Now this was an interesting read. I'm still not a hundred percent sure what I think of this book, but hopefully by the end of this review you'll all know whether American Gods is for you or not. So first of all let me say is readjust your expectations, this is a fantasy story but in no way is it a fantasy story.
The style of writing reminds me funnily enough alot of Stephen King. It's funny Gaiman choose America as a subject seeing as he's English, but anyway. So yeah he likes to get into the head space of all of his characters and I'd say Shadow reminds me alot of many of Stephen King's heros that sort of quiet dude. You know the one, the observer the guy who somehow gets on with everyone without having to try, the quiet mysterious type, typically a guy who does an honest sort of job, not white collar. Anyway that's what I thought.
But the book itself is in the simplest terms Shadow's story and also the story of the new American Gods versus the Old. The book begins with Shadow released on parole from Prison. He's looking forward to three things we're told and this gives you an idea of Gaiman's style and Shadow. A Bath. Seeing his wife again. And a new job his friend Robbie has set up. Sadly though when they're both killed in a car accident and it seems Shadow has nothing to go back to, along comes Mr Wednesday. And you guessed it, he's a god!
From then on the book continues along. The way to enjoy the book is to not try and flip the pages and get to the climax. This is a slow burner. In many ways it's a road trip. Shadow becomes Wednesday's body guard and they go around trying to persuade other gods to join Wednesday's crusade. So we meet each god in turn and learn a little about them. On the way there are also interludes. Now these take you completely out of the story.
These sections often titled coming to America interupt the main narrative by telling a story of someone immigrating to america, either centuries or thousands of years ago from all over the world. One tells of a woman who came from ireland another a pair of twins from Africa. While I was reading I often wondered, what these bits had to do with the story, I thought these sections weren't really about the gods at all. And they aren't...really.
But I looked on a website after reading and I think this guy (the guy I'm talking about is Dan on the forum, but I think with a book like this it pays to read around and get a few different opinions) knows a good way to look at it, basically in the story the older gods are fighting(supposedly) the new gods. I'll get to the god thing in a minute, but the battle of the gods a reader eloquently suggested can be seen as a metaphor for immigrants coming to America and their cultures and families being Americanised. Essentially the old ways are being shafted.
Anyway the thing I'm most confused about is what the heck is a god? In the book the gods are people that often personify who they are. For example the good of the internet is a dweeby kid, who has all these riches yet maintains his social awkardness. Included among these godly figures is not only ideas and new concepts like the internet or dare I say the TV (in fact there's an interesting scene involving Lucille Ball...), but also heroes, people told in stories. The idea is a god is anything worshipped or believed in. They all basically want the same thing, to be honoured, worshipped remembered. It's interesting seeing gods portrayed as being so human. Still the thing that confuses me is the existence of the gods...they exist like humans have sex with humans marry them...are fathers to them too...and yet they're not a singular thing or person really. There are times in the book where the god characters are more god and others where they are more human. Perhaps I just found this difficult to reconcile.
So for me the weaker bits were the less human bits, the bits where I honestly had no idea what was happening and the bits that no doubt inspired critics to use the term "hallucinogenic" to term it. On the other hand, what I really love about the book is well for one Shadow's journey. I think he gets overshadowed, but there are some pretty powerful moments and I think its quite compelling watching the moments particularly in the second part of the book where he's trying to reconnect.
In fact there's a really long section where Shadow is essentially living in a slow burn town called Lakeside hiding out from the authorities. And even though one might question why it needs to be in this book, I quite enjoyed it. I found the human characters in a lot of ways, a lot more compelling. Of course the gods are too and there are alot of sections with the gods and shadow where there are long strings of dialogue.
There are so many stories within a story here. Each god brings to the table these odd stories, some of them sounding like what you'd expect a god thousands of years ago and others like a particularly memorable scene where Wednesday discusses with Shadow these thrifts (cons) he pulls.
The ending I'll admit did a lot to satisfy me. It is a little of a twist, but I think it wraps up everything very neatly and I found myself really happy with how it all turned out. But I think this book isn't for everyone, for me there were parts of the book that went over my head. It's not an easy read and it's a book you'll find yourself thinking about long afterwards, it's probably something worth re-reading, but above all this is the sort of story where it's best to just leave all preconceptions at the door.
Next time I'll be bringing you something entirely different, Dan Simmons "THE TERROR"! I'm really excited to tuck in, so I'll go back to my book for now and until next time happy reading everyone!
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