American Gods

A third book that makes the RA favorite list by this author, Neil Gaiman writing American Gods.  This guy can write good books!  This one was an award winning novel.  History, mythology, fantasy, mystery, it’s all there.  The opening of the book places our protagonist, Shadow, in jail and preparing for his return home to his wife.  He gets a call from the warden to meet and receives “good news/bad news” – he is being released early from jail, the bad news, his wife just died.  Wow, what an opening… and think what happens a few pages later he learns of how she died, giving oral sex to his best friend while driving and losing control of the car – pretty interesting beginning, the rest is only more intriguing and “fantastic.” To the enth degree!  Enter the man who will hire him now that his life is all changed, Wednesday, who is either a god, a magician, conman, or a figment of the imagination.  People have lost faith in human nature and the gods who they looked up to in life for centuries as society is changing at an incredibly fast pace. Shadow goes on a journey, led by Wednesday through cities, assisting in robbing banks, and being pitted by the Gods (the new ones vs. the old ones).  Shadow’s journeys and introduction of characters in the battle between the gods is exciting and the author is at his most creative state in introducing the Gods as Shadow travels across the US.  Wednesday, who seems to play the Houdini role, eludes his enemies until he finally is killed by the new Gods, which rallies the Old Gods to move into action.  One never really is clear on which side the on-going entry of new characters actually fall.  Re-enter Laura, Shadow’s dead wife to propel him to reimagine their love and life together.  She actually saves him on at least two occasions from his attackers.  Shadow plays a central role in the final fight, in which he finally convinces both groups of Gods that America doesn’t need them, it seems to be running fine without them, maybe it was his own magic (using his disappearing coin skills) that gets the Gods to go away for good.  My favorite part of the journey was his life in the city of Lakeside, where Wednesday had sent him to hide.  Wednesday’s interactions with the locals leads him to solve the mystery of the disappearing children which leads to the capture of a unsuspecting murderer.  There were a number of “interludes” of other short stories interspersed throughout the story depicting mythological stories in America through civilization.  While many were interesting, I thought they took away from Shadow’s story.  A well written and interesting, yet complicated read.  You really need to pay attention throughout this read.  Gaiman is an outstanding writer, but this book’s symbolism and underlying story may not resonate with all readers.