8 July, 2002
Coraline
Neil Gaiman
2002
162 pp
This review was also posted on the Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.sf.written. You can read the discussion here.
Neil Gaiman turns his hand to children's literature.
Coraline is an ordinary girl with ordinary parents. Her family has just moved into part of a big, old house which has been broken up into flats. The other inhabitants of the house aren't so ordinary; they're rather eccentric-- Miss Spink and Miss Forcible are a couple of nice old ladies who like to drink tea and reminisce about their younger days in the theatre. The crazy old man in the attic flat, Mr. Bobo, claims to be training a mouse circus, whose performers talk to him. Finally, there is an empty flat which shares a wall with Coraline's, and there is a door which used to connect the two, but which was bricked up when the house was divided. Now, the door opens onto a brick wall.
One day, however, when Coraline is feeling particularly neglected by her busy parents, she opens the door and sees, not a brick wall, but a dark hallway. Since Coraline fancies herself to be someting of an explorer, she naturally goes through the door to see where the hallway leads. What she finds is a strange mirror version of her house, containing alternate versions of her parents and her neighbors. Her "other mother" and "other father" are attentive, they give her lots of cool toys and clothes, and feed her her favorite foods. Also, everybody in the alternate world has black buttons sewn onto their faces, instead of eyes. The "other parents" wants Coraline to stay in their world, which is lacking an "other Coraline," but she declines when they threaten to replace her eyes with buttons. Of course, that's not the end of it, for Coraline's parents are kidnapped into the mirror world by the "other mother," and it falls to Coraline to rescue them. She quickly realizes that the mirror world, and the people therein are not at all what they initially appeared to be.
Since it is by Neil Gaiman, it goes without saying that Coraline is a well-written, engaging story. I recommend it without reservation for the under-twelve crowd.
I also recommend it for older readers, including adults, but with a warning. Coraline is an excellent children's book, but it is very definitely a children's book. Like most kiddie-lit, it lacks the complexity of style, plot, and characterization that makes for a great grown-up novel. Coraline is infused with the spirit of childhood: from the excitement of "exploring" familiar territory like the back yard or one's own home to being a picky eater:
Coraline's father stopped working and made them all dinner.(I think the stew sounds quite yummy, myself, but you know how kids are.) Even the scary bits reflect childlike fears: being abandoned by one's parents, or having your parents replaced by cruel strangers, terrible things that creep around at night, always out of direct view, a witch with black buttons for eyes who eats beetles like popcorn. So, if you're like me, and can put yourself in the right frame of mind to appreciate children's literature for what it is, go for it. But, if you dislike kid's books in general, this is not going to be one of the rare exceptions.Coraline was disgusted. "Daddy," she said, "you've made a recipe again."
"It's leek and potato stew with a tarragon garnish and melted Gruyère cheese," he admitted.
Coraline sighed. Then she went to the freezer and got out some microwave chips and a microwave minipizza.
One final tidbit: in Gaiman's other novels (graphic and textual), the protagonists tend to be fairly passive. They react to, or simply observe, the plot, but rarely initiate it themselves. Coraline is a different bird altogether-- she's much more active, and in control of her own fate, than the other Gaiman protagonists I can think of. I wonder if this is because Coraline is a female[1], or because she's a kid, or if Gaiman just decided to try something new. In any case, it's a refreshing change.
Oh, and the book has some nifty illustrations by Dave McKean, if you're into that sort of thing.
[1] The only other female protagonist from a Gaiman novels that I can think of is Death, from the two Death mini-series. I don't remember either of them well enough to say whether Death was an active or passive heroine.