Coraline.
Sat, 2003-03-15 12:14
#1
Coraline.
I'm only starting a new topic because I'm fed up with no-one starting a new topic.
I've just read "Coraline" by Neil Gaiman - because someone told me it was a bit like my stuff. I found the prose admirably clear but the story slightly feeble - it would have make a good six-thousand worder, and that's about all, in my opinion.
The heroine started getting the better of the antagonist about half way through the book, which seemed to me too early. After that she was up against merely numinous difficulties, it seemed to me.
Could it possibly be that the book is overrated?
Tony Cook
He's a cult author - and I suspect he is somewhat over-rated. Having said that he is adventurous and some of his stuff is very good but most of it is over-blown and could do with a damn good editor!
markbrown
Gaiman has written some good comics 'Mr Punch', 'Violent Cases', The last book of 'Miracle Man', the early Sandmans. His prose for me just reads like the narrative of a comic. I read 'Neverwhere' and found it to be a slightly childish re-writing of Clive barker mixed with 'Archer's Goon' by Diana Wynne Jones.
To be honest I think he should stick to what he is good at, which is writing serial narratives ie Comics. Other people do what he tries to do much better, that mixture of innocence and the sinister all wrapped in the fug of childhood or the spinning of new mythologies set in the everyday. He's like a horror writer who doesn't want to write horror, or an experimental writer who doesn't like to experiment, or a moral writer who doesn't like morality.
d.beswetherick
Funny you should mention "Archer's Goon" because that's one of Gaiman's favourite books, according to his website. The only other thing I've read by Gaiman is the short-story collection "Smoke and Mirrors". Most of the stories in it are poor, in my opinion, but one "Chivalry" struck me as so wonderful that I reread it till I was blue in the face. I was already using the objective point of view a lot before I read "Chivalry", but it reaffirmed my belief in the power of that little-used style of storytelling.
"Mrs Whitaker found the Holy Grail; it was under a fur coat."
Woo.
My favourite moment in the story:
Galaad walked over to her and took her old hands in his. "My quest is over'" he told her. "The Sangrail is finally within my reach."
Mrs Whitaker pursed her lips. "Can you pick your teacup and saucer up, please'" she said.
Cashback.
Trouble is that Neilo, like most writers these days, doesn't know how to end a story. (Excuse me a minute while I genuflect to the memory of St Roald Dahl, who not only knew how to end a story but never had a losing Cheltenham either. Could the two skills be in some way connected?)
d.beswetherick