RE: American Gods By: Neil Gaiman
A Book that I Really Love
From: Travis
July 4, 2020
I really enjoyed this book. It might not be my favorite Neil Gaiman book, but so far it's the most complex, most fully realized and interesting one that I have read... and it's one I think back to often.
I thought the interwoven 'coming to America' vignettes were really powerful and a unique way to fill in the gaps not only of how the titular Gods came to America, but also in the stories and experiences of the different 'waves' of immigrants that came here to become America - and a great reminder how much immigrants make up the American story - the impact that they have.
If you've ever read any of Gaiman's Sandman comics, you can pretty clearly see the shared narrative DNA between that storytelling frame and this book; the border-blending and bleeding over of 'real world', and the world of capital letter Ideas personified, the realms of the gods and the mish-mashing of multiple different strands of mythology. The end effect, for me, is a comfortable, almost rational sliding in and out of completely irrational plot points - Shadow plucking the moon from the sky as a silver dollar is just as easy to digest as Shadow picking up a hitchhiker on his way through the farmlands of the midwest -- Getting into a barroom brawl up with an aggressive and over-tall Leprechaun makes just as much sense as playing checkers for your life against Chernobog -- but always in the dream making sense while you're in it realm of logic.
To be sure, this is a hefty book -- perhaps trying to emulate the epic stories of the mythology it is borrowing from -- and there is a lot of plot to get through; lots of ancillary characters and side stories that flesh out the world we are exploring. For me at least, there was a decent chunk of reading where I felt like the plot had stalled out; where the story was fine, well-written, but I was wondering aloud what exactly the point of any of it was; struggling to make the connection to the over-arching story. But after a bit of time, it became clear that these sections truly had been groundwork and they started paying off nicely. After a few nights slow-going, plot lines started coming together and I found myself unable to stop reading until I knocked out the last 100 pages or so; savoring the pay off.
I'd like to say, for the record, I thought I was pretty clever when I figured out 'Mr Wednesday' when he was first introduced... but then the part that I 'figured out' was hardly even a twist and came really rather early in the story. Coming in to the book with a pretty decent background with the mythology that Gaiman delves into is probably not necessary to understand the book, but will greatly enhance your enjoyment and probably help you pick up the hundred little clues scattered before the 'end'. A strong recommendation to anyone who has enjoyed Gaiman's other work - especially Sandman or his more recent book about Norse Mythology or anyone, really, that's up for a modern day Beowulf.