[Warning: Spoilers. If you haven’t read American Gods yet, be aware. ]
I have just now finished reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman. This book was recommended to me by my
friend, Anna while we were still in college-- a recommendation that was
repeated a few weeks ago by her husband, Andrew. Needing a break from LOTR and having bought the book on
kindle’s $2 sale several months ago, I decided to give it a try. I liked American Gods, but I must say that at
parts I found it disconcerting just how annoying and/or un-godlike the gods
were portrayed. In fact, I almost stopped reading it halfway through. However,
now I’m really glad I stuck with it.
The story is about gods and the humans that they interact
with, as well as their interactions with each other. The gods in the story run
the gamut of Native American folk legends to J-C Biblical characters to Norse
mythology. There was very little in the novel of Greek mythology, therefore taking
me out of my element (the reason for Zeus’ absence is probably that this novel
is about the gods that immigrants brought to America—literally the American
gods—and by the time Greeks were coming over, they weren’t really worshipping
their mythological gods to the same extent as other groups). It was interesting to see the parallels
between gods and also the differences, but the best part was perhaps Gaiman’s
imaginative expression of how they interact together: friendship, rivalry, and
all-out war. The modern American gods: cars, trains, airplanes, and the internet,
for example, also make a fantastically annoying appearance (and make me
re-think my devotion to every one of them).
The protagonist, Shadow, is a human and an unusual hero. At
the beginning, he is in prison and passes his time reading Herodotus (a man
after my own heart.) Yet, as the story
progresses and you come to understand him better, Shadow’s presence begins to
make more sense. In fact, Shadow is a true hero
in the Greek sense and the most tragic kind—his father, who is a God,
sacrifices him. He’s a pseudo-Christ-like figure, but unlike in the story of
Christ, Shadow’s father is sacrificing him for personal gain. I won’t tell you
more, but Shadow’s experiences of life and death (and life again) with the gods
is fascinating. Gaiman’s inclusion of a mystery story on the side provides a
break from the god drama when necessary.
I would definitely recommend reading this book. It is more
of a fun read than an educational one, but it also definitely teaches more
about mythology: just be careful, some of the gods are of Gaiman’s own
creation.
Three interesting story elements to look forward to:
1.
Shadow’s undead wife who, after her death, kills
anyone who threatens her husband
2.
Roadside attractions are the actual seats of
power for the gods, not churches.
3.
The god of technology is described as a fat,
lazy kid with a black trench-coat that
reminds me of every Dungeon and Dragons junkie I’ve ever met, only really
annoying and really rude
I give American Gods 3.5
stars out of 5.
WARNING: There is some adult content. I wouldn’t let my kid
read it if they were under, say, 17.
Favorite Quotes:
“No man,
proclaimed Donne, is an Island, and
he was wrong. If we were not islands, we would be lost, drowned in each others’
tragedies. We are insulated (a word that means, literally, remember, made into an island) from the tragedy of
others, by our island nature, and by the repetitive shape and form of the
stories. We know the shape, the shape does not change. There was a human being
who was born, lived, and then, by some means or other, died. There. You may
fill in the details from your own experience. As unoriginal as any other tale,
as unique as any other life. Lives are snowflakes—unique in detail, forming
patterns we have seen before, but as like one another as two peas in a pod (and
have you ever looked at peas in a pod? I mean, really looked at them? There’s not a chance you’d mistake one for another,
after a minute’s close inspection.)
We need
individual stories. Without individual stories we see only numbers: a thousand
dead, a hundred thousand dead, “casualties may rise to a million.” With
individual stories, the statistics become people—but even that is a life, for
the people continue to suffer in numbers that themselves are numbing and
meaningless….
We draw our lines around these
moments of pain, and remain upon our islands, and they cannot hurt us. The are
covered with a smooth, safe, nacreous layer to let them slip, pearl-like, from
our souls without real pain.
Fiction
allows us to slide into these other heads, these other places, and look out
through other eyes. And then in the tale we stop before we die, or we die
vicariously and unharmed, and in the world beyond the tale we turn the pages or
close the book, and we resume our lives.
A life, which
is, like any other, unlike any other.
And the
simple truth is this: there was a girl
and her uncle sold her.”
“He wondered whether home was a thing that happened to a
place after a while, or if it was something that you found in the end, if you
simply walked and waited and willed it long enough.”
Kaitlyn’s Book Rating Guide:
0 stars: Don’t
read it. A waste of your time. Twilight.
1 star: Read only
if you’re very tired and desperate for something to read. Will probably rot
your brain if you read it too much.
2 stars: Good for what it is or not my taste.
3 stars: Decent
book and worth reading, but not earth-shaking, much less earth-shattering.
4 stars: Really
good, definitely something I will re-read sometime. Earth Shaking.
5 stars: Earth Shattering.
Every single human being should read this. It should be required for
citizenship of the world. Seriously. Why aren’t you reading it yet? LIFE
CHANGING.