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Dec 16, 2009

Seth rated it:

I laughed out loud. While reading. In a Japanese rice bowl joint. Okay, so maybe it was more of a chortle, but it was definitely out loud. And more than just the once. Patrons quietly minding their own business while slogging through their Number Three Specials With Extra Tokyo Beef would be startled into wakefulness to see me - chopsticks in one hand, book in the other - as my grizzled maw broke forth with guffaws and irrepressible smiles.

Really, Anansi Boys may be the first thing I More...

15 comments like (49 people liked it)

Jul 15, 2008

Qiana rated it:

I agree with many of the reviewers who praise this fun and inventive novel, but I am especially fascinated by how Gaiman represents race in Anansi Boys. He chooses not to explicitly identify that his globe-trotting main characters are black until at least p. 32 (if I'm mistaken, somebody please let me know) and only then as a point-of-fact that is secondary to their status as gods. It is true that anyone who has read American Gods or heard traditional African folktales will have met Anansi befor More...

5 comments like (35 people liked it)

Jun 17, 2008

Erika rated it:

The book begins, as most things do, with a song--karaoke in fact. Bad karaoke of the kind only fun with large amounts of alcohol and friends (or blonde, buxom women) who sing just as bad as you do with just as much drunken enthusiasm.

When we left Mr. Nancy (nan-cee from A-nan-si--get it? Gaiman: You. Me. Mad Gab match.) in American Gods he was winding down with Shadow at a karaoke bar. With Anansi Boys, Mr. Nancy--now, I'm-not-hiding-my-Godness-Anansi, we learn, has 2 children, More...

5 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Laura rated it:

Some people might prefer American Gods, with that epic tone, but I prefer Anansi Boys, and not just because it's entertaining and lighthearted, but because it seems to have been pulled off much more smoothly. Finally, Gaiman is writing about someone more like himself than Shadow was- a person who lives in England having adventures in America. Though Fat Charlie is American by origin, he's very British, and I guess that just made it easier for Gaiman because he took it and ran with it and everyth More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

k8lane rated it:

I'm not sure what I was expecting. I had quite a bit of knowledge about the Anansi stories going in (my dad, a college prof, was also a professional storyteller while I was growing up, and the Anasi stories were part of his routine) -- perhaps someone who was meeting Anansi for the first time via Gaiman would feel differently. Though multi-layered, it was light enough to feel deceptively simple, yet I felt as though it lacked... something.

Notes I made while reading (I read this for More...

5 comments like (8 people liked it)

Aug 18, 2010

Keely rated it:

One can catch snips of wit in any of Gaiman's books. Any good book must include some humor: an author might as futilely try to excise pain or desire from life as humor. Gaiman has never placed any such artificial limits on his work; indeed, the only limits on his books are those he, himself cannot overcome.

Previously, his humor was only an occasional element, but there was apparently something in the writing of this particular book which finally allowed him to unleash his sense of th More...

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 27, 2010

Brad rated it:

I love Neil Gaiman's Sandman so much that I am desperate to love the rest of his work, but I can't do much more than like it because it's mostly only okay.

He deals with all the stuff I love -- mythology, the occult, death, dreams, the urban fantastic -- but he's too tongue-in-cheek. When I read one of his novels, I feel like I'm reading the Nick Hornby of fantasy. Too clever, too hip and too cool for his own good.

It's not that I don't like his prose work. I do. And I even More...

11 comments like (16 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

nfwbls rated it:

I found Anansi Boys to be a bit of a disappointment after American Gods. It's definitely a lighter read, which isn't always a bad thing, but in this case the mix of humans and mythology lacked freshness. It was not only a paler imitation of American Gods but also of other novels with the same premise. It's not Gaiman's fault that just this last year I've read a number of young adult novels like "The Lightning Thief" that do the same thing better than Anansi Boys, but it certainly didn' More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Aug 22, 2011

Louize rated it:

The god with the green fedora is dead. And now, both his sons are in a big tangle of their own making. Without daddy to bail them out, they have to figure a way to untangle their selves. Hoping, maybe they can cheat death as cleverly as their daddy did.

While Neil Gaiman is the brilliant head behind this fun and unique story, Lenny Henry is the voice that transformed this story into Superb! I believe this book should be in the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list, 'cause More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 04, 2011

Kernos rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 20, 2010

Madeline rated it:

It's remarkable, really, how long I was permitted to exist without reading Neil Gaiman. In retrospect, I suppose it's a good thing that I didn't read any of his books until college - had I been exposed to his work in high school, the result would have been a near-obsession filled with pages of awful fanfiction and an emotional meltdown when I learned that Mr. Gaiman is happily married.

But this didn't happen, thankfully. My first Neil Gaiman book was American Gods, and when my roommate More...

2 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jan 04, 2011

Monica rated it:

I think I may have found a new favorite author! I happened to see a movie named "Stardust" one Sunday and I really enjoyed it. I researched more about the book and found out about Neil Gaiman. I had "Anansi Boys" on my list of books to read for a while and finally got around to downloading it. I love it! I'm only about half-way through but this book is like a fairy tale for adults and I'm totally digging it.

I have to say it started a bit slowly for me but in retrosp More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 19, 2009

Miriam rated it:

I think that Anansi, the trickster god accompanied me to the bookstore when I went to buy this book because moments after starting my car, the power steering line broke and the serpentine belt fell off. The mechanic told me these two things occurred independently, but they occurred at exactly the same moment....clearly trickster god involvement there. The bright spot of the car break down is that I took a day off of work so that I could take my car in and while the mechanics were working on i More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 11, 2011

Mike (the Paladin) rated it:

It seems that at times an author has an idea and then works it from many different points of view. Sometimes this works sometimes not. In this case it seems to have worked. Neil Gaiman at some point came up with the idea of "old gods" or "god beings" or possibly "godlike beings". I wasn't really bowled over by American Gods, nor for that matter by the follow up novella he wrote based on it later. This however is an excellent read.

We follow "Fat Char More...

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 10, 2010

Purplycookie rated it:

"Stories are webs, interconnected strand to strand, and you follow each story to the center, because the center is the end. Each person is a strand of story."

"Fat Charlie" Nancy leads a life of comfortable workaholism in London, with a stressful agent job he doesn't like much, and a pleasant fiancée, Rosie. When Charlie learns of the death of his estranged father in Florida, he attends the funeral and learns two facts that turn his well-ordered existence upside-do More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 05, 2009

Dark added it

ANANSI