American Gods: A Novel
by Neil Gaiman
|
List Price: Our Price: $5.04 You Save: $10.95 (68%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $2.23 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of American Gods: A Novel
Book Review: A graphic novel...in prose
Summary: 2 Stars
I'm not sure if I underappreciated this (popular) novel, but I'm relieved to be done. The vibe I got while reading was similar to watching a movie based on a comic-book, which is hardly surprising, really, considering Mr. Gaiman started out writing and illustrating graphic novels. The overall mood is dark, and if the characters were illustrated, I picture them all with sharply-contoured facial expressions and inhabiting a sharply shadowed, edgy world.
Shadow (the name fits the mood, doesn't it?) is released from prison and goes home to Indiana only to find that his wife has been killed in an accident. Unsure of what to do and with nothing to lose, he takes a job as an errand boy for a mysterious man named Wednesday. Shadow soon finds himself mixed up in a war between the dying "old gods" of traditional world cultures, and the "new gods" that are replacing them, represented by various anthropomorphic embodiments of the Media.
Overall, an interesting idea, but the greater pulpy feel rubbed me the wrong way, possibly due to mere personal tastes. I found the prose repetitive and tiresome: a character's every movement is described in great detail--to make up for the fact that this isn't a "graphic novel" with illustrations? A character takes a bite, chews, swallows, puts down the sandwich, wipes his mouth, picks it up again...really? What is the purpose of inflating a book in this manner, with all that meaningless detail? There are also some overly-gruesome scenes whose presence can only be explained by the physical shock value, as they fail to propel or be relevant to the story. These too I could have done without. Glad to be finished.
Book Review: Either They Exist or They Don't
Summary: 4 Stars
Interesting subject, but the treatment leaves a juvenile taste. The old pantheon is quite well delineated. The new group of gods are victims of poor profiling.
This is one of the few books in the genre which does not make strong distinctions between good and evil. i am reminded of Miyazaki animations where an evil character can do good things and vice versa.
Humans are petty, and so are gods. But both exist and are in harmony without any proselyting. Neither group takes the other very seriously. maybe all religion including atheism should be like this.
I wish Richard Dawkins would read this book, and then other and earlier science fiction, although the thread is not easily self-evident.
Although the style is stiffling and rather inadequate, the story line is strong and carries you through to the end quite quickly and without skipping.
The huge amount of physical discomfort due to the weather, the geography, the structures, the vehicles and the lack of sufficient clothing reduces the ease of empathy. I could only identify with my friends of many years, the old gods. As for the new ones of Mr. Gaiman, the ones i struggle with in my mundane life are much better defined.
It is neither dark enough nor comical enough to be called 'dark comedy'. It really is no "Barton Fink."
I also found it somewhat too American. For someone who is not very familiar with American life and culture, the book will be definitely less enjoyable, and would get fewer stars from a global perspective.
Also, it is definitely not for the 'monster hunter' or 'good monster/bad monster' readers.
Book Review: Great premise, poor delivery
Summary: 2 Stars
The idea that gods and other mythological figures walk amongst us is clever and creative. It is a good premise for a story, and one expects that this book takes advantage of that premise to the fullest. Unfortunately, Neil Gaiman's "American Gods" fails on many levels.
The introduction is good and succeeds in pulling the reader in. In fact, the good introduction is the only reason I actually finished the book in the first place. Dude gets out of jail and has nowhere to go until he meets a stranger who somehow knows who he is and gets hired as a bodyguard of sorts. It is in fact more interesting than I make it sound here.
After that a bunch of stuff happens and the book ends eventually. Of course, there is a twist at the end and nothing was what it appeared to be throughout the book, but I didn't care because nothing was ANYTHING in the book. The various characters, locations, and actions are so vaguely explained during the course of the book that when they turned out to be something else at the end I wasn't surprised at all. The author never took the time to solidify the characters, and, instead of adding to the "mystery", the lack of solidity destroyed the opportunity to create an effective twist or surprise. Nearly every person in this book is a god, or supernatural in some way. Wouldn't normal people start to notice these things? And the "missing people" in the one community were so obviously sacrifices that I didn't care when it was finally revealed.
Long story short, this book is just adult novel trash. Anyone who thinks this is a "heavy read" should read some Neal Stephenson and then take another look.
Book Review: The unusual usual
Summary: 4 Stars
I liked this book. Gaiman has a way of making the unusual seem usual. It bothered me a bit because I know people who believe in gods exactly as Gaiman describes them. And after reading the book I'm guessing a lot of that came from Gaiman. I've spent much of my time rejecting the notion of the supernatural lately and so even though the book is written as fiction, it still bothered me a bit. But I was able to overlook that dissatisfaction enough to enjoy the book.
The book centers on Shadow, a man who's life is changed when he is released from prison early after his wife is killed in an accident. As he's dealing with his grief, a man offers him a job. Shadow doesn't want to do anything more than put his wife to rest, but instead he's caught up in a story and a world that he never imagined existed.
Parts of the book are just fantastic. The description and the characters in Lakeside, a town Shadow hides out in later in the book, made this book for me. I could see Lakeside in my mind and it was a place that I wanted to visit. It was that perfect small-town where things really aren't perfect, but it's still beautiful and moving, even in the midst of tragedy. If I could imagine a perfect place to live (minus the murders), it would be there.
I also loved the bit with Anubis, Bast, and (I'm drawing a blank on the other god, Osiris?) in Memphis, Michigan (I think?) running the funeral parlor.
Overall the story was great. It took me a little bit longer to get into, but under normal circumstances I don't think it would have been as difficult. And once it captured me towards the last 100-150 pages I couldn't put it down.
Book Review: Mediocre at best
Summary: 3 Stars
I had high expectations for this book. The plot summary on the back cover seems quite promising: The gods of the "old" way (Egyptian gods, Roman gods, gods of Norse mythology, culture heroes, etc.) are battling against the gods of the "new" way (media, television, internet, etc.). As someone who feels like this culture has too much technology and too little spirituality, my interest was immediately piqued. However, the execution left much to be desired. The biggest issue I took with this book is its tendency to drag. 588 pages of tedium with a few interesting tidbits thrown in here and there. I could usually finish a book like this in a few days -- it took me two weeks because I could only read about 20 pages at a time before losing interest. Also, you may want to have a bottle of Pepto handy when you read this book. Gaiman describes every gruesome thing in intricate detail -- from the homosexual sex in the hotel, to the sex that Shadow has with the Egyptian cat goddess (bestiality perhaps??), to the maggots and other creepy-crawly things living inside Shadow's undead wife. To say I was disgusted would be an understatement. Finally, I couldn't help but roll my eyes when the true relationship between Shadow and Wednesday was finally revealed. I don't want to throw any spoilers out there, but let's just say IT'S BEEN DONE BEFORE!
To be fair, reading about the actual battle between the gods, and the history of the mythology, was very interesting. Gaiman's lengthy examination of our fixation on technology and our resulting spiritual emptiness absolutely struck a chord with me. To sum up -- great idea, not-so-great execution.