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Summary
Summary
An enthralling collection of nonfiction essays on a myriad of topics--from art and artists to dreams, myths, and memories--observed in #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman's probing, amusing, and distinctive style.
An inquisitive observer, thoughtful commentator, and assiduous craftsman, Neil Gaiman has long been celebrated for the sharp intellect and startling imagination that informs his bestselling fiction. Now, The View from the Cheap Seats brings together for the first time ever more than sixty pieces of his outstanding nonfiction. Analytical yet playful, erudite yet accessible, this cornucopia explores a broad range of interests and topics, including (but not limited to): authors past and present; music; storytelling; comics; bookshops; travel; fairy tales; America; inspiration; libraries; ghosts; and the title piece, at turns touching and self-deprecating, which recounts the author's experiences at the 2010 Academy Awards in Hollywood.
Insightful, incisive, witty, and wise, The View from the Cheap Seats explores the issues and subjects that matter most to Neil Gaiman--offering a glimpse into the head and heart of one of the most acclaimed, beloved, and influential artists of our time.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Pooling together his various nonfiction works over the decades, including articles, reviews, book introductions, speeches, and more, Gaiman gives listeners a fascinating exploration into his own mind and artistic influences. Whether he's discussing classic literature, comics, film, or other works, Gaiman draws out subtle considerations that often can change how listeners think about the topic. He narrates the book effectively with his deep, slightly nasal voice and a conversational manner that will make listeners feel as he is talking to them directly. His voice reflects his own emotions-often excitement and enthusiasm-as he discusses the ideas, people, and experiences that have had a lasting impact on him. Rarely is an author as charismatic in speaking as he is in writing. A Morrow hardcover. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Guardian Review
A collection of introductions, articles and essays includes insights into Alan Moore, Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett I have a writer friend who can't abide Neil Gaiman. When I pressed him lightly on this once, the reasons for this disdain boiled down, as I recall, to a combination of Gaiman's ubiquity and the tone of his writing voice. (There may also have been the way that he looks, or at least used to, as if he had stepped from the pages of one of his own books, as if he were the Prince of All the Goths. He looks a bit less like that now, and has a beard.) The ubiquity is, though, a product of his industry, and if some might murmur that a graphic novel -- he is "the author of more than 30 acclaimed books and graphic novels," says the blurb -- does not contain nearly as many words as a novel, he has also written many unillustrated words. In addition he has produced a good deal of non-fiction, in the form of introductions, addresses to conventions, profiles, and miscellaneous articles, and this book is a selection of those. His tone of voice is readily identifiable. It's the careful expository tone of a tale told to children, of a good, scary story that will keep them listening. I can see how this could get irritating, but it is at the heart of his technique and success. Here is the opening of his introduction to an edition of HP Lovecraft stories: "If literature is the world, then fantasy and horror are twin cities, divided by a river of black water. The Horror place is a rather more dangerous place, or it should be: you can walk around Fantasy alone." That, I think, is very good, even if it does not quite bear sustained scrutiny (you still have to walk around Horror on your own, surely?); and it also shows how adept he is at delivering scripts to be drawn up by artists. You can see the cities, the dividing inky waters, can't you? There is also something in the image that reminds me strongly of The Lord of the Rings, a book which he devoured as a child. ("I came to the conclusion that The Lord of the Rings was the best book that ever could be written... and I wanted to write The Lord of the Rings. The problem was that it had already been written.") The other books he adored were CS Lewis's Narnia tales (with reservations about The Last Battle), and -- this came as a surprise -- GK Chesterton 's stories, particularly those of Father Brown, and The Man Who Was Thursday. Gaiman lives in the US now, but his imagination is, I think, very English, and very rural at that: "When I was growing up in England, Hallowe'en was no time for celebration. It was the night when, we were assured, the dead walked, when all the things of night were loosed, and, sensibly, believing this, we children stayed at home [and] listened to the twigs rake and patter at the window glass... " But as he says here, it is a miserable imagination that allows itself contact only with other similar imaginations. This book is an excellent way of getting a purchase on the man who could be said to have almost single-handedly revived the comic genre, or made it respectable. It is also a great way of learning about the history of comics, science fiction and fantasy. We find out about the shoulders on which he stood -- those of Will "The Spirit" Eisner, Diana Wynne Jones and Brian Aldiss, about whom he writes passionately and searchingly. Pieces about friends and collaborators -- Alan Moore, Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett -- are relaxed, chatty, anecdotal (and, in the cases of Adams and Pratchett, who died before their time, melancholy). He is charming, enthusiastic, full of wonder. He is, at heart, the best kind of child reader: an adventurous one, and one willing to learn. - Nicholas Lezard.
Booklist Review
Made up of introductions to other authors' books, speeches, and newspaper articles, including interviews Gaiman conducted, this is what used to be called a book of fugitive writings, short pieces that would otherwise have escaped book publication under their author's name. Except for the half-dozen in the last part (which contains the title piece, on attending an Oscars ceremony), they're about the stuff of Gaiman's vocation as a writer prose fiction, movies, and comics and a few rock singer-songwriters. Beyond that, they're basically about fantasy stories and storytelling, imaginative (made-up) as opposed to mimetic (realistic) literature. If that makes them sound ponderous, well, rest assured, they're witty, comical, lighthearted, enthusiastic, personal without egoism, entertaining even at their most serious. They acquaint us with entire rosters of fantasy writers and their best books, with the most revered superhero- and fantasy-comics creators, and with how comics and movies relate and don't. The speeches among them are the best kind of pep talking to gatherings of fellow comics creators, fantasy writers, and those two bands-of-colleagues' great enablers, comics distributors and librarians. Delicious.--Olson, Ray Copyright 2016 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Prolific, award-winning fiction, comics, film, and TV writer Gaiman (Neverwhere; American Gods; Stardust) stormed onto the literary scene in 1990 with the novel Good Omens, cowritten with Terry Pratchett of "Discworld" series fame. Gaiman's eclectic work has been a force majeure ever since. Over the years, he has authored dozens of essays, reviews, introductions, and remembrances-"Some of them are serious and some of them are frivolous and some of them are earnest and some of them I wrote to try and make people listen," writes Gaiman in a brief introduction-collected here. Despite the self-deprecating title, there's nothing at a distance or unearned about his observations. Gaiman's prose reveals the relaxed intimacy of a cherished dinner partner and never loses sight of the big picture. Included are thoughts on the importance of reading and literacy; notes on the roots of sf and fantasy; musings on music and making good art; heady, existential yawps on painting and identity; and a fitting tribute to Pratchett in the collection's capstone piece. VERDICT Highly recommended for readers of Gaiman's work, specifically, and sf and fantasy generally, as well as those interested in cultural criticism and the art and craft of writing. [See Prepub Alert, 11/23/15; "Editors' Spring Picks," LJ 2/15/16, p. 29.]-Patrick A. Smith, Bainbridge State Coll., GA © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
