Booking It: Neverwhere

I did not realize the brilliance of Neil Gaiman’s writing until, attempting to recommend his novel Neverwhere to a friend, I realized what a difficult time I had describing the plot. This was not because the book was difficult to understand or fractured into excess subplots; to the contrary, it is wonderfully written with a driven, exciting story. I had trouble describing the book because of its sheer originality. There are many familiar elements like protagonists and antagonists, a murdered family, a quest for answers and revenge, an attempt to return home, a sprinkling of romance and friendships. After helping a young woman, a man named Richard Mayhew finds himself stuck in her bizarre and fantastical world. However, this is not Narnia, and Richard does not pass through a portal or ride a magical train away into this strange world. In fact, at first he does not physically go anywhere at all. Simply by interacting with the young woman named Door, he “falls through the cracks.”

In Neverwhere, there are two Londons, London Above, which is life as we know it, and London Below, which is a strange and semi-magical place occupied by people who have “fallen through the cracks” and are no longer truly visible to the people of London Above. However, London Below occupies the same physical space as London Above, fitting itself into the empty and unnoticed spaces. It takes up empty Tube trains, rooftops and Harrods after closing, imbuing them with strange and magical qualities. The people who live in London Below are likewise strange and sometimes magical. Door, for instance, has the ability to open any door, anywhere.

Most of Gaiman’s novels have a similar feeling. They are fantastical, but they rarely take the form of the epic quest, chosen-one-who-saves-the-world type of fantasy. They are usually dark, and tend to feature worlds such as London Below, which are simultaneously part of our world and separate from it. There is a disturbing quality to many of his novels and short stories. They go places you do not quite expect, were not prepared for, and are not sure that you like. His newest book, a short story collection called Trigger Warning, is specifically an exploration of that idea. While Gaiman is one of my favorite authors and I have, so far, immensely enjoyed everything I have read by him, Neverwhere is probably my favorite. For me there is something especially captivating about the story. It has an exciting page-turner plot, that is perhaps faster-paced than some of his books, but I think there is also something beguiling about the world of London Below. Perhaps it is its closeness to the real world and the ease with which Richard slips into it.

There is a clear bit of social commentary hovering on the edges of this novel. The characters who are not big-shots in London Below end up begging in the Tube from London Above and London Below inhabitants alike, barely visible to either. The idea of falling through the cracks is not simply a fantasy. It is, of course, a harsh and difficult reality for many people, especially in a big city. Richard is also new to London, having moved from Scotland, perhaps suggesting that it was much easier for him to fall through the cracks because he was already in an unfamiliar place without many friends or people to remember him, which is of course the case with many people who move from small towns to big cities. That said, I do not believe Gaiman in any way intended Neverwhere as commentary or allegory. While it leaves the reader something to ponder, it is not the focus of the novel at all.

One of the other reasons I particularly love this book are its characters. Richard and Door, the two protagonists of the book, spend most of it exploring London Below trying to find someone named Islington. Besides allowing the reader to get many different glimpses of London Below, this brings them into contact with any number of colorful characters, from the sarcastic Marquis de Carabas to the flamboyant Earl to the stoic and legendary Hunter. The characters and their various quirks and murky backgrounds are what truly brings the novel and the world that Gaiman creates to life. Even characters such as Croup and Vandemar, who fall neatly into the blundering henchmen stereotype, add a great deal of flavor to the story.

In the hands of a less skilled writer, this book could easily have collapsed into a boring pattern. The two main objectives of the novel – Richard’s quest to return to his home and Door’s quest to discover answers about her family’s murder – are broadly familiar ones. However, Gaiman’s incredibly original and occasionally unsettling world, coupled with his brilliantly vivid characters, is fascinating, unpredictable and thrilling.