American Gods Novel 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 in regards to 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 utterly 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 data 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 a heap of coin tricks and a sense of purpose, Shadow travels through, around, and under 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 without doubt or question 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 with regards 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, cloaked as general 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 throughout 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 ought 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 without doubt or question more fascinated in the actions of his humane protagonists: Shadow’s poignant personal moments and the tale’s affectionate slices of smalltown life are much better produced 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 receive pleasure from 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 a heap of 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 future prospects or potentials of it is premise. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library JournalIn his latest novel, Gaiman (Neverwhere) explores the tremendous 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 neverending 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.
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191 of 215 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, somebody 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 progressed gods of technology and marketing. Wednesday travels from deity to deity, rounding up support 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 perceives 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 humans he meets are gritty, and the gods are even grittier. Gaiman brings about believable characters with quick brush strokes and builds bright landscapes that belie their routine origins. Gaiman, not long ago moved to the U.S. has invited us along on his own quest to discover an America unambiguously his own.
This is a novel that resonates at a heap 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 humans 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 devised whole cloth out of the reputation and beliefs of all those people. Gaiman has managed to capture a bit of that imagination 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 resourcefulness of America. “American Gods” defies classification and invites superlatives. This is one of 2001′s must reads.
47 of 50 persons found the following review helpful.
Neil Strikes Again
By J. Dzwigalski
After waiting assorted 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 so long ago freed from prison, as he comes to work for a man plainly known as Wednesday. Wednesday is a peculiar old man with a frightening psychological result of perception learning and reasoning of Shadow’s past and an aweinspiring talent of swindling humans who introduces Shadow to numerous arousing and attention holding characters, who it is later learned, are all transplanted Gods endeavoring to hold on to life all all over America.
Gaiman explores the sacred power concealed in the kitschy roadside attractions doting the landscape of America’s a great deal 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 modern 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 significations 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 sustaining 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 big thing a bit too without apparent effort and with little contemplation for it’s ancestry.
Definitely worth buying, and undeniably worth reading (all 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.
74 of 87 people found the following review helpful.
 The joy is in the journey
By APE Gamer
I have read all of Gaiman’s novels, as well as the Sandman graphic novels. I’m a fan of urban fantasy, and, needless to say, I’m a fan of Gaiman’s work. I was specially anxious to read American Gods because a good part of the story takes place in my home state, Wisconsin (home of snow, ice and Culver’s custard.) I was not, in general speaking, disapppointed. American Gods has everything I like in regards to Gaiman’s stories.
The story opens with Shadow, the protagonist, being freed from prison a week early to attend his wife’s funeral. Shadow is a huge man, strong in both stature and integrity. On his way home, he meets Mr. Wednesday, who offers Shadow a occupation as bodyguard. The pair travels the American heartland, drumming up help for a coming spiritual war. Along the way they meet a host of improbable characters, includ and thugs with names like Mr. Town, Mr. Street, Mr. Woods and Mr. World. And not least amidst this cast of exceedingly interesting characters is Laura, Shadow’s deceased wife who spends most of the book bailing Shadow out of tight situations. And rotting.
I docked the book 1 star because, in my opinion, the ending fizzled. Also, interspersed through the book were short stories that were got rid of from the main storyline. These were a nice break amidst chapters, and offered clear or deep perception to ‘the coming war’ in other elements of the nation. For numerous reason, these stories stopped when it comes to 1/3 of the way through the book, and I sort of missed them.
In summary, I think that American Gods was a far more inviolable crusade than the last book of his I read, Stardust, but not as good as Neverwhere, or Sandman.
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