Neil Gaiman & The Graveyard Book

[peter johnson]

My wife went to see Neil Gaiman read from his new work, "The Graveyard Book", in Boulder 2 nights ago, and got me an autographed copy. (I was at play rehearsal & couldn't go).

I'm only about 40 pages in, but it's very reminicient of early Ray Bradbury.  The convention is that it's a retelling of "The Jungle Book" with a twist:  A baby crawls out of a house wherein his family has just been slaughtered by a seemingly semi-supernatural knife-man (Jack the Ripper?).  The baby crawls into a nearby cemetary, and the spirits of the dead conspire to keep and protect him from "Jack" and general harm. 

I'm at the part where he's growing up in the cemetary and has just had his first contacts with the living, like himself.  His mentor appears to be a vampire, but this is not spelled out.

The style is impeccable:  It makes you wish you had written it.  It's billed as a "young adult" novel, but, like the Harry Potter stuff, you can easily read it as an adult and not be embarrassed.  I had to force myself to stop & go to bed as I had my regular job to go to in the morning.  I think this is another winner from our Neil.

peter johnson/denny crane