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Fragile Things is a collection of short stories and verse from multi award winning author, Neil Gaiman. Originally, I was going to give a brief review of each piece in the collection. However, as there are twenty seven stories and poems in total, I shall limit my review to what I consider the highlights of this collection, as well as a good deal of frequent observations.
The introduction to the book is written by Gaiman himself, and explains the origins of most of the work. All but one of the stories have seen light of day already, in a assortment of dissimilar places, ranging from other compilations to being published online or appearing in tour programmes for Tori Amos.
The never-seen-before piece is entitled ‘How to Talk to Girls at Parties’ and is a specifically surreal offering. The narrator recalls an incident from his youth encapsulating the the awkwardness of young men attempting to talk to young women but with Gaiman’s distinctive, otherworldly spin.
A number of the stories in this book were commissioned for respective sources, which gives a rich range of content. The story ‘Goliath’ was written for the internetsite affiliated with the film ‘The Matrix’. The story is inspired by numerous of the conceptions employed in the film trilogy, but uses Gaiman’s own backstory rather than being a story set in the Matrix universe. If anything, the story is more remindful of the stories of Philip K. Dick in mood and atmosphere, in particular the Dick short story entitled ‘The Adjustment Team’.
The short story ‘A Study in Emerald’ is a marvellous pastiche of Doyles’ Sherlock Holmes and Lovecrafts’ Cthulhu Mythos. As always, the narrator of the story is the stalwart Dr Watson but there is little else in regards to the story that is conventional Holmes fare. Gaiman has taken both of the sources, mixed them expertly and made the darkly comic result his own. I imagine there are a few people who have pondered how well the Great Detective would fare versus the Mythos, I must confess I had never considered what would occur if Holmes worked for the Mythos…
Another of the stories which draws upon another authors’ universe is the intriguing ‘The Problem of Susan’. The Susan in question is the one from the ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ series by C.S. Lewis. Readers of that series may recall that Susan was no longer considered a ‘friend of Narnia because she’s too fond of lipsticks and nylons and requests to participate or be present to parties’ [Fragile Things, p244]. Essentially when the other children went to Heaven, she was left behind. Gaiman offers us his clear or deep perception on Susan’s life after this display of cosmic inequality, does a fondness for lipstick preclude a place in Heaven?
The award for Most Sinister Story in the Collection is hereby awarded to the tale ‘Closing Time’. Told as a story within a story, it is another anecdote from the weird-childhood-events share of Gaiman’s imagination. Another commissioned story; this one was requested to be in the style of M.R. James, something the author achieves admirably without merely cloning James’ writing style. Distinctly chilling, this is one of, if not my favored story in the collection and is a worthy addition to the genre of the ghost story.
The last story in the book, ‘The Monarch of the Glen’, is a treat for fans of Gaiman’s novel ‘American Gods’ as it proceeds the adventures of the protagonist, Shadow. The story is set in Scotland and is a reimagining of a key sequence in the saga of Beowulf. As Shadow has already been identified with parts of Norse and Germanic mythology in ‘American Gods’, the story works effortlessly, drawing on the ancient connection among Scotland and the Scandinavian countries for background color.
The story ‘Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire’ is a hilarious gem, which according to the author’s notes has been lurking around for a number of years. It is cleverly constructed with the action switching amid a baroque, Gothic story and the author of said story, as he attempts to keep away from the pitfalls of stereotyping and cliche.
To come to galore sort of conclusion, then, this is a very solid collection of work. To be candid, I genuinely have to be in the mood for poetry and I actually wasn’t when I read this, so I just skipped them. They do, after all, take up only a few pages and Gaiman himself proposes they be considered a free bonus. To paraphrase, the book wouldn’t cost any less with the poems removed, so your not being ripped off. As I say, amid the stories there are no duds whatsoever, this is vintage Gaiman and I defy any fan not to take pleasure in this collection.
American Gods Neil Gaiman
Released from prison, Shadow finds his world turned upside down. His wife has been killed; a mysterious stranger offers him a job. But Mr. Wednesday, who knows more regarding Shadow than is possible, warns that a storm is coming — a battle for the very soul of America . . . and they are in it is direct path.
One of the most talked-about books of the new millennium, American Gods is a kaleidoscopic traveling deep into myth and all over an American landscape at once eerily intimate and perfectly alien. It is, rather simply, a contemporary masterpiece.
ReviewAmerican Gods is Neil Gaiman’s best and most ambitious novel yet, a scary, strange, and hallucinogenic road-trip story wrapped around a deep examination of the American spirit. Gaiman tackles everything from the onslaught of the selective information age to the meaning of death, but he doesn’t sacrifice the razor-sharp plotting and narrative style he’s been delivering since his Sandman days.
