reminder that even an author does not always know everything about the story they write !

Lastly, some more interesting Silas bytes; When Bod says to Silas that he wants to be like him, Silas responds; ‘No, you do not.‘ Silas, like Bod, has the freedom of the graveyard, but for Silas it is a mere Right of Abode. Silas also reads Latin. Unfortunately, nothing here to confirm he is a vampire, but I’ll find it !

This is the story of a little boy, his family stripped away through no fault of his own. A little boy who will, growing up, probably not remember his mother’s lullabies, or the voice she sang them in. This is the story of a boy growing up in a graveyard.

Neil Gaiman fashioned his latest novel to the model of The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling; both stories have boys growing up in extraordinary adoptive families and both tell the story by way of consecutive chapter histories. And my guess is that this is also where you will probably find the comparison to end.

I picked up this book for review since I know Mr. Gaiman’s work well, having every adult’s novel and some of the children’s books he’s ever written on my shelf. And much a compliment to him, I have actually read everything by him that I own. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Gaiman in Bristol at the release of Coraline, which incidentally has been released in feature film version this February, where he wrote in my copy of Good Omens to burn it.

A while ago I was pleased to hear that his newest release would be a novel suited for children as well as adults. It takes skill not to just claim that, but to actually craft that. And I am certain that when I am done reading this book, I will be happy, content and in want of nothing but to give the book its rightful place on my shelf.

If you have not already done so, watch Neil read chapter one here.

Chapter 1 How Nobody Came to the Graveyard

The Graveyard Book starts off with a first chapter that does everything it is supposed to, but does it with flair. Nobody, or Bod for short, Owens is the new name fashioned for a little boy who finds himself orphaned at the hand of the man Jack. This name is fashioned for him by Mrs. Owens, a long-dead woman living in the graveyard up the hill from where Bod used to live and the refuge that he finds when unwittingly wondering in need of a new home.

This first chapter is effective in the way that it manages to raise more questions than it answers. It sets the stage for the conflict, introduces us to not only the main character, but a whole array of them, and for the adults and attentive reader leaves enough to be tantalised by.

The man Jack for one is an extraordinary man, who seems to have extrahuman senses. Electric light is of no importance to him and he can extricate smells to a level unheard of;

“He could smell the child: a milky smell, like chocolate chip cookies, and the sour tang of a wet, disposable, night-time nappy. He could smell the baby shampoo in its hair, and something small and rubbery – a toy, he thought, and then, no, something to suck – that the child had been carrying.”

The man Jack also turns out to have planned his ploy for months, even years and decides for the time being to not inform the ‘convocation’, whomever they might be, of his failure to complete the task set for him.

One thing that strikes me as odd. Before the man Jack could tend to his task, the baby is said to have ‘…been woken by the sound of something on the floor beneath him falling with a crash.’ Certainly that was not Jack’s doing ? That would seem out of character.

And then there are the inhabitants of the graveyard. We meet Caius Pompeius, who is described as one of the most senior citizens of the graveyard and had asked to be laid to rest in this graveyard rather than to have his body sent back to Rome. Also in the mix is the last character I would like to pay some attention to; Silas.

Silas is an impressive man, with the ability to influence others, either by mind alteration or flattery. He describes himself as a caretaker ’in a manner of speaking’ and is described as ‘the stranger that Jack had taken for a caretaker’. Silas has been given the freedom of the graveyard when he was not alive, but, unlike the other inhabitants, he can leave by choice and does so to obtain food for Bod and to go see Bod’s family’s bodies.

Another hint as to what type of man Silas is; when Silas feeds Bod a banana and is asked what it tastes like, he says; ’I’ve absolutely no idea’, because Silas consumes only one food and it is not bananas. Also, Silas dryly without sentiment says that ‘[i]t must be good to have somewhere that you belong. Somewhere that’s home’ and is said to exist ‘…on the borderland between their world [of the dead] and the world they had left.’

My guess… Silas is a vampire.

This new segment has been brooded on for a while and I’m glad to show it the light of day now.

Ever since I started this website, I have been thinking of a way to make not only the reading list, but also the review process interesting for the visitors to read. I was milling it over one night while I was reading the Twilight Guy website (remember him ?) and I had a brainwave.

As opposed to writing a review on every book I read (…believe me you don’t want me to, there are too many), I will keep the mundane thoughts to myself and just keep you updated on what I am reading through the reading lists. Select books however, I will enter into my new segment; the Read-through review.

The Read-through review will be an on-going write-as-I-read reviewing process in which I will read a chapter and immediately post about that one chapter. Hopefully in this way, you as readers will follow me through the process. And credit where credit is due, this is the whole premise of the Twilight Guy website, only unlike him I will not restrict myself to one author and one series by that author.

Perhaps, as readers, you could pick the book up with me and see where I have different impression than you, or if you already have read the book, you might read my failing prognostications as they develop and pick up on the plot in the book that sends me amiss. Which is bound to happen often !

Anyway, I am planning to round-off any Read-through review with an interview with the corresponding author in case he or she is willing. Mostly, I will choose new or unread books by authors that I am already familiar with, so that I will have some context from previous work for the interview. But of course during the read I hope to pick up a lot of questions pertaining to the book under Read-through review to spice up the conversation.

When I start a review, I hope to post a chapter about every week running the length of the book. For longer books, I might post more often. For in the case of, say one of Ms. Meyer’s lengthy works, a chapter per week will result in one book a year. And that’s just a bit too hefty a time.

Well, the first up for Read-through…. you guessed it;
Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book !

PS. Have I plugged the Twilight Guy enough ?

Today I came across the list of Hugo nominees for this year’s prestigious Sci-Fi award. I have highlighted some of the nominees here;

Best Novel

• Anathem by Neal Stephenson (Morrow; Atlantic UK)

• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury UK)

• Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (Tor Teen; HarperVoyager UK)

• Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK)

• Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi (Tor)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

• The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer, story; Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, screenplay; based on characters created by Bob Kane; Christopher Nolan, director (Warner Brothers)

• Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Guillermo del Toro & Mike Mignola, story; Guillermo del Toro, screenplay; based on the comic by Mike Mignola; Guillermo del Toro, director (Dark Horse, Universal)

• Iron Man, Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby and Art Marcum & Matt Holloway, screenplay; based on characters created by Stan Lee & Don Heck & Larry Lieber & Jack Kirby; Jon Favreau, director (Paramount, Marvel Studios)

• METAtropolis by John Scalzi, ed. Written by: Elizabeth Bear, Jay Lake, Tobias Buckell and Karl Schroeder (Audible Inc)

• WALL-E, Andrew Stanton & Pete Docter, story; Andrew Stanton & Jim Reardon, screenplay; Andrew Stanton, director (Pixar/Walt Disney)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

• “The Constant” (Lost) Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof, writers; Jack Bender, director (Bad Robot, ABC studios)

• Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Joss Whedon, & Zack Whedon, & Jed Whedon & Maurissa Tancharoen , writers; Joss Whedon, director (Mutant Enemy)

• “Revelations” (Battlestar Galactica) Bradley Thompson & David Weddle, writers; Michael Rymer, director (NBC Universal)

• “Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead” (Doctor Who) Steven Moffat, writer; Euros Lyn, director (BBC Wales)

• “Turn Left” (Doctor Who) Russell T. Davies, writer; Graeme Harper, director (BBC Wales)

As is said on the Hugo website, the nominees announcement on the Anticipation website includes links to purchasable and freely available downloadable and readable content from this year’s nominees.

The Guardian wrote a nice article, but of course you should read the summary of events by the man himself.