Today we begin our three part discussion of The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman as part of Carl’s group read over at Stainless Steel Droppings.

The book opens with a visit from a knife-wielding Jack who kills a family minus one toddler. Said toddler wanders into a cemetery where he is quickly adopted by kind-hearted nonliving beings (aka ghosts) and one crusty undead curmudgeon with a soft center. In an effort to keep the child safe from knife-wielding Jack, the cemetery folk name him Nobody, Bod for short. And here Bod begins his new life, one child raised by a village, albeit one behind filigree iron gates dotted with crumbling gravestones.

Chapters 1-3

My first impressions include an awareness of color, with everywhere a profusion of grey (Gaiman uses the British spelling even in the American printing) from the winding sheet young Bod wears to the mysterious Lady in Grey. I had to find out if she was an established myth or something the author created. She appears to be the latter.

What strikes me most in these early chapters is the protagonist’s easy tolerance for difference.  Bod respects the dead as much as the living, is equally at home with a pre-Roman warrior as with a Victorian matron.

One thing I don’t like is the illustrations. I don’t care for the look of them, and besides, they are not accurate. In his early years, Bod wears only a winding sheet, yet the illustrations feature a character clad in jacket and jeans. It’s something of a transformative moment when Bod acquires his first set of street clothes, so I feel that should be reflected in the pictures. Apparently, another version of this book exists with award-winning illustrations by Chris Ridell, but the only example I could find is the cover, shown here.

(Obviously, this is the post winding sheet Bod.) I love this cover, so I imagine I would love the inside illustrations as well. If I ever come across this edition, I will snatch it up.

After reading these first chapters, I decided to check into some behind the scenes stuff. In a Goodreads interview, Gaiman described how, as a young man, he would bring his toddler to the graveyard across the street. As he watched  his child ride a tricycle around the headstones, Gaiman “thought that I could do something like ‘The Jungle Book’ with that same equation of boy, orphaned, growing up somewhere else, but I could do it in a graveyard. I had that idea when I was 24 years old. I sat down and tried writing it and thought, ‘This is a really good idea, and this isn’t very good writing. I’m not good enough for this yet, and I will put it off until I’m better.”

Wow. Talk about dedication to one’s craft. As a writer, I’m impressed first, with his insight, and second, with his patience.

So, now it’s back to my armchair to meander deeper into this charming book. Soon I’ll let you know what creepy creatures I find there!