2.5 stars
I should have known better than to try another book by Gaiman after too many disappointments from him in the past. But I've read just enough good work by him to keep me coming back, hoping to strike gold again. Unfortunately, all I found here was fool's gold. Maybe that sounds harsh, considering the story was very imaginative, rich in details stemming from a myth originating in an African folktale. But here's why I think this book glitters only on the surface.

The character from the above folktale takes the form of a spider and is the spirit of all knowledge of stories. This spider--Anansi--often takes the form of a man, and that's where this book begins, with the death of Mr. Nancy, a seemingly carefree and crafty fellow. He has a son he referred to as Fat Charlie, even though Charlie had only been a bit plump for a few years before adolescence. When Mr. Nancy dies, Charlie discovers his father was the god, Anansi, whose powers were inherited by his son--not Charlie, though, but Charlie's brother, Spider, whom Charlie never knew existed. With the help of some magic, Charlie wishes to meet the brother he never knew, which is a case of being "careful what you wish for" as chaos ensues.

So far so good, with what seemed like a family drama rich in myth with magic unfolding. But despite an explanation for his behavior given later, Charlie was a bit too wimpy for a main character whom I'm supposed to root for. He has a fiancé who controls him and a boss who pushes him around and demeans him, and then a newly met brother who challenges him in other ways, and Charlie takes this treatment as his due, along with a nickname he outgrew long ago. And to make matters worse, this is about all the character development Charlie or any other characters get as this story turns into a mish mash when combining a family drama with a crime story on top of multiple fantasy elements. With so much going on, instead of the story racing forward, it crawled sideways like a crab, weaving this way and that, until eventually it tired and reached its destination. So many details, which added nothing but length to this story, bogged it down, the resolution a missed opportunity when a twist at the two-thirds mark had me hoping for more.

Did I like anything about this book? The thing I liked best which allowed me to get through it was the audiobook's narrator, Lenny Henry, who reeled off a dozen voices with ease, the pacing of his reading zipping along faster than the actual story, yet easy to understand. His performance earned five stars. I also enjoyed the myths and the twist in the story. If only the story hadn't had as many arms as Shiva, and the characters hadn't been one dimensional, it might have had a chance to come together with the characters developing into beings I could truly care about.

I really wish I could say I enjoyed this book more than I did since the author is so popular, his books and writing adored by many more people than I have fingers and toes. But I found it tedious, and I found it to be aimless too much of the time when I was aiming to be entertained by a story with depth. It is a companion book to American Gods, but can be read as a standalone. If you enjoyed other books by Gaiman, you'll probably enjoy this one, too. And I will be happy that you did, but it wasn't for me.

As with his American Gods, we are served a romp with gods among the humans. In the process we get a rich farce while a tale is spun of a mythic quest taken up by Fat Charley, set in motion by the blundering of newly discovered gods in his family. The spinning of tales and causal threads in the world is a key attribute realized for the spider god featured in this new rendition of a widespread mythic figure. The absurdities gets almost as bad as the capers attributed to Greek and Roman gods. Kafka references and comparisons with the perils of Promethius are made with a smile. We get a good dose of ghosts in the tale as well, hearkening as much to Shakespearean specters of note as to Gaiman's Coraline and Graveyard efforts. Both the gods and ghosts in the end are pretty hapless, leaving it to our human hero to clean up after their messes.

This was so much fun, and very funny in some parts. Lenny Henry's reading is outstanding and worth hearing. My favourite characters, which Henry reads perfectly, are the three elderly Caribbean ladies, nowadays weaving their spells and roasting turkeys in Florida, who operate something like the three Fates: Mrs. Callyanne Higgler, Mrs. Dunwiddy, and Mrs. Bustamonte. Highly recommend to anyone who enjoys Gaiman's sense of humour and way of telling stories.

It's the 20th century & Anansi appears to die, leaving a very confused son, who didn't realise that his dad was a god…or that he had a brother, Interesting concepts as ever, but also as ever, I struggles to stay the least bit interested in the story.. despite blazing through it in 2 days, which in hindsight might be part of the problem.

(B+) 76% | Good
Notes: Gets too diffuse (it's focus-loose), a lot of story-slacking, a waggish work if over-quirked, it’s fun but magic's lacking.

