A delight (& the first of Gaiman's books that I've read to get the full ***** from me)! It's got that outrageous "Freaky Friday"/Prince & the Pauper narrative; Britishisms a-la Evelyn Waugh; and a peck of Douglas Adams's brand of whimsy (this is infinitely better than Hitchhiker's Guide, & much better than the author's own Stardust AND Neverwhere). It's adorably Beetlejuician! What's not to like, huh?

Okay, Anansi Boys. You did it; I am officially a Neil Gaiman fan. 4 1/2 stars

This companion novel to the wildly popular American Gods follows Charlie Nancy, son of Anansi: teller of tales, commander of spiders, and infamous trickster (also a God). Charlie, known to most as “Fat Charlie”, lives a rather ordinary life, up until his father dies and his infinitely cooler brother, Spider, shows up at this doorstep. From there is a tale of magic and murder, songs and stories.

This is the book that really made it clear for me just how much of a masterful storyteller Gaiman is. His scenes, his word choice, his tiny details that make the story feel rich and real: all of it is a wonder to behold, leaving me to ponder as to how Gaiman is able to make a story flow with such ease.

This is also a story that celebrates the art of storytelling and the art of song. The way stories shape and connect is a huge theme within the text:

n  n    Stories are like spiders, with all they long legs, and stories are like spiderwebs, which man gets himself all tangled up in but which look so pretty when you see them under a leaf in the morning dew, and in the elegant way that they connect to one another, each to each.
...
People take on the shapes of the songs and the stories that surround them, especially if they don’t have their own song.
...
Stories are webs, interconnected strand to strand, and you follow each story to the center, because the center is the end. Each person is a strand of story.
...
“The important thing about songs is that they’re just like stories. They don’t mean a damn unless there’s people listenin’ to them.”n  n

And as much as I adore American Gods, Anansi Boys is so much better paced, being just long enough not to lose stream.

The story is also so much fun. It’s humorous, with characters quirky enough that they’re amusing, but not so strange as to be unbelievable (I was particularly entertained by Rosie’s mother).

n  n    Fat Charlie wondered what Rosie’s mother would usually hear in a church. Probably just cries of “Back! Foul beast of Hell!” followed by gasps of “Is it alive?” and a nervous inquiry as to whether anybody had remembered to bring the stakes and hammers.
...
“That was my plan,” said Spider. “But then I met you. I cannot believe that we have let almost an entire lifetime go by without each other’s company, my brother.”
“I can.”
“The ties of blood,” said Spider, “are stronger than water.”
“Water’s not strong,” objected Fat Charlie.n  n

To conclude, I had an absolute blast reading this story. You don’t have to read this one before or after American Gods, though I would say this one is much more approachable.

Anyway, I’m off to binge the rest of Neil Gaiman’s works and then be immeasurably sad once I’ve run out...

I really can’t decide if I like Neil Gaiman. So far I’ve read a few of his books and they are missing something that I just can’t seem to put my finger on. I think what I’ve come to discover is that this is one of the rare instances that I prefer an authors movies more than the books they write.

At one point around 80% in I almost just put the book down to wander off into something else never to return to it. But it seemed silly to read almost all of a book and not finish.



But I finished and while I did enjoy the beginning of the book (except for in one chapter I think it used the term Fat Charlie 607 times), I liked the end of the book even if it took awhile to pull it all together. What was muddled is some of the stuff in the middle. This is like a modern day folk tale but again I’m missing some connection that I’m supposed to have with the characters.

However, I did like learning how Anasi stories are like the ones that Disney told in Song of the South about a very clever rabbit that gets the better of those around him using trickery.

So far for Neil Gaimen I’ve decided to wait for the movie.

Kao što napisah ranije tokom čitanja, knjiga mi je godinama stajala na polici. Valjda sam iz nekog razloga mislio da mi se neće dopasti. I baš sam pogrešio.
S jedne strane, neopravdano je skupljala prašinu.
S druge strane, drago mi je što sam je tek sada pročitao, jer me je podsetila kakav je Gejmen bio pre nego što je upao u mašinu za mlevenje priča u pare (Okean koji se pisan tako da, ako je moguće, bude adaptiran u film, ili nesrećna Trigger Warning, koja je, uz svega par izuzetaka, kao zbirka književnih otpadaka).
Sjajna priča, virtuozno napisana, vrcavo, lagano, dinamično - kako je to već Gejmen umeO.

Given how much I disliked American Gods (see my review for the whys and wherefores), I did not expect to like this novel. Yet friends assured me that it was very different from that first novel, so different in fact that while they had praised AG and fawned over it, they were largely indifferent to this one. So naturally, I really enjoyed it.

There are some plot twists that I found insufferably cliched or obnoxious, but those aside, I greatly appreciated what Gaiman tried to do here. I'm a fan of trickster gods, so this fit me like a slipper. And the fact that I didn't have to go through here kvetching about all the insulting reductionist depictions of certain mythologies or cultures (the way I did throughout AG)... Well, i really appreciated that.

My only real qualm about the book is that...well...everyone except "Fat Charlie", Daisy & Tiger really comes across as selfish and hateful. Even the love-interest. Every last person other than those three characters is utterly unlikable. And really, while I could relate to "Fat Charlie" on a lot of levels, I found Tiger to be the most sympathetic out of all of them. Which should not be the case. We are clearly not supposed to sympathize with Tiger, who embodies murder, destruction, humourlessness and cruelty, and I yet I did throughout the entire novel.

So again, not a perfect novel, and I'd even say it's not one of Gaiman's better works, but I enjoyed it a thousand times more than "American Gods" and it can be read as a stand-alone novel without missing anything, really. A good, fun, solid, quick read.



POST-SCRIPT: Also, Lenny Henry's reading is INCREDIBLE. The man's one of my favorite actors and I'm pleased to learn he's an incredible reader as well.

"Well, this book was FUN, GREAT and WEIRD. Gaiman uses weird to bring out the humour in his writing with great effect.

The weird - Back in yesteryear Tiger (yes, the animal) owned all of the stories, jokes and the moon and stars. Through trickery Spider (AKA Mr. Anansi) stole ownership, therefore, becoming the sole being allowed to spread and enhance said stories and jokes.

The story is of Fat Charlie Anansi, the man whose Father acquired the stories. He lives a mundane life in London with a girlfriend who is withholding sex until they are married and a boring 9 - 5 job. All of this changes when he finds out he has a long-lost brother who calls himself Spider.

Spider comes to stay and causes all sorts of havoc, turning Charlie's life upside down in a matter of days. But Spider is more than
a mere mortal, here is a magical being that can do more than anybody realizes and he uses his skills to gain what he wants, when he wants and to hell with who stands in the way. This time it is Charlie and although Spider is the brother he never knew he had, it is just a quick few days before he never wants to see him again.

I do hope my story outline makes no sense as that is how this book proceeds. Not that it does not make any sense in its flow but just that it is WEIRD, WEIRD and STRANGE. Oh and so much fun. If this has made little sense to you then I urge you to read this book as it will become clear - but only after you have encountered talking animals, shamans, white collar crime, pleasant ghosts, single-minded police, magic, hexes, bird phobias and so much more.

Gaiman has a new fan!"

Read this as part of 2018 Ultimate Reading Challenge, Category: "A bestseller".

Buddy Read with Nami.

Neil Gaiman has a very distinct way of narrating a story. Some people may like it and some people may not. The first ever book I read by Gaiman left me slightly confused. But the more I read Gaiman the more I love his writing. So for me, I had to develop a taste for his writing and now I absolutely savor it.

I thought this is a sequel to American Gods but I couldn't be more wrong. This book is a complete book on it's own and can be read independently. Every story that I have read from Gaiman is distinct but this book has a similar premise as American Gods but it's still very different.

n  n    "Songs remain. They last. The right song can turn an emperor into a laughingstock, can bring down dynasties. A song can last long after the events and the people in it are dust and dreams and gone. That's the power of songs."n  n

This story is an urban fantasy about African god Anansi who is known as the god of stories and mischief. Not much background is given about the folklore around Anansi but it focuses more on Anansi in today's world by taking the folklore's as a base for his character.

The experience of reading this book is like looking through a thick glass, where you can make sense of things in your head but can't really articulate what sense it made!

I will definitely recommend this to readers who want to read a good fantasy or readers who are bored with run of the mill YA fantasies and want to try something different.

Neil Gaiman siempre me da lecturas placenteras.

En Los hijos de Anansi encontramos esa mezcla de realidad, dioses interactuando con la humanidad, fantasmas y tramas por momentos detectivescas que le dan al libro una dinámica que lo hace muy ameno.

En la construcción de los personajes, Gaiman nos hace pasar por la risa, la pena, el enojo, la ansiedad, nos acerca a unos y nos hace indignar con otros. En este texto en particular encontré reminiscencias de El libro del Cementerio, de American Gods, de Sandman.

Hay mundos entramados que nos invitan a viajar de un plano hacia otro y esto complejiza un argumento que a primera vista puede parecer muy sencillo: el encuentro de dos hermanos después de la muerte de Anansi, su padre, el dios araña.

This was a fun read.

I'm not sure where I got the idea, but I was under the impression that this was a series with American Gods. The only connection is that Anansi makes an appearance in American Gods, but the books have nothing to do with each other. And on that note, I will admit that I was a little apprehensive about this one because American Gods was just so-so for me. Well, Anansi Boys made up for it because this was a thoroughly enjoyable read.

With a Father who wears yellow gloves, a green fedora, sings karaoke, and, oh yeah, is a God, Fat Charlie Anasi shares the loss of his father with his newly discovered brother, Spider. Together, with their inherited gifts, they journey through a labyrinth of mythological beasts, psychotic bosses and Mother-in-laws.

There have been some Gaiman books along the way of my reading path that left me disappointed, but this is one of those with a writing mastery that keeps me coming back. This is one of those that I could honestly recommend to anyone.

I felt like a re-listen of this story, and enjoyed it all over again. Fat Charlie is so uncomfortable in his own skin and so bumbling and well-meaning, and Spider's cool and laid back and here today, gone tomorrow, until he finally finds something to care about. I enjoyed this story all over again, loving the voices of Fat Charlie, Anansi, Maeve and Daisy. Graham Coates is just as ferretty and awful as I remembered ("Absi-tively!").

Dünya mitolojisini çok iyi bilen ve harika bir yazar olan Neil Gaiman, bu kez okurları, başlangıçta tüm öykülerin sahibi olan Kaplan-Tanrı ile bu öyküleri ondan çalan ve şarkılarla dünyayı daha güzel ve huzurlu kılan Örümcek-Tanrı (Anansi) arasındaki düşmanlığın doğuşuna götürüyor.

Kaplan'ın korkunç ve kaba kuvvete dayanan öykülerini zeka, kurnazlık ve mizahla değiştiren Anansi, bu husumeti (ne yazık ki) çocuklarına da miras bırakıyor. İyiler ve kötüler bu düşmanlıkta taraflarını seçerek gizemli, biraz karanlık, fakat kesinlikle gülünç maceralara atılıyorlar.

Bu kitabı okuduktan sonra örümceklere farklı bir gözle bakacak, hatta belki ara sıra onlarla konuşacaksınız!

(14.07.2014)

Lo stile di Gaiman è impareggiabile! Anche nei momenti di tensione, c'è sempre una sfumatura ironica che ti fa sorridere. La storia è particolare, talvolta al limite dell'inverosimile, per via del "doppio" protagonista, ma non delude mai e ti tiene attento e con tanta voglia di continuare la lettura. Tanti i dettagli che non annoiano mai, con un mondo fantastico che si intreccia con quello reale. Un pò lento all'inizio, ma poi all'altezza delle attese. Quasi meglio di American Gods e molto meno cupo e impegnativo.