I finally finished reading
American Gods by
Neil Gaiman. I must admit it took me a lot longer to get through then anticipated, especially for a book I was looking forward to because I usually really like Mr. Gaiman's work.
Let me start with an extremely quick and dirty synopsis of the plot. The main plot follows the character Shadow who starts the book by being released from jail a couple days early to attend the funeral of his wife who had been killed in a car accident. Shadow is met by a mysterious guy who goes by the name Mr. Wednesday who hires him to be his driver/whatever else he needs guy. Turns out that Mr. Wednesday is
Odin, or at least the American version of Odin and he is trying to recruit other old gods to help him battle the new gods (Media, Internet, Mr. World etc.) for dominance in America. Much chaos, killing, traveling and meeting ensue culminating in Shadow being hung in a tree (by choice) as Odin was in the old myths. Shadow dies and travels through the under world before being brought back to life with the help of his zombie wife (I know I know, it actually makes some sort of sense in the context of the book). Shadow realizes that the war between the gods was just a sham started by Odin and
Loki to gain power for themselves. Odin thrives on the bloodshed and Loki thrives on the chaos. The combatants retreat back to their homes to live out the rest of their diminished lives. Shadow helps his zombie wife die for real this time and continues on. Interspersed with the main plot are stories of how the old gods came to America and some set in modern times of how they are trying to survive.
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Overall...I don't know...I liked pieces of the book very much. I could have read a thousand of the stories about the gods coming over in different peoples minds and how they took root here, I also like the stories on what they had to do here to survive. I loved the concept, the idea that the old gods existed because people wanted them to and they were kept around and sustained through humans need and sacrifice. I also like the idea of the new gods being what people "worship" in modern times, things like media and television. Shadows story seemed a little disconnected from it all, I had a hard time tearing myself out of one world and being plopped back into Shadows fairly depressing one. His story seemed to be one of a guy who just pretty much did as he was told and went along for the ride. I'm not sure if he was intended to be more of an observer character to let the reader know what was going on, or an illustration of how little power one can have in the big picture, but I never really got into his story...which was the main story. In the end it was an okay book, I am glad I read it and may even go back an reread parts of it. I kind of want him to write a whole short story series just on how the gods got to America and what they are doing to survive because that was very well done. I give this book 6 out of 10 cups of coffee :-)
What do you think of the idea that gods are ideas? Am I missing the whole point of this book? What "new" gods do you think we have now? Do you think there is a moldy cheese god in my refrigerator?