*Check out progress updates for detailed commentary:

Progress updates:

08/10/2023 (1) - Preamble
(1) I've just finished "American Gods," so I'm jumping right in with the sequel.
- The audiobook had no holds at my library, so there wasn't any reason to wait.
(2) Coming off a full-cast, this one's back to a single narrator.
- I think a full-cast may have spoiled me on audiobooks, but at least I can play this at 1.50x or 1.75x speed again, not needing a normal pace to identify and appreciate multiple voices.

08/10/2023 (2) - Chapters 1-7
(1) "[His mother's] postcard from Nanking told him that she certainly didn’t like what passed for Chinese food in China, and that she couldn’t wait to come back to London and eat proper Chinese food."
- This seemingly trivial quip is actually keeping right in line with "American Gods." The idea that concepts, recipes in this case, move to new countries and evolve to fit the palate of the people who live there.

08/11/2023 - Chapters 8-11
(1) I recall this not being my cup of tea the first time I read it. I haven't really changed my opinion. Though, I will say the narrator's excellent, and makes this a more entertaining experience.
- In particular, Lenny Henry's Caribbean patois really brings a lot of flavor and liveliness to the proceedings.
- His American accent isn't exactly seamless, but better than the usual British actor playing American.

08/12/2023 - Chapters 12-14
(1) There's a running joke about a lime that I didn't get when I read this years ago, and I only sort of get now.
- Best I see it, the lime represents something entirely mundane that is seen as special and significant on the fictional island of Saint Andrews simply because the locals treat it as such. Belief equals reality.
- The problem is the lime is manifestly not special, someone just picked it off a tree.

Fat Charlie learns that not only was his father a god but he has a brother named Spider and the story take of. Eh well it was an okay book to listen to, liked some parts more then others but have a rather lukewarm feeling towards the book and feels rather forgettable. Already forgetting some of it even though I finished it earlier today.

Ναι, ο Gaiman μας μεταφέρει και πάλι στον κόσμο του American Gods όμως εδώ σταματούν οι ομοιότητες στα δύο βιβλία.
Όσο κι αν μου άρεσε το American Gods, το Anansi Boys κέρδισε στα σημεία. Είναι απίστευτα ανάλαφρο και κεφάτο βιβλίο, το οποίο κυλάει νεράκι.
Η υπόθεση μου άρεσε πολύ, είναι έξυπνη, σπαρταριστή με πλοκή γρήγορη και έξυπνες ανατροπές. Ο ήρωας είναι σκέτος goofy και αξιολάτρευτος. Επίσης ναι, έχει και φαντάσματα τα οποία λατρεύω στις ιστορίες. Όποιος διάβασε το Αmerican gods και δεν του άρεσε, ας μην βιαστεί να απορρίψει το Anansi boys, είναι από τα βιβλία που δεν αφήνεις εύκολα από τα χέρια σου.

(B+) 76% | Good
Notes: Little transition between its real-world first half and its magical second half. Its story gets all wishy-washy at the end.

a great follow up to American Gods

I agree with many of the reviewers who praise this fun and inventive novel, but I am especially fascinated by how Gaiman represents race in Anansi Boys. He chooses not to explicitly identify that his globe-trotting main characters are black until at least p. 32 (if I'm mistaken, somebody please let me know) and only then as a point-of-fact that is secondary to their status as gods. It is true that anyone who has read American Gods or heard traditional African folktales will have met Anansi before, but even here the story emphasizes the cultural distinctiveness of the Caribbean island where this Anansi lives without employing heavy racial signifiers. (This isn't the same as being "race-neutral" - whatever that means! - and the white characters are identified as such.) At first I thought it was odd, then really interesting and a thoughtful way to put Anansi and his fellow gods on equal footing with other cultural myths and legends. Toni Morrison experiments with this in "Recitatif" and Paradise, but it is nice to see the technique employed in unexpected places. The story is also influenced by Zora Neale Hurston's work, which is cool. While I still like American Gods better, this is a great read. It's also hilarious - see one of the quotes I saved below.

As enjoyable as the first time.

That is to say, I fell head over heels in love with the idea of stories within stories taking over, of the god of stories, Anansi, passing on his gift of the gab -- a little joy, humor, and sexiness -- into the wide world.

For those of us who know America Gods, this is not a direct sequel even if it carries on a few characters. The real treat is in the story.

I was fooled the first time I read this. I was wondering just how Fat Charlie, a little ponce who gets walked all over, would come into his own. It was so grounded, so funny when he first discovered Spider, that I could very well have just ridden these interactions all the way to the end and would have been happy. A somewhat normal resolution.

