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Elizabeth's Reviews > American Gods
American Gods
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by
Disclaimer: I'm a huge Neil Gaiman fan. Seriously, I think I read Coraline about 6 times across my preteen years. I love the way he captures the reader with effortless storytelling and a wonderfully weird imagination.
American Gods is definitely weird in a fascinating way, if not jarring or uncomfortable for me at times. And the story was tightly plotted. And it's a unique concept. So why didn't I love it?
It boils down to the characters, whom I just didn't fall in love with the way I normally do. Having been released from a 3-year stint in prison, our main protagonist Shadow is ready to settle back into a normal life in the Midwest. He's got a wife and a solid job waiting for him, so what else could he need? Well, it wouldn't be a Neil Gaiman book if some crazy business didn't ensue. A fateful meeting with a mysterious man, Mr. Wednesday, changes Shadow's life irrevocably...or is Mr. Wednesday even a man? Shadow's worldview is rapidly overturned as he confronts a vastly unexpected reality: the Old Gods are walking among us in America.
Gaiman populates the novel with a vast array of ancient mythologies, pulling from Old Norse, Slavic, Egyptian, Irish, and Germanic mythology, to name a few. I appreciated that he drops hints (that are nevertheless obvious if you're already familiar with said mythology) about their godly origins but is completely comfortable with providing only a limited description and a thinly veiled name (Mr. Nancy for Anansi, for example). Without dumping a huge backstory on us, this leaves room to explore the very unique personalities that Gaiman crafts for each of the Old Gods.
Of course, their necessary counterpart is the New Gods, like Media and Technical Boy. Gaiman doesn't aim for subtlety here, and their names probably are exactly what you think they would denote. Shadow, hired as Mr. Wednesday's bodyguard, gradually comes to play a larger role in a battle between the Old and New.
Although the plot definitely moved and each event kept me interested, it still felt a little too slow. Perhaps if Shadow had been a more dynamic character, if I found the Gods themselves to be more complex, I would feel myself more fully engaged in the story. Nonetheless, this is a very original take on what form American gods would take. We know that America is a young country with a melting pot of much more ancient cultures, and that amalgamation of belief systems is certainly reflected in this novel. Throughout, Gaiman explores age-old questions about the purpose of religion, levels criticism at American exceptionalism, and contemplates how people—and in turn, society—selectively choose which beliefs they will act on. Not one of my favorites, but I still think it's an interesting venture worth embarking once.
American Gods is definitely weird in a fascinating way, if not jarring or uncomfortable for me at times. And the story was tightly plotted. And it's a unique concept. So why didn't I love it?
It boils down to the characters, whom I just didn't fall in love with the way I normally do. Having been released from a 3-year stint in prison, our main protagonist Shadow is ready to settle back into a normal life in the Midwest. He's got a wife and a solid job waiting for him, so what else could he need? Well, it wouldn't be a Neil Gaiman book if some crazy business didn't ensue. A fateful meeting with a mysterious man, Mr. Wednesday, changes Shadow's life irrevocably...or is Mr. Wednesday even a man? Shadow's worldview is rapidly overturned as he confronts a vastly unexpected reality: the Old Gods are walking among us in America.
Gaiman populates the novel with a vast array of ancient mythologies, pulling from Old Norse, Slavic, Egyptian, Irish, and Germanic mythology, to name a few. I appreciated that he drops hints (that are nevertheless obvious if you're already familiar with said mythology) about their godly origins but is completely comfortable with providing only a limited description and a thinly veiled name (Mr. Nancy for Anansi, for example). Without dumping a huge backstory on us, this leaves room to explore the very unique personalities that Gaiman crafts for each of the Old Gods.
Of course, their necessary counterpart is the New Gods, like Media and Technical Boy. Gaiman doesn't aim for subtlety here, and their names probably are exactly what you think they would denote. Shadow, hired as Mr. Wednesday's bodyguard, gradually comes to play a larger role in a battle between the Old and New.
Although the plot definitely moved and each event kept me interested, it still felt a little too slow. Perhaps if Shadow had been a more dynamic character, if I found the Gods themselves to be more complex, I would feel myself more fully engaged in the story. Nonetheless, this is a very original take on what form American gods would take. We know that America is a young country with a melting pot of much more ancient cultures, and that amalgamation of belief systems is certainly reflected in this novel. Throughout, Gaiman explores age-old questions about the purpose of religion, levels criticism at American exceptionalism, and contemplates how people—and in turn, society—selectively choose which beliefs they will act on. Not one of my favorites, but I still think it's an interesting venture worth embarking once.
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