Book Review: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

This weekend I finished the latest from Neil Gaiman and the delight continues.

This collection is a series of stories of Nobody Owens.  He is an infant who escapes the Man Jack and is adopted by the graveyard and raised and protected by its denziens.

The books “chapters” are closer to stand alone short stories that follow Nobody (Bod for short) and his growning up.  His parents, the Owens, are loving and endearing. His guardian Silas is both strong and full of wisdom.

The book is an homage to The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling.  The afterward emphasizes this and also lets us in on the construction.  The first part written was part 4, The Witch’s Headstone, and the constructed based on the strength of that story.

This book has held my attention for some time, as a matter of fact, I have been anticipating this since April 2007 when I saw and heard Mr. Gaiman read the FIRST DRAFT of Chapter 2.  The book was then tenatively titled The Graveyard.  As I read it I was trying very hard to remember how Chapter 2 sounded then verses now. The basic story of that was the same and much of the prose.

Neil Gaiman

The book is also decorated with illustrations by Dave McKean in heavy black ink style drawings.  They typically are at the beginning and end of the chapters.  I have grown to like his work, and this book had a rather basic form of his art.

One of the highlights was that TODAY it was announced that The Graveyard Book is the Newberry Medal winner for 2009.