Thankfully, the book spun us around and gave us some fully foreshadowed brilliant reveals that changed the entire nature of the book. I love it when this kind of thing gets pulled off. And it's Gaiman. So a little trust IS warranted.

I miss Gaiman's adult work. I've loved all of his adult work so much more than his YA, with a possible exception of Coraline. I loved Coraline very much. But it's the full adult wonkiness that I prefer, and this one kicked ass.

No, it's not American Gods. But it is its own beast, or arachnid, and that is way more than enough for me.

Previously Goodreads listed this book as “Anansi Boys (American Gods #2)”, this has since been fixed by Raven the ace GR librarian. Anyway, Anansi Boys is not American Gods #2, the character Anansi does, however, appears in  American Gods (as Mr. Nancy) so the two books are related but there is no need to read one to follow the other.

Anansi Boys is about Anansi’s two sons, the absence of an apostrophe-S after Anansi’s name notwithstanding. The first one we are introduced to is Charles Nancy, usually called “Fat Charlie” in spite of not being fat. The other is called Spider who is a god and can do magic. When Spider enters Fat Charlie’s life he promptly turns it upside down because that is the sort of guy he is:

“He would not have recognized guilt if he had an illustrated guide to it with all the component parts clearly labeled. It was not that he was feckless, more that he had simply not been around the day they handed out feck.”

Basically, Spider moves into Charlie’s apartment, steals his fiancé, unintentionally gets him in trouble with the law and causing him to lose his job. He does all this by impersonating Charlie without even bothering to look like him; he is just amazingly persuasive. Charlie’s attempt to get rid of him backfires and exponentially exacerbates the situation. It leads to a bird goddess sending massive flocks of multi-species birds after them, and a tiger-god coming after their blood for the alleged sins of their father.

Anansi from the American Gods TV series

Anansi Boys is a tremendously fun wild ride. It is not as complex or nuanced as  American Gods but, for my money, it is more fun. As always, Gaiman is overflowing with ideas and his prose tend to have a light, whimsical touch that often made me laugh (out loud even). He is a dab hand at characterization, the book’s main antagonist Graham Coats is absatively particularly vivid and hilarious but also very dangerous. Anansi himself is based on a popular West African folklore character, a fun-loving trickster god who loves to steal other gods’ stories and make them his own; hence Gaiman’s theme of the power of storytelling, which he connects to the theme of storytelling through music. I love the musical references in this book, after I read a certain chapter I suddenly had an irresistible urge to listen to Under The Boardwalk, which I have not heard for years, what a lovely, evocative song (even though I’ve never been under one). The prose style of this book is generally lighthearted and humorous but Gaiman switches into a fable or folklore style when the narrative is told from a god’s point of view.

Anansi Boys is not objectively better than  American Gods, which is indeed great, but I personally enjoy it more and it is my favorite Gaiman book.


Notes:
• Here Neil Gaiman explains that Anansi Boys is not a sequel to American Gods. Thank you Raven for the link.

• Besides being inspired by African Folklore Gaiman also seems to have been inspired by Terry Pratchett’s witches books. There are several comical witches in this book.

• There was a radio play adaptation of Anansi Boys in 2005 which Gaiman hated as it was abridged into a one hour play! This led him to write his own movie screenplay. Hopefully there will be a movie one day.
Anansi Boys is not objectively better than  American Gods, which is indeed great, but I personally enjoy it more and it is my favorite Gaiman book.

Quotes:
“Daisy looked up at him with the kind of expression that Jesus might have given someone who had just explained that he was probably allergic to bread and fishes, so could He possibly do him a quick chicken salad: there was pity in that expression, along with almost infinite compassion.”

“Some hats can only be worn if you’re willing to be jaunty, to set them at an angle and to walk beneath them with a spring in your stride as if you’re only a step away from dancing. They demand a lot of you.”

“He had arrived , at the age of ten , with an American accent , which he had been relentlessly teased about , and had worked very hard to lose , finally extirpating the last of the soft consonants and rich Rs while learning the correct use and placement of the word innit . He had finally succeeded in losing his American accent for good as he had turned sixteen , just as his schoolfriends discovered that they needed very badly to sound like they came from the ’ hood .”

“Of course , everyone’s parents are embarrassing . It goes with the territory . The nature of parents is to embarrass merely by existing , just as it is the nature of children of a certain age to cringe with embarrassment , shame , and mortification should their parents so much as speak to them on the street .”

Fat Charlie and Spider