The Graveyard Book

As I shared in class, I was somewhat frustrated with what this book did not do. Although I enjoyed it while I was reading it, I kept on waiting for questions to be answered and various characters and plot points to be more fully developed. Now this description makes me think of the television show Lost, which I love and which infamously refuses to answer questions, but Lost continues to develop even more fascinating characters and concepts, whereas by the end, I thought Graveyard fell rather flat. I am going to chronicle some of the things that are left unexplored in a hopes that together these questions may provide greater cohesiveness.

1. The Honor Guard: We know that the Honor Guard is made up of various creatures (or types of people, as Miss Lupescu has taught Bod) and that they pursue the Jacks of All Trades, but we know very little else. Were they created solely to pursue the Jacks? What else do they do? What are their ultimate ends versus those of the Jacks? All we know of the Jacks is that they wish to kill Bod before Bod can destroy them and that they get magic from death. Do they have any greater goals? World domination? Clearly we should root for Bod and the Honor Guard, but why? Shouldn't we need proof of goodness or evilness before we root for one group to kill the other?

2. Silas: So it seems that he must be a vampire, but why is that not ever more bluntly stated? What is the purpose of this secret? We meet a witch, ghouls, and a Hound of God, but for some reason Silas' supernatural nature remains unstated and somewhat mysterious. Is it his vampire-ness that necessitates secrecy? Or his role as a mentor?

3. Bod's future: Bod fits perfectly into the high fantasy hero role. His fate is predestined, he's orphaned, and he has an unusual training or schooling experience. All that is known of his fate, however, is that he will destroy the Jacks, and he has already done that before he is 15. What about the rest of his life? It seems that he is gifted, and not just because of his destiny with the Jacks. He also has lived among the dead and learned their ways. I think this sets him up to have a grand story, but Gaiman just sets him forth from the graveyard with an uncertain future. Is his adventure really over at 15? Or will it simply be a life of travel and experiences as he looks forward to at the end of the novel? I would expect that a supernatural past would lead to a supernatural future, but the ending leaves this ambiguous.

I am pretty sure I could go on from here (what happened in San Francisco?) but I think that these questions encompass many others one could ask. I am still unconvinced that this is a great piece of literature. I do not think that these ambiguities are a part of the craft or serve Gaiman's "point." At this point, I am more inclined to think that they are aesthetic problems. What do you think? Do these questions bother you? Are they perhaps just a part of the difficulty that we, as readers, need to grapple with?