MANILA, Philippines - Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book is a book for young adults. I was 24 when I read it. Either my heart retained a 12-year-old’s preferences while my body grew old, or The Graveyard Book is able to transcend its intended audience. I believe it is a mix of both.
The Graveyard Book has elements that appealed to the little boy within me: the joys of meeting new friends (living, dead, or neither), an adventure through an unknown place, treasures in the dark, a lycanthrope teacher, and an awesome guardian that I kept imagining as a cross between Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster. Then, there are those elements that appealed to the adult in me: the knife in the dark, a lady on a big and gray horse, an organization of Jacks (one is a Filipino), the Honor Guard, a conspiracy, and twist and turns in the story.
Besides all of these, The Graveyard Book not only offers readers a tour to the edges of horror and dark fantasy but it also takes readers to a familiar adventure, the boy hero Nobody Owens’s experiences in growing up. From infancy until the young Bod became an adolescent, ready to face the world outside the graveyard, he will discover friends and failures. He will learn that friends leave and return. The outcast can be a big help and a best friend, too, even if she is a ghost witch. All lessons, though they seem useless, will be useful sooner or later. Bullies exist and there are ways to handle them as a normal child and as a boy with the freedom of the graveyard. Girls treat boys and young men differently. Rules, restrictions, and guardians exist because there are reasons that are worth considering before running away. A baby that comes in the graveyard exits as a young man.
The Graveyard Book, for me, offers everyone a great story, but I invite other readers to see if they will get at the same opinion. Still, great stories are everywhere. Classics exist, and novels with equally amazing stories, if not greater than The Graveyard Book, sprout like mushrooms every year. We readers only need to keep an open eye and mind for such literary treasures.
There are many books with a better storyline or artistic quality than The Graveyard Book, but Neil Gaiman’s young adult novel will forever remain in my heart as the first book that inspired me to read and love stories. Reading it for the first time was like dipping my foot in the water, in preparation for a swim in the cold lake. Halfway through the book I found myself sitting at the edge of the lake, my knees just above the literary surface. Before I knew it, Neil Gaiman found a way behind me and pushed me with a smile stuck on his face.
There I was, floating and grasping for air as words and art filled my mind, heart, and lungs. I was drowning, but I actually liked it. It was a sudden flow of fun, imagination, and adventure slapping my body. Then, it was over. I was back on land, in reality, but still smiling over the lake of my fantasy.
After that, I wanted more. Neil Gaiman stood beside me, tapped my shoulders, and said, “Well, this is just the lake. There’s an ocean out there.â€
Before The Graveyard Book, I always thought fantasy was a redundancy of literature, a fiction of fiction. I was wrong. Great stories are everywhere, and I believe a big chunk of these belong to fantasy.
The Graveyard Book changed my life. It showed me the magic of stories. One story led to another, then another, until I found myself beginning my own book collection, a mini-library, for now. (My current job gives me the freedom to search, buy, and read the books I want.)
Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite authors because he pushed and buried me in the world of fantasy. He also writes stories that make me put down the book for a few seconds, stare at the horizon, and smile at the beauty of his and my imagination. That sequence is my body’s way of praising the work of a genius, and it applies to all authors of great and amazing stories. (As an added treat, readers and would-be readers of The Graveyard Book should listen to the author’s reading during one of his book tours. Words and stories on paper are enough, but Neil Gaiman’s voice and artistry just give his stories another kind of life.)
The Graveyard Book is one of my favorite books because, like how the graveyard prepared Bod for the world and life, it prepared me for the swim in the waves of the literary ocean.
THIS WEEK’S WINNER
Recle E. Vibal has a degree in BS Chemical Engineering though he never uses it in his current job. He currently lives in Los Baños, Laguna and works in Makati City. He loves to read and write and a consequence of this hobby is a mini-library of books and a desire to publish short stories or essays.