There’s an up side and a down side to the choice of Neil Gaiman’s 2013 dark fantasy novel The Ocean at the End of the Lane to be the focus of One Book/One New Paltz for 2020, a year like no other within living memory. The unhappy part is that, on account of Covid, the author is hunkered down in his writing retreat on the Isle of Skye in Scotland and unable to return to his house in Woodstock in time to participate personally. “I wish the world were one in which I could just come to New Paltz in November and answer questions about The Ocean at the End of the Lane. But this is great,” Gaiman tweeted on September 17, as he shared the Benjamin Center’s official announcement of the lineup of OB/ONP events, which run November 8 to 15.
The happy part is that this choice of book is in many ways perfect for the time and circumstances in which we find ourselves. For one thing, it was selected in part because the organizers are trying to “rejuvenate” the annual program, in the words of organizer Robin Jacobowitz. “We’re excited about the audience. It might reach a younger demographic, because Neil Gaiman is very popular among younger readers.” Some of the programming, including a November 13 session on graphic novels, is deliberately geared to tweak the interest of those whose introduction to Gaiman’s work was the iconic Sandman comic series.
Millennials and Gen Z-ers, who grew up on modern electronic technologies, won’t be deterred by the knowledge that all of this year’s OB/ONP offerings are accessible only via Zoom or WebEx, rather than the usual live gatherings at the Elting Library or the Lecture Center at SUNY New Paltz. Noting that in the past, the program has received complaints about the difficulty of finding on-campus parking on event nights, Jacobowitz speculated that participation might actually spike this year: “We see it as an opportunity. It’s easier to get to a lot of events.” With the exception of one community book discussion airing from Woodland Pond on November 13, there will be no limit on the number of participants who can tune in and chime in.
Since the pandemic lockdowns began, “The world of virtual programming has just exploded,” said organizer Linda Welles. “This one is different because you’re interacting with your neighbors.” OB/ONP was originally founded – in 2005, when the focal book was Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – with the intent of fostering dialogue between town and gown on a topic of common interest, as well as literacy.
Thematically, Ocean is an appropriate choice for challenging times as well. Here’s the publishers’ official description of the book: “The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a novel about memory and magic and survival, about the power of stories and the darkness inside each of us. It began for our narrator 40 years ago when he was seven: The lodger stole the family’s car and committed suicide in it, stirring up ancient powers best left undisturbed. Creatures from beyond the world are on the loose, and it will take everything our narrator has just to stay alive. There is primal horror here, and a menace unleashed – within his family, and from the forces that have gathered to destroy it. His only defense is three women, on a ramshackle farm at the end of the lane. The youngest of them claims that her duckpond is an ocean. The oldest can remember the Big Bang.”
It’s also the closest thing Gaiman has ever written to autobiography. He has stated that the family in the novel is not his own, but that the viewpoint much resembles that of his seven-year-old self. The precipitating incident of the lodger’s suicide is based on something that actually happened when he was that age, when his parents were among England’s most active proponents of the Church of Scientology and frequently hosted acolytes studying at the nearby Saint Hill Manor. While the author himself has disavowed the cult, he still has close relatives who are deeply engaged in its power structure. If he wants to stay on speaking terms with them, he can’t be too critical in public. Ocean is as close as he is likely to get to opening up about it in the near future, and it’s tempting to read the novel’s malevolent entity, who turns the boy’s father against him, as a metaphorical representation of the Church.
Whatever that dark force really was, it left its imprint on the narrator’s psyche, though he habitually blocks it out of his memory. Much of the discussion scheduled for OB/ONP 2020 will focus on themes of trauma and the strategies that children and adults find to cope with it. A centerpiece of the week’s events is a November 10 presentation and discussion on childhood trauma led by Dr. Amy Nitza, director of SUNY’s Institute for Disaster Mental Health. “We’re all dealing with trauma of a sort, because of COVID-19,” noted organizer Myra Sorin. “The theme of resilience is really powerful, because that’s what we need to get through today,” Welles agreed.
While the subject matter of the novel is often grim, murky and menacing, Gaiman’s prose is light, lucid, propulsive and engaging. “His understanding and knowledge of story is exceptional,” said Welles. Ocean is a relatively quick read, under 200 pages, which makes it easy to decide on the spur of the moment to participate in OB/ONP. Copies are available at Inquiring Minds Bookstore, Barner Books, the Elting Library and the SUNY New Paltz campus bookstore.
To view the full schedule of events One Book/One New Paltz, including weblinks for attending the virtual seminars and discussions, visit www.newpaltz.edu/media/the-benjamin-center/One%20Book%202020%20Event%20Schedule.pdf. Admission to all events is free, and preregistration is not required to log in.
Join the family! 
