![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Book Review: American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Jun. 19th, 2007 07:19 pmTitle: American Gods
Author: Neil Gaiman
Published: New York: HarperTourch, 2001
Page Count: 592
Total Page Count: 32,754
Text Number: 95
Read For: my own enjoyment & completing all of Gaiman's novels
Short review: Shadow is a convict, surviving the final weeks of his sentence and looking forward to a return to his life and to his marriage, when he is told of his wife's death and is released early to attend her funeral. On the flight home, he meets a man named Mr. Wednesday that seems to know more about Shadow than he has any right to do. He offers Shadow a job: to protect Wednesday and work as his right hand man in the big storm that is brewing. When he accept the offer, Shadow is swept into a slice of American life that he never knew existed: a battle between the old gods, brought to America by early immigrants and now dying of neglect, and the new gods of TV, strip malls, and modern America that have been born on American soil and are steadily gaining power. In the course of the novel, the characters journey from cities to roadside attractions to small town to Indian reserves, and Gaiman explores the power in both folk life in America. The novel is as enduringly off-kilter as the roadside attractions Shadow visits, with Gaiman's edge of magic and darkness that give it gravity and purpose. The resolution to the battle between the American gods is too brief, and I don't find the premise quite as interesting as some of his other novels, but the book is an engrossing read, well written, and complex, carrying through a number of characters and concepts, as I expect from this author. I do recommend it.
( Long review. )
Review posted here at Amazon.com.
Author: Neil Gaiman
Published: New York: HarperTourch, 2001
Page Count: 592
Total Page Count: 32,754
Text Number: 95
Read For: my own enjoyment & completing all of Gaiman's novels
Short review: Shadow is a convict, surviving the final weeks of his sentence and looking forward to a return to his life and to his marriage, when he is told of his wife's death and is released early to attend her funeral. On the flight home, he meets a man named Mr. Wednesday that seems to know more about Shadow than he has any right to do. He offers Shadow a job: to protect Wednesday and work as his right hand man in the big storm that is brewing. When he accept the offer, Shadow is swept into a slice of American life that he never knew existed: a battle between the old gods, brought to America by early immigrants and now dying of neglect, and the new gods of TV, strip malls, and modern America that have been born on American soil and are steadily gaining power. In the course of the novel, the characters journey from cities to roadside attractions to small town to Indian reserves, and Gaiman explores the power in both folk life in America. The novel is as enduringly off-kilter as the roadside attractions Shadow visits, with Gaiman's edge of magic and darkness that give it gravity and purpose. The resolution to the battle between the American gods is too brief, and I don't find the premise quite as interesting as some of his other novels, but the book is an engrossing read, well written, and complex, carrying through a number of characters and concepts, as I expect from this author. I do recommend it.
( Long review. )
Review posted here at Amazon.com.
