I wonder if this is something Gaiman himself is aware of? Much of what he said about The Ocean at the End of the Lane ahead of publication was that this was more psersonal, higher risk, than anything he had done before - yet this really didn't come through in my reading od the book. I thought he had said much the same things, in a more concentrated form, in Troll Bridge. Now, given that's a story about someone who goes through his life at one remove...