Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Like Alice in Wonderland, events start happening at a surprising pace. Like Alice, Richard too seems like a lost little person. Like Alice, the world is highly speculative. But whereas most of the characters in Alice had no motives, Neverwhere is filled with them. Oh and Croup and Vandemar. Two of the best characters I have read so far.

Down the sewer hole.



Gaiman is a superb story-weaver. He slowly reveals the 'why' after luxuriously indulging in the 'what'. You tend to go through an unbelieving 'what', to an acknowledging smile to a wicked laugh several times in a page. Repeat this exponentially when Croup and Vandemar are around.

While it took me time to decide that I like Door, could easily imagine a very hot Hunter and didn't care for Richard, I did like marquis quite a bit. He holds all the elements of surprise and uses them efficiently. The characters make the story a truly fun read. And Croup and Vandemar even better!

I also loved the way Gaiman has ended the book. Do we all question life? The illusionary part of it? What is real and what real is real and how real it is really?

Oh have you realised that the 'w' in Mayhew (that could stand for 'world') when turned upside down would lead to Mayhem. Or is it just me? I questioned Mr Gaiman and he just replied in two words:

Also, have I mentioned Croup and Vandemar before? Ah, it should have been Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar.