The Graveyard Book

I finished this year's Newberry Award winner, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. It was original and well written, yet I do not think this is the stuff classics are made of.

In Chapter One, an unsuspecting toddler escapes his own murder, quite by accident. The intruder left the front door open while he was busy stabbing the parents and sister in their sleep. The little one toddles down the stairs, out the front door and up the hill to the graveyard, oblivious of the danger that he is in.

The residents of the graveyard understand quickly that the baby is in danger and take him in to keep him safe. After a debate about who he looks like it is decided he looks like nobody but himself and is named Nobody. Bod for short. Bod spends his entire childhood in the graveyard as the murderer has not finished his duty and is still searching for him. As the story unfolds, the reader is only given hints as to who the killer is and what the motive is, building suspense.

In addition to being safe, Bod’s guardian Silas, believes Bod should be educated. He teaches Bod his ABC’s by running his fingers over the letters of the newest and clearest headstones.

Bod is given the “Freedom of the Graveyard.” Among the perks associated with this Freedom is the ability pass through walls, see in the dark, and fade from view. Skills he will need later for his own survival.

I loved the different characters who lived in the graveyard. When Bod hurts his ankle, Dr. Trefusis (1870-1936, May He Wake to Glory) takes a look at it and diagnoses it was just a bad sprain.

When Bod seeks advice, who better to go to than Nehemiah Trot, the resident Poet (1741-1774) A SWAN SINGS WHEN IT DIES.

There was the couple Tom Sands, who lived during the Hundred Years War with France and Miss Euphemia Horsfall (1861-1883, She Sleeps, Aye, Yet She Sleeps with Angels), The couple "seemed to have no trouble with the difference in their historical periods."

Although very risky, for a brief time Bod leaves the graveyard to go to school, promising to keep a very low profile. In his history class, Bod "often had to resist the urge to say that it hadn't happened like that, not according to people who had been there anyway."

I admire Gaiman's ability to create a totally imagined world of the dead and so effortlessly blend it with our world. Who isn't curious about what is on the other side? I would have preferred more of the subtle humor and less of the disturbing and dark scenes, which I suspect for younger readers could be very scary. I am glad I read the book, but I am definitely not dying to read a sequel.