Shadow gets out of prison early when his wife is killed in a car crash. At a loss, he takes up with a mysterious reputation called Wednesday, who is much more than he appears. In fact, Wednesday is an old god, once known as Odin the All-father, who is roaming America rounding up his forgotten fellows in preparation for an epic battle versus the upstart deities of the Internet, credit cards, television, and all that is wired. Shadow agrees to support Wednesday, and they whirl through a psycho-spiritual storm that becomes all too real in it is manifestations. For instance, Shadow’s dead wife Laura keeps showing up, and not just as a ghost–the difficultness of their continuing kinship is by turns grim and darkly funny, just like the rest of the book.
Armed only with galore coin tricks and a sense of purpose, Shadow travels through, around, and beneath the visible surface of things, digging up all the powerful myths Americans brought with them in their journeys to this land as well as the ones that were already here. Shadow’s road story is the heart of the novel, and it’s here that Gaiman offers up the details that make this such a cinematic book–the distinctly American foods and diversions, the bizarre roadside attractions, the decrepit gods scaled down to shell games and prostitution. “This is a bad land for Gods,” says Shadow.
More than a tourist in America, but not a native, Neil Gaiman offers an outside-in and inside-out perspective on the soul and spirituality of the country–our obsessions with cash and power, our jumbled religious inheritance and it is societal outcomes, and the millennial conclusions we face when it comes to what’s real and what’s not. –Therese Littleton
From Publishers WeeklyTitans clash, but with more fuss than fury in this fantasy demi-epic from the author of Neverwhere. The intriguing premise of Gaiman’s tale is that the gods of European yore, who came to North America with their immigrant believers, are squaring off for a rumble with new indigenous deities: “gods of credit card and freeway, of Internet and telephone, of radio and hospital and television, gods of plastic and of beeper and of neon.” They all walk around in mufti, dissembled as popular people, which causes no end of disturb for 32-year-old protagonist Shadow Moon, who can’t turn around without bumping into a minor divinity. Released from prison the day after his beloved wife dies in a car accident, Shadow takes a occupation as emissary for Mr. Wednesday, avatar of the Norse god Grimnir, incognizant that his boss’s recruiting trip all over the American heartland will subject him to repeat visits from the reanimated corpse of his dead wife and brutal roughing up by the goons of Wednesday’s adversary, Mr. World. At last Shadow will have to reevaluate his own deeply held beliefs in order to determine his important role in the final showdown. Gaiman tries to keep the magical and the routine evenly balanced, but he is distinctly more mesmerized in the actions of his humane protagonists: Shadow’s poignant personal moments and the tale’s affectionate slices of smalltown life are much better developed than the aimless plot, which bounces Shadow from one episodic encounter to another in a design only the gods seem to know. Mere mortal readers will take delight in the tale’s wit, but puzzle over it is strained mythopoeia. (One-day laydown, June 19)Forecast: Even when he isn’t in top form, Gaiman, creator of the acclaimed Sandman comics series, trumps galore storytellers. Momentously titled, and allotted a dramatic one-day laydown with a 12-city author tour, his latest will appeal to fans and attract mainstream review coverage for better or for worse because of the rich possiblenesses of it is premise. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library JournalIn his latest novel, Gaiman (Neverwhere) explores the vast and bloody landscape of myths and legends where the gods of yore and the neoteric gods of now conflict in modern-day America. The antihero, a man of unusually acute intellect through whose eyes we witness the behind-the-scenes dynamics of humane religion and faith, is a convict called Shadow. He is flung into the midst of a supernatural fray of gods such as Odin, Anansi, Loki One-Eye, Thor, and a multitude of other ancient divinities as they struggle for survival in an America beset by trends, fads, and ceaseless upheaval an environs not good for gods. They are joined in this struggle by such contemporary deities as the geek-boy god Internet and the goddess Media. There’s a nice plot twist in the end, and the arousing and attention holding subject matter and impressive mythic scope are handled creatively and expertly. Gaiman is an exemplary short story writer, but his ventures into novels are likewise compellingly imaginative. Highly commended for all libraries. Ann Kim, “Library Journal”
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
American Gods Neil Gaiman Pic
American Gods Neil Gaiman Image
American Gods Neil Gaiman Picture
American Gods Neil Gaiman Picture
Most helpful client reviews
201 of 225 humans found the following review helpful.
 “This Is a Bad Place For Gods…”
By Marc Ruby™
Released from prison shortly after the accidental death of his wife, ex-con Shadow finds himself free, but bereft of all the things that gave his former life meaning. As he bids his farewell to the fragments of that life, an eerie stranger named Mr. Wednesday offers him employment. Wednesday needs someone to act as aid, driver, errand boy, and, in case of Wednesday’s death, an individual to hold a vigil for him. Shadow consents and finds himself drawn without suspicions into a cryptic reality where myth and legend coexist with today’s realities.
Mr. Wednesday, trickster and wise man, is on a quest. The old gods who came over to this country with each humane incursion have weakened as their followers have dwindled and are now threatened with extinction by the modern gods of engineering and marketing. Wednesday travels from deity to deity, rounding up help for what will be last battle. He engages ancient Russian gods, Norse legends, Egyptian deities, and innumerable others who have found their way to America in the past 10,000 or so years. Shadow never rather grasps what his role is in all of this, but he experiences visions and dreams which promise that he is far more than Wednesday’s factotum.
The plot is unendingly inventive as it treks it is way throughout the country. From Chicago to Rhode Island, and Seattle to the magical town of Lakeside, Shadow’s journeying seems to follow the back roads of America. The persons he meets are gritty, and the gods are even grittier. Gaiman gives rise to believable characters with quick brush strokes and builds bright landscapes that belie their routine origins. Gaiman, not so long ago moved to the U.S. has invited us along on his own quest to discover an America in an unambiguous manner his own.
This is a novel that resonates at a good deal of levels, it is Shadow’s initiation quest, Gaiman’s search for the American identity, a revisionist Twilight of the Gods, and last, but not least a captivating piece of fiction. The gods that people this story came with persons who found their way to this country from closely each time and place. Gaiman has put his finger on once of this country’s greatest truths. Every person who ever lived here has roots from someplace else. We have crossed oceans and land bridges, on foot, and by each other means of transportation. Our culture has been produced whole cloth out of the reputation and beliefs of all those people. Gaiman has managed to capture a bit of that vision and put it on display for the reader.
After his superb work in “Neverwhere,” “Stardust,” and the Sandman graphic novels, Neil Gaimon has conventional himself a strength to be reckoned with in the crossover horror/fantasy genre. Now with his new novel Gaiman establishes his mastery in a noteworthy story of quest and transformation as he comes to terms with his own imagination of America. “American Gods” defies classification and invites superlatives. This is one of 2001′s will have to reads.
49 of 53 persons found the following review helpful.
Neil Strikes Again
By J. Dzwigalski
After waiting various years for Neil’s new book, I hungrily devoured the 400+ page “American Gods” in just over two days. The story follows Shadow Moon, not long ago freed from prison, as he comes to work for a man plainly known as Wednesday. Wednesday is a queer old man with a exceptionally bad or displeasing noesis of Shadow’s past and an aweinspiring talent of swindling humans who introduces Shadow to some arousing and attention holding characters, who it is later learned, are all transplanted Gods endeavoring to hold on to life all throughout America.
Gaiman explores the sacred power concealed in the kitschy roadside attractions doting the landscape of America’s a lot of back roads; their once glorious power waning as humans worship more innovative cultural icons and ideas. The sprawling story pits the forgotten gods America’s immigrated citizens brought with them to the new land versus the high-tech gods of progressed living in a war for the very right to be worshipped. Shadow is pulled headfirst into the dispute and ends up playing a necessary role in the upcoming battle. The significances of life and death, self-worth, spiritual beliefs, and salvation are all explored with Gaiman’s witty intelligence.
Gaiman’s capacity to entwine multiple plot lines with clever cultural critiques while preserving fantastic reputation descriptions and an engaging narrative solidifies the fantasy/horror author’s place as one of the world’s best storytellers. Much more than a magical tale of combating Gods, Gaiman paints a picture of a melting pot left too long to boil, and a country who worships the next huge thing a bit too without apparent effort and with little thoughtfulness for it’s ancestry.
Definitely worth buying, and undeniably worth reading (all even though you might want to slow down a bit more than I did!). And while you’re at it – check out “Stardust” and “Neverwhere”, you won’t be disappointed.
46 of 52 humans found the following review helpful.
 Just held on waiting for the splendor I expected…
By Christopher White
I recognise I am going to get railed with a 2 out of 133 or something for my nonpopular opinon, but I think that Gaiman’s novel was high on conception and potential but never took off.
I find all kinds of mythology interesting, and that is precisely what made me buy this book and I think Gaiman did a good occupation of incorporating competeing mythologies into the novel. However, and I recognise that this is not the most eloquent way to put it, but the book just didn’t do it for me. It genuinely just felt like an airport book of the week, like Sidney Sheldon’s “Doomsday Conspiracy” which took an interesting topic (at the time) and made an episode of All My Children out of it.
I think what it came down to for me was that I never beleived in any of the characters, particularly Shadow, and I saw the twists coming from a mile away. I hate saying that, but it is true, the story was transparent.
I am not an avid fantasy reader, though I dabble in Sci Fi, so take that into account with my review, but over all, I was just waiting for a bang that never came.
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