Books: The Graveyard Book

By Lisa Fary

I hate crying at the laundromat.  The other laundry-doers look at me weird, as if wondering what I’d done to deserve it.  Or maybe there’s just snot hanging from my nose.  Whatever the reason, it gets me weird looks.

I also generally try not to finish books at the laundromat because then there’s a dead space.  You know, the book is done, and all there is left to do is stare at the timer on the dryer, pretending the iPod battery isn’t dead, waiting for panties and boxers to dry.

Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book accompanied a few loads of laundry one afternoon, and not only did I finish it with a good twenty minutes left on the dryer, it also made me cry.

The Graveyard Book is loosely modeled on The Jungle Book. After his family is murdered, a baby boy wanders his way up the hill and into the local, ancient graveyard where he is adopted by ghost parents and given the name Nobody Owens (shortened to Bod).  The book follows him as he grows up in the graveyard, reared and taught by ghosts, and having little contact with the living world, save those who pass through the gates and wander through the grave stones.

I’m not one for young adult books. I was a slow convert to Harry Potter, refusing to pick it up until the series was almost done, and then only under emotional duress.  It’s not that I’m against young adult books, it just that I’m a grown up and even though I dig witches and vampires and all that, I just prefer it all in a more grown up way.

Likewise, I had no intention of buying The Graveyard Book, or even of cracking it open for a peek at the bookstore, until I heard Neil Gaiman do a reading.  In October, Gaiman made an appearance in Philly and read chapter two, “The New Friend”.  After that, not only did I have to buy The Graveyard Book, I was in love Neil Gaiman.

Oh my god, I could listen to that man read the fishing forecast and be riveted.  I want the audiobook just so I can hear him reading Bod’s story to me.  Eventually, John would have to take it away from me to keep me from playing it at inappropriate times.

That said, I really enjoyed The Graveyard Book, just as a story, even without Gaiman reading it to me.  It’s a fantastic story: scary, funny, and poignant, with an appreciation for death and life.

Just don’t finish it in the laundromat.

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Lisa Fary’s early exposure to classic Battlestar Galactica in 1979 is largely responsible for her lifelong interest in science fiction and her childhood ambition of being an intergalactic space cowgirl. She thinks diagramming sentences is a fun alternative to Sudoku.

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