American Gods: Book and Amazon series fail to impress
Originally posted at Fantasy Literature
Gaiman has a huge and enthusiastic following, so I figure there must be good reason for that. I really enjoyed his SANDMAN comic series as well as his books The Graveyard Book, Stardust, and Ocean at the End of the Lane a few years back. However, my first impression of Neverwhere was that it seemed to go nowhere despite a magical London setting, and the meandering plot and fizzling ending of American Gods was a major disappointment considering how many awards the book won.

However, since moving to London I’ve been on journey to rediscover what fans love about Gaiman’s work, and after listening to Good Omens, Neverwhere, and Anansi Boys, I gave the full-cast of American Gods another chance. Moreover, I discovered that Amazon had produced an original 8-part miniseries recently, so I thought this would be another angle to explore.

The conceit that all gods old and new rise and fall depending on the number and intensity of their followers is neat. Setting that on a road trip across small-town middle America is even more enticing, and constantly hinting that an epic battle of old and new gods is brewing builds a lot of anticipation on the readers’ part.

But what we actually get is a very episodic story that introduces dozens of characters representing old gods from a host of different mythologies, including Norse, Egyptian, Afro-Caribbean, Germanic, Native American, and others. Despite all these enticing ingredients, the final dish just didn’t deliver. In particular, the main character Shadow is a cipher, a brooding and melancholy ex-con who comes out of jail only to discover his wife recently dead in a car crash. Cut adrift, he reluctantly accepts the offer to be bodyguard and muscle for a shifty old grifter named Mr. Wednesday. This provides the vehicle for Englishman Gaiman to explore a series of small-town settings and characters and explore the heart of America. As others have observed, he does a decent job capturing this essence, both the fundamental decency of folks and also the deteriorating economic conditions that face many small towns.

What is painfully lacking is a forward-moving plot to build momentum from these side-trip adventures as Mr. Wednesday visits a series of his allies and cronies while committing grifts and cons along the way, something I think Gaiman feels is a very American tradition. It seems like Shadow is forever getting caught and facing death only to be saved at the eleventh hour by another ‘deus ex plotica’ (my own invention), and then hopping back in the car for the next encounter. We finally learn the overarching plot in the closing acts, and it sheds light on the actions of Mr. Wednesday and his cronies, but after all the build-up about the ultimate battle between old gods and new, it was a huge let-down.

Another aspect that just didn’t work for me was the surprisingly explicit sex and steady stream of profanity. I’m hardly a delicate snowflake, but I didn’t see what this really added to the story. I almost felt that he deliberately ratcheted this up to give the book a more ‘gritty Americana’ feel. That might work for a book dedicated to the dark underbelly of America like the books of James Ellroy, but it didn’t seem to fit this story.

I listened to the 10th Anniversary full-cast audiobook edition, which includes 12,000 additional words and is the author’s preferred text. The various voice actors do excellent work and even Gaiman himself adds some narration and his voice is very charming. I just wish it were in the service of a better story.

As for the Amazon series, its certainly in the recent mold of original streaming series like HBO’s Game of Thrones and Netflix’s Altered Carbon. There is a lot of intense and bloody violence, profanity, and sex/nudity galore. It’s clear that producers for these shows have greater license to show and say what they want, and also are allowed to stray quite far from the original source material, like Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle. The 8 episodes of Season 1 of American Gods, start out with Gaiman’s source material and storyline, but expand the back stories of the many of the side-stories that gave the book its very episodic road-trip feel. The cinematography is excellent, and the actors do good work, especially Ian McShane as the wily and wizened Mr. Wednesday.

As you can guess from it being labeled Season 1, there is of course a Season 2 that has already been commissioned, though the directors of Season 1 have left due to creative differences with the studio, so the new season may have a different feel. In any case, the drama basically highlighted the flaws of the book in my opinion, namely the glaring omission of the Christian God and Jesus Christ, who by any measure are the dominant religious figures in the US.

While Jesus Christs (yes, plural) make an appearance in the drama series unlike the book, it is very peripheral and doesn’t address the basic concept of the story - that gods come into existence and derive their power from the number of believers. If that is the case, then all the obscure and ancient gods should be more like mosquitos (how many people do you know that worship Odin or Bast or the Anansi these days). Where are Jesus, Muhammad, Jehovah, Buddha, etc, who should by rights be infinitely more powerful than these minor dieties and crush them like bugs with a glance. Instead Gaiman gives us Techno Boy and Mr. World as the main examples of New Gods, but I never bought that conceit. So revisiting the story just highlighted this fundamental flaw once again.

I’ve read a lot of divided opinion about American Gods - some readers love it and consider it Gaiman’s best book, and others were unimpressed like me. Some have suggested that his most iconic work is his 76-volume SANDMAN comic epic, and I would agree with that. Now there is both the book and miniseries to compare and form your own opinions.

I first read American Gods in the early aughts. While I did like it, I was disappointed and underwhelmed. Considering the subject matter, I was looking for something loud and epic. Instead, I found an understated protagonist in a story that, for all its inventiveness, was slow, meandering, and digressive. I gave it a three star review that noted my disappointment.

Nearly twenty years later, I’ve now experienced the story in multiple formats, and reevaluate my original take. Upon hearing that it was to be turned into a television series, I reread the story as an audiobook. I watched the series. I read the graphic novel adaptation. I’ve come to understand that my original disappointment was based in a fundamental misunderstanding of what the book was.

Despite its setup, American Gods is not about an epic confrontation between Old Gods and New. Rather, it is a mythic road trip across America, On The Road with the Old Gods. It’s in the tradition of Huck Finn traveling with the Duke and Dauphin, not Frodo’s journey to Mordor. What I missed that first time around was that it was the journey, not the destination, that was the point.


The following is my original review:

My three star rating of American Gods is reflective of the ambivalence I feel toward it. I enjoyed reading it, and found it a real page-turner. The concept was fascinating and the mythological elements were interesting and clever in their American guises. So what's the problem? It is akin to the old chestnut about eating Chinese food - after devouring 600 plus pages of Mr. Gaiman's novel I found that I was still hungry, still unsatisfied despite the tastiness of Gaiman's talent.

The problem is that I was expecting an epic. The book's subject matter, length, awards, and reviews all scream epic. I was expecting something deep, meaningful, and memorable. Gaiman's writing talent teased me nearly all the way through that this was indeed what I was reading, yet it never quite delivered. Instead of a memorable epic, what I finally discovered in American Gods was a well-written and enjoyable pulp novel that felt much closer to a particularly well done Stephen King story than it did to an important mythological epic.

I did enjoy reading American Gods. Neil Gaiman is a talented writer, and if you are a fan, you will probably want to read it as well. But be warned to limit your expectations. Despite its length and hype, this book is not an epic, mythic or otherwise. File this one on your bookshelf beside King's The Stand rather than putting it beside Tolkien, Joseph Campbell, or Jung.

Long ago I've watched the TV adaptation of this book, but didn't finished it. So I've decided to read the book instead. Cos books usually better than their adaptations. It was a mistake. The novel turned out to be even more boring (TV series at least had some hypnotizing dark atmosphere). The plot is tedious and predictable, characters are annoying and repulsive. Although t has some interesting stuff about immigration and American identity, it wasn't enough to make the book exiting.

"لم يحدث قط أن اندلعت حرب حقيقة لم يخضها فريقان كلاهما موقن بأن الحق معه. أشد الناس خطرًا يؤمنون بأنهم إنما يفعلون ما يفعلونه -فقط وليس إلا- لأنه صواب لا ريب فيه، وهذا ما يجعلهم خطرين."

تحمل رواية "آلهة أمريكية" فكرة جذابة، بمُقدمة مشوقة؛ حيث يجد "شادو مون" نفسه في سلسلة من الأحداث المُفاجئة، التي تضع السيد الأربعاء في طريقه، ليعرض عليه وظيفة لا يُمكن رفضها بعدما خسر كل شيء كان يتطلع إليه بعد خروجه من السجن، وبأسوأ الطرق المُمكنة، لا زوجة، ولا صديق، ولا شيء، فما الذي سيضره لو وافق على تلك الوظيفة؟ صحيح أن الأربعاء شخصية غامضة، وغريبة، ولكن ما البديل المتاح لديه؟ البكاء على أطلال حياة سابقة؟ الندم والحسرة؟ لا هو لم يخرج من السجن من أجل ذلك، وخصوصاً بعد ما اكتشفه عن القريبين منه.

وعندما يظن "شادو" أنه سيحظى بحياة بها شيء من العادية، يجد نفسه يخوض تجربة غرائبية وفلسفية ومُعقدة، بل والأشد، أنه في وسط حرباً بين كيانين يُريد كل جانب أن يمحو الأخر، هناك أحاديث عن عاصفة قادمة، ويبدو أن العاصفة تلك ستفتك بالعديدين، فإلى أي جانب يقف؟ الحق؟ الخير؟ ألا يظن الجميع أنهم في جانب الحق؟ تلك خدعة الحرب.

ثم بعد هذه المقدمة المشوقة والجذابة بشكلاً ما، ندخل في سلسلة من الأحداث الشحيحة، والأساطير، والجنون، خيال وفانتازيا وآلهة، الكثير من الآلهة، و"نيل جايمان" لم يُقصر في هذا الجانب، ولكن جاء التقصير في سلاسة الأحداث، ومعناها، وأهميتها، وجاذبيتها، فالرواية التي تتعدى حاجز الـ 600 صفحة، احتوت على فصول عديدة من الملل، أحداث غير جذابة، ولا يُفهم غايتها، رُبما بعد النهاية تتضح صورتها، ولكن ليس في أفضل صورة أيضاً. ونظل نستمر في هذه السلسلة حتى آخر مائة صفحة، حينها تتحسن الأمور تدريجياً، وتُقفل الحكايات وتُحل الألغاز –ليس دائماً بطريقة مقنعة كفصل النهاية الأخير مثلاً-، واهتم "نيل جايمان" أن يُغلق جميع الخطوط، وذلك ما قدرته بشكلاً ما، ولكنه لم يكن كافياً، بكل تأكيد لم يكن كافياً.

صنع "نيل جايمان" عالماً من الآلهة، حرب تحمل فلسفة بين الآلهة القديمة الذي ترك البشر عبادتها، من أجل آلهة جديدة براقة وجذابة، أصبح البشر يُسبحون بفضلها، آلهة التليفزيون والانترنت ووسائل التواصل الاجتماعي، آلهة غيبت الناس عن عبادة الآلهة القديمة، وكما شرح "الأربعاء" أنه عندما قل عبادة البشر لهم، ضعفت قوتهم، ولما يكتفوا بذلك، بل قررت الآلهة الجديدة أن تمحو الآلهة القديمة من الوجود، وعندما استشعر "الأربعاء" هذا الخطر، قرر أن يستبقهم ويحاربهم.
فكرة جذابة وفلسفية، وساخرة عن الآلهة التي هاجرت من بلدها الأم لتعيش في أمريكا، رمزية واضحة عن أن أمريكا بلد الفرص الثانية، وأنه يُمكنك أن تُصبح قوياً بداخلها، حتى لو كنت ضعيفاً مُهاناً خارجها، فأمريكا تحمل فلسفة خاصة بها، وتحمل "براند" باسمها، يُسمى بالحرية. ذلك ما تُريد أمريكا نشره والسيطرة على عقول المهاجرين والمواطنين على السواء به، ومما نرى، نستطيع القول إنها تنجح في ذلك كل يوم.
ولكن مشكلة الخيال والعالم الذي صنعه "جايمان" والذي جعلنا نهتم بما يحدث عوضاً عما يرمز إليه، هو أنه لم يكن مُتقناً، عندما تبني عالماً يجب أن تكون القواعد محكومة، وإلا أن أي شخصية سيكون باستطاعتها أن تقوم بأي شيء، وحرفياً ذلك ما حدث! لا يوجد قواعد وقوانين وهيكل يحكم كل عمليات القتل التي جرت، وما تلت عمليات القتل والموت أيضاً، بدلاً من أن نستغل عشرات الصفحات المُملة في شرح قواعد وقوانين عما يجري، وجدنا أحداث مملة لا تقود لشيء يُمكن هضمه وفهمه، وبالطبع عندما يحدث كل ذلك، تجد اللامنطقية تحكم أحداث كثيرة، ومؤثرة، أحداث كبيرة كان من المُفترض أن تكون كشفاً عظيماً، أو إلتواءة مُفاجئة، ولكن لا تشعر بأي شيء، كأنك تأكل وجبة فاخرة جميلة، الطعام يلمع ومظهره براق، ولكنه دون أي طعم!

أما عن الترجمة، لا مجال لإنكار مجهودات "هشام فهمي" الهائلة والعظيمة، وليس فقط في الترجمة، ولكن في توضيح كل المعاني المُلتبسة، التي قد تساعدنا في فهم واستقبال الرواية، اهتمام بالألفاظ والتعبيرات، التعامل مع الآلهة الكثيرة وشرح خلفياتها، مما يُبين لك الحجم الذي قابله المترجم في صياغة كل ذلك، بالإضافة للملحق الأخير الذي احتوى شروحات أكثر عن بعض المعاني في سياق الرواية، لولا وجوده، لكانت الحيرة والتشتت أكبر، بسبب عدد الآلهة وخلفياتها بداخل الرواية.
ولكن، عندي نقطة خلاف كبيرة، تتحملها دار النشر "عصير الكتب" والكاتب "نيل جايمان"، فعند أحد المشاهد بداخل الرواية، وجدت تنويه بأنه طلباً من دار النشر، حُذف جزء من المشهد! والأنكى أن الكاتب قد وافق! فلا أستطيع تقبل الوصاية التي قامت به "عصير الكتب" على القراء وأنه يُمكن لها بكل عدم استحقاق أن تُمارس دور وصي أخلاقي على القارئ، ولا أستطيع تفهم موافقة الكاتب على أن يُقتص شيئاً من كتاباته مهما كان السبب الذي قد بُرر له، أو السبب الذي برره لنفسه. فطبيعة المشهد المحذوف –طبعاً اضطررت لقراءته إلكترونياً باللغة الإنجليزية- هو علاقة جنسية مثلية بين ذكرين أحد طرفيها عربي، وقبل أن تتهمني بأية اتهامات، ففي الفصل نفسه، تهكماً بشكلاً ما على الدين الإسلامي، فلماذا تُرجم ذلك؟ وحُذف ذلك؟ ناهيك عن فكرة الرواية التي تُنافي أي عقيدة في أي دين، فأنا لا اتحدث عن حقوق المثلية ولا أطالب بها، ولكني أتحدث عن حقي كقارئ وأطالب به، بالإضافة أن الرواية تحتوي على خيانة زوجية، مشاهد جنسية، مشروبات كحولية، وشخصية "بلقيس" التي تلتهم الرجال بفرجها! فلماذا لا يُحذف كل ذلك؟ ويكون العمل عبارة 10 صفحات مثلاً؟ طالما قررت الدار أن تُترجم عملاً فمن الأجدر بها أن تُترجمه كاملاً، دون قص أو ممارسة دور الوصي على القراء، وأشعر أنني أتحدث في بديهيات ومُسلمات، فعندما قرأت أن هناك جزء محذوف حنقت وشعرتُ بالغضب، ولكن غضبي الأكبر أننا ما زلنا نتحدث عن أمور هي بديهية، ومن الساذج أن نخوض فيها مراراً وتكراراً، ونقطة النور الوحيدة في كل ذلك هو تنويه المُترجم أن هناك حذفاً طال النص طلباً من الدار، فكم عملاً قرأناه وطاله الحذف ولم نعلم؟ هذا تساؤل يدعو للغثيان.

ختاماً..
رواية "آلهة أمريكية" هي تجربة لا بد من خوضها في كل الأحوال، فعلى الرغم من سلبياتها، فهناك أجزاء عديدة مُختلفة ومُتفرقة ستُمتعك، وتجعلك ترى خيالاً مجنوناً، فعندما تنظر إلى العمل بصورة أوسع، تجد أنك قرأت عملاً متوسطاً لا بأس به، يحمل أهمية تتمثل في التعرف على الثقافة الأمريكية، ولو كنت مهتماً بالميثولوجيا فهذا العمل هو ضالتك بكل تأكيد.

التقييم الفعلي: نجمتان ونصف.

This is an exceptional tale. And the idea of this tale, the central concept, might even be better than the tale itself. Yet, it’s still a masterfully-written, wonderful book, which tells you just how fantastic a concept it is. It was published in 2001 and won the 2002 Hugo and Nebula (and yes, I’m just now reading it). I read the ten-year anniversary edition with the extra 12,000 words.

Compared to Europe, America has no mythology and hardly a history. Norse mythology can be traced back to the 13th century. Sources for Irish Folklore have been dated to the 11th or 12th century, but oral history might be as old as the 6th century. Greek myths date all the way back to 18th century B.C. The central theme of American Gods is that while Europe has old, strong, powerful gods, America is not a good land for gods. Yes, immigrants brought their beliefs with them and, in a sense, created weak incantations of the European gods. You see in Gaiman’s universe, a facsimile of a European god could exist simply due to the beliefs of settlers. This backdrop allows Gaiman to create a rich story of god and god-like characters that exist solely due to worship and idolization, whether that be an incarnation of an ancient god such as Oden, or the create of a new god, such as media or technology.

The plot is that a small group of new gods (technology boy, media, and the intangibles – modern stock market worship), along with the help of Black Hats, sort of government thugs, are plotting to overthrow the old gods, who are becoming ever weaker due to fading beliefs. Our protagonist is Shadow Moon, an ex-con, who is hired by an old god, mysteriously named, “Mr. Wednesday”. Mr. Wednesday assisted by Shadow is journeying across the country to gather support of the old gods for an impending battle against the new gods. This plot allows Gaiman to explore the county and provides rich locations from “The House On the Rock” in Wisconsin, to Las Vegas, to the meatpacking yards of Chicago, and to Rock City (See Rock City!).

While Gaiman’s appreciation of the new world shows through, especially in small town America, he by no means pulls any punches concerning the vices, corruption, and depravity of America. Shadow spends time in a small Wisconsin town, which Gaiman lovingly describes, but underneath there are dark forces at work, even in this simple place. He explores the historical horrors of slavery, native American atrocities, the sex trade, as well as the modern greed and gluttony of Las Vegas and the Stock Market. I was surprised that Gaiman missed our Sports worship, as this would have made another excellent and interesting new god. So, this is no whitewashed love letter of America, but I still took away a sense of appreciation of small-town America and the amazing blend of cultures in the United States.

The journey though America and the interaction with the supernatural allowed Gaiman to fully display his mastery of language. At times the prose is almost lyrical or poetic. At others it’s purposely pedestrian and workmanlike, which creates a differentiation between the ordinary events and the mystical occurrences.

I knew this book was good, based on its awards and reputation which often leads to high expectations and disappointment for me. Well, not in this case. I enjoyed it, I admired it, and I respected it. It deserves all the awards and acclaim it received, imho. I read that Gaiman actually toured the U.S. while writing this book and that makes it even more epic in my mind. America may not have as rich, long, or complex lore, mythology, or legend as Europe, but Gaiman adds a bit to our nation’s tale. Ultimately, it’s an amazingly inventive and masterful story.

"There's never been a true war that wasn't fought between two sets of people who were certain they were in the right. The really dangerous people believe they are doing whatever they are doing solely and only because it is without question the right thing to do. And that is what makes them dangerous."

Shadow is serving out the last days of his prison sentence when he learns that his wife, Laura, has died in a car accident. Upon his journey home he encounters the mysterious Mr Wednesday who offers him a job as a bodyguard.

Okay, so American Gods and I got off to a rough start. I enjoyed the first 50 pages or so, I was intrigued, excited to see what was coming next... and then for some reason, the following 150 pages started to bore me slightly and I felt a lot of confusion as to what the actual point of the story was. BUT THEN, BUT THEN!! It really picked up and I was sucked into this world that Gaiman had created. This is why I don't DNF books - I easily could have tossed this book to the side and missed out on an incredible book.

It's quite funny how my opinions changed throughout reading this one. Initially I wasn't a fan of the random interludes with stories about how the old gods came to America, mythology is not one of my favourite things to read about. However, by the half way mark these parts became a highlight for me and I found them fascinating. The concept of a war between the old gods and the new gods (like television, internet, technology) was a really unique one and once the ball really got rolling I was fully invested in the outcome. The old gods are under threat from the new, people don't believe in them anymore, they don't make sacrifices to them, so the old gods are fading away. They need to step up to the new gods before they become completely obsolete.

One of the disappointing parts for me was the main protagonist, Shadow - I liked him, but at the same time he was just a bit...bland. It felt like he was simply there to serve the purpose of the story and he was surrounded by many characters that were a lot more interesting and charismatic than he was - but perhaps that is point?

Some of the storylines felt a bit random and disjointed throughout the course of the novel, but as they met their climax towards the end, my mind was exploding all over the place! I fucking LOVED the last 100 pages or so. I was shook on more than one occasion. I'm actually really glad that my edition had an extra American Gods-related novella called The Monarch of the Glen, because I just wasn't ready to leave this semi-fantastical world that Gaiman has created. Loved the novella!!

I ended up loving this book but had to deduct a star for the rocky start!! 4 stars.

An incredible adventure!

The American Gods/gods, like the many peoples they accompanied, arrived on this continent over the past hundreds, thousands of years. And like average people, these gods assimilated in ways large and small into their environment, some losing parts of themselves, some holding on to traces of past glory in different ways and forms. As the people assimilated their beliefs often weakened too affecting their old gods.

But change has come. Major change in the form of new beliefs, new gods, large and small, which threaten the old gods existence. And Neil Gaiman has brought us into the center of the fray, old vs new.

In what will be the first of many dream-like experiences, Shadow, central to the story and to my enjoyment, experiences the following:


Shadow was in a dark place, and the thing staring at
him wore a buffalo's head, rank and furry with huge wet
eyes. Its body was a man's body, oiled and slick.
"Changes are coming," said the buffalo without moving
his lips. "There are certain decisions that will have to
be made."
Firelight flickered from wet cave walls.
"Where am I?" Shadow asked.
"In the earth and under the earth," said the buffalo
man. "You are where the forgotten wait." His eyes were
liquid black marbles, and his voice was a rumble from
beneath the world. He smelled like wet cow. "Believe,"
said the rumbling voice. "If you are to survive, you
must believe."
"Believe what?" asked Shadow. "What should I believe?"
He stared at Shadow, the buffalo man, and he drew
himself up huge, and his eyes filled with fire. He
opened his spit-flecked buffalo mouth and it was red
inside with the flames that burned inside him, under
the earth.
"Everything," roared the buffalo man.
(loc 450)


The writing is so wonderful...Gaiman so obviously loves his task. Here Shadow is learning more about the world of the gods.


the voice spoke once more, as if it were addressing
a class, saying, "These are the gods who have passed out
of memory. Even their names are lost. The people who
worshiped them are as forgotten as their gods. Their totems
are long since broken and cast down. Their last priests
died without passing on their secrets.
"Gods die. And when they truly die they are unmourned
and unremembered. Ideas are more difficult to kill than
people, but they can be killed, in the end."
(loc 1176)


Then there are short sentences that stopped me: "Chicago happened slowly like a migraine." (1417)

And the essence of it:


"When the people came to America they brought us with
them. They brought me and Loki and Thor, Anansi and the
Lion-God, Leprechauns and Cluracans and Banshees, Kubera
and Frau Holle and Ashtaroth, and they brought you. We
rode here in their minds, and we took root. We traveled
with the settlers to the new lands across the ocean.
"The land is vast. Soon enough, our people abandoned
us, remembered us only as creatures of the old land, as
things that had not come with them to the new. Our true
believers passed on, or stopped believing, and we were
left, lost and scared and dispossessed, to get by on what
little smidgens of worship or belief we could find...
(loc 2489)


There is so much here for an interested reader, much more than I can possibly tell. If you have an interest in myths, fables, old religions and new story telling, this book may well be for you. I know it is not for everyone but those who love it, do love it. It did win me from a position of like to admire to love by the end. Thank you Mr Gaiman.

People populate the darkness; with ghosts, with gods, with electrons, with tales. People imagine, and people believe; and it is that rock solid belief, that makes things happen.”--Neil Gaiman

So, based on your seeing my rating, you can tell I didn’t love this book, which I spent all of 21 hours listening to. In part it could be explained in terms of my disinterest in this kind of fantasy/horror. Some of it is about the fact that for hours on end not much actually happens. Another dimentiosn is that many of the chacaters don’t quite come alive for me in the way I like fictional characters to do. They seem like ideas of characters rather than fully flesh and bone versions of humans. Then again, it could just have been me in this moment of reading, and it might be different if I read it again later. Maybe. I’m going to see the tv series and maybe this will help make the story come alive.At this point, first reading, I rate this 3, maybe 3.25.

But there’s at least three (okay, five) different ways of thinking of American Gods that occurred to me in the reading of this book. At least.

1)tIt is one of three epic, sweeping “road” tales focused more on the American West (as most American road tales do) than East--each of them written by a Brit!--that I have read recently, including Garth Ennis’s Preacher comics series, and Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing. These are three American love-hate tales, told by Brits. Gaiman, a mentee of Moore, has more in common with Moore than Ennis, but they are all in one central sense making moral commentaries on the American scene, travelogues of depravity and celebration and despair. All three involve the presence of the supernatural/gods/superheroes as omnipresent in American life. I much preferred Swamp Thing and Preacher to American Gods; both of them have more texture and complexity and life than American Gods. But why three Brits writing travelogues of the US of A? What is that about?!

2)tIn preparation for a class I am teaching this summer (2017) about Young Adult Graphic Novels with a focus on girls/women, I have had in my head that we are in a feminist revolutionary period for comics. Today strong and interesting female characters abound. Gaiman’s story, written twenty years ago, is missing this element. Shadow’s (dead) ex-wife Laura pops up on occasion, and she is pretty interesting, but most of the other women are just sexual objects—pickups, raped slaves, prostitutes, and so on—and not objects of admiration. Mainly objects of derision and resentment. I have heard people think of Gaiman as a misogynist, not a good writer of female characters especially in his earlier work, and I have generally disagreed with this assessment (cf Death, in the Sandman, Coraline, the women in Ocean at the End of the lane, all great), but I can see where it comes from, this criticism, regarding this book. Where are the strong women?

3)tIt’s a story of the omnipresence of gods (Odin, Medea, and so on, yes, but also just everyday gods, good/evil/morally compromised ones, and so on) or “gods” (money, fame, and so on) in the scope of American history, as with Preacher and Swamp Thing, with Howard Zinn’s The People’s Guide to America History as its Baedeker. Just as it was for Moore’s Swamp Thing, we touch on slavery, Native American genocide, Native American spirituality. But with the exception of Wednesday (the name of one central character) these gods don’t really achieve memorable status for me. The whol “battle” between the new gods and old gods, eh.

4)tI was born in Chicago, having lived in Wisconsin and now live in Chicago, so I was amused by (particularly) Gaiman’s depiction of the midwest, including such oddities as The House on the Rock outside of Madison, Wisconsin. His view of northern Wisconsin, and Michigan’s U. P. (Upper Peninsula), with its pasties, all this is familiar and still amusingly weird to me, so to see places I have loved and visited framed as a kind off spiritual wasteland (as in Wisconsin Death Trip), that is interesting.

5)tI am a huge fan of Gaiman, including his kid books like The Graveyard Book, Coraline, and The Ocean at the End of the Lane, all excellent for me, but this is supposed to be his Big Book, and millions of people loved it, so I am a little hesitant, but I have to say I just didn’t love it.

No denying that this one is a big boi. A long boi. Extra extra page boi.

But was it worth all that paper?

Click the link for my video review of the big bois in my life.

The Written Review:

n  Gods die. And when they truly die they are unmourned and unremembered. Ideas are more difficult to kill than people, but they can be killed, in the end.n

The Old Gods - brought over by immigrants. Wild, fantastical tales of elephant-headed men and trickster spiders. Of power and lust. Of fear and worship.

The New Gods - created by the immigrants' descendants. Gods of money, media and might. Newly formed out of the hopes, dreams and desires of a people who've long since forgotten the Old Gods.

n  A storm is coming.n

The New Gods, though young and foolhardy, know what they want and they want to n  take the world from the Old Gods.n

Caught in the crossfires is one, very human, ex-prisoner named Shadow.

The ideas Neil Gaiman comes up with are simply stunning.

It's hard to describe this book - it's all-encompassing. This story feels so old and established - almost like it's a legend, passed down from generation to generation.

It crossed every genera - from romance to murder mystery to mythology - absolutely seamlessly.

I really loved all of the New Gods that Gaiman created.

There's The Technical Boy - God of the internet and computers.

The Black Hats - Gods of Conspiracy theories and shady ideas.

And, my personal favorite, Media - the Goddess of the Television.

n  "The TV's the altar. I'm what people are sacrificing to."
"What do they sacrifice?" asked Shadow.
"Their time."n

And of course, because it's Neil Gaiman...there's a bunch of weird sex thrown in...because reasons.

Literally, one of the Old Goddesses ate a man alive with her "womanhood". Another time, Shadow was really injured and was healed through painfully descriptive sex magic.

Aside: Does anyone really know why Gaiman always does this? Can't we have one book where everyone keeps their clothes on?

And, if that wasn't confusing enough, in between the man-eating labia and sex-bandaids...we get absolutely adorable quotes like this:

n  What I say is, a town isn’t a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it’s got a bookstore, it knows it’s not foolin’ a soul.n

or this:

n  The house smelled musty and damp, and a little sweet, as if it were haunted by the ghosts of long-dead cookies.n

Sometimes, I really want to know what goes through this man's head...and then again...maybe not.

Still, this was an extremely interesting read and one of the few Gaiman books that I enjoyed from cover to cover!

Audiobook Comments
Extremely well-read by Dennis Boutsikaris, Daniel Oreskes, Ron McLarty, and Sarah Jones. Each major character had a different voice actor/actress and it really enhanced the audio. The accents sounded accurate (to my untrained ear) and the whole book was immensely enjoyable to listen to!

The Finer Books Club - 2018 Reading Challenge: A book based in your home state

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I enjoy the prose of this novel at the beginning, and the prose helps me to finish the read. It is a heavyweight novel perceived from the research efforts.

The setting is solid 5 star. The main plots are good although a bit slow. BUT there are many unfinished sub-stories. I thought them as sub-plots first, but without satisfying conclusion until the end of novel, it is more like a background stories for setting. For example: Salim and the ifrit taxi driver.

For the magic rules perspective, this is a soft-magic novel, not much explanation about how the magic works, despite there are a lot of magic in the story. For my own taste, I like more explanation with magic rules, the belief-system. For example, how leprechaun's gold coin could made Laura an undead. And I like the appearance of other Odin at Postscript chapter which actually made sense to me with the belief-system. I mention the soft-magic for potential readers who might prefer a hard-magic story. By mentioning soft-magic, maybe you can guess the climax ending. Sorry for that.

In overall it is a good novel. My final rating is influenced by the ending, so I put a spoiler tag again.  The story is a bit slow and has mentioning con-job too many times, you could guess the ending trick, not much surprise there, I am almost committed to give 3 star rating. But then the Postscript chapter gave a last surprise, so I added one more star.

I hope the TV show adaptation is good.

DISLAIMER: i wrote this review prior the allegations so it reflects a view of gaiman that i no longer have. i know some people are able to divorce a work from its author, while others go full on full on damnatio memoriae...i for one am no longer interested in engaging with the work of someone as vile as gaiman "allegedly" is.

“Gods die. And when they truly die they are unmourned and unremembered. Ideas are more difficult to kill than people, but they can be killed, in the end.”

It isn’t surprising that American Gods is regarded as one of the genre-bending novels of all time.
Over the course of 500 pages Neil Gaiman deftly blends together fantasy, sci-fi, horror, noir, myths, history, theology, as well as physical, spiritual, and emotional road-trip. The end result is an incredibly imaginative novel, on that is quite unlike anything else I’ve read.

In the preface to the tenth anniversary edition Gaiman describes his novel as ‘meandering’: “I wanted it to be a number of things. I wanted to write a book that was big and odd and meandering, and I did and it was.” It is indeed meandering, wonderfully so. Gaiman’s consistently entertaining storytelling more than makes up for it. Also, given how many different storylines and characters there are in American Gods, it’s safe to say that I was never bored.

n  “We do not always remember the things that do no credit to us. We justify them, cover them in bright lies or with the thick dust of forgetfulness.”n

Summarising this novel isn’t easy. The first time I read it I didn’t know much about it so I found myself experiencing a lot of ‘what the f*ck is going’ moments. This second time, even if I knew what was coming and where Shadow’s story was headed, I still managed to get lost in Gaiman’s heady prose.
The novel’s protagonist, Shadow, gets out of prison and is hired by the mysterious and relentlessly charismatic Mr. Wednesday. We soon realise that Shadow’s new boss is an endlessly scheming conman, and not quite human.

What follows is an epic journey in which Shadow meets many disgruntled and modernity weary gods and deities, some of whom share snippets of their history or lore with Shadow, while others remain far more unknowable. Interspersed throughout the novel are chapters recounting their arrival to America. From heroic battles and bloody sacrifices to tales of worship and faith that span centuries and cultures, these sections were thoroughly interesting.

Over the course of his road trip Shadow comes across a lot of weird stuff. We have the sense that these encounters are leading to something far more big. Yet, Gaiman keeps his cards close to his chest, and it is only after many many pages that we start to understand where the story is leading Shadow, and us, towards.
There are plenty of things that will keep us engaged in Shadow’s story. A dead wife, coin tricks, cons, sex (with divine beings...so things get pretty freaky), some horrific scenes (of slavery, of war, of death), satire, a small town which gives some serious Twin Peaks vibe, a hubbub of different cultures and voices...and so much more. There is also an ongoing juxtaposition between the past and present, ancient customs and modernity, old lore and modern believes which provided some serious food for thought.

Gaiman presents us with a narrative that is wickedly funny, frequently mischievous, and always brimming with energy. I loved the way he writes about myths and how distinctive and morally ambiguous his characters are. As interesting and beguiling as the various gods and deities are, once again I found myself caring the most for Shadow.
Gaiman's dialogues and scenes too are memorable and compelling. And while his narrative does wander into obscure and mystical terrains, it always held my undivided attention.
American Gods gives its readers a bonanza of flavours. It is funny, moving, clever, and constantly surprising.

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This book reads like a comic book novelization of a story born from the limited imagination of a brooding adolescent boy. The lack of elegance shrieks at you. Depth is nowhere to be seen. It’s dull, rough, unsophisticated, and - despite the potential of the main concept - abysmally empty.

The hype for this novel in the marketplace doesn’t surprise me: the mass-market has the refined taste of a wild boar.