Just finished American Gods this past week. The story follows a convict "Shadow" who is released early from prison due to the death of his wife, in a car crash. Upon his release Shadow discovers that his wife died in the same car as his best friend while performing a sexual act on him.
Gaiman uses Shadow as the vehicle to introduce us to a cast of characters, mostly gods and other characters from world mythology. The main god is a mysterious character called Wednesday (we eventually find out that he is the Norse God Odin as well as Shadow's father). The book centres on a pending war between the gods of the old world, versus the modern gods, such as technology. A power struggle where the old tries to retain power while the new tries to usurp it.
Wednesday hires Shadow as his assistant and proceeds to travel throughout the United States recruiting the gods, of old, for an upcoming war against the modern gods. As Wednesday puts together his army we are introduced to various deities from other countries/ parts of the world, Irish, African, Indian, Egyptian etc. Simultaneously, we discover that the new gods, are the gods of science, technology, and the Industrial Revolution.
Interspersed throughout the book are also vignettes of seemingly random events. An indentured servant from the British Isles, a slave brought over from Africa, a trinket salesman from the Middle East.
Having secured their army through a series of adventures or maybe better misadventures the book reaches its zenith in what, for me, felt more like an anti-climatic battle between old and new. Wednesday is assassinated prior to the battle and and the new gods arrange for the transfer of Wednesday's body back to the old gods in the geographic centre of the United States, a seemingly "safe space" for both sides.
We ultimately learn that there is an interconnectedness of stories throughout the book. For example, Shadow's cellmate in prison is a guy named "Low Key" whom we learn is actually the Norse God Loki. We also eventually learn that rather than being a battle of old vs. new the whole story is just a con being run by Odin in a failed attempt to retain power.
While I thought the concept behind the book was fascinating, I feel like Gaiman missed the mark. One would have to have a rather extensive knowledge of world theology and mythology in order to grasp this book. I feel like the vignettes would have been better served introducing us old and new world myths and laying the groundwork for the characters better. As is, you are left on your own to try and piece tother obscure and random characters and events.
I really wanted to like this book, because as I have already indicated I thought the idea was fascinating. In the end, I felt like the book was average at best. I would be interested in hearing other people's opinions about this book.
by InvestigatorLow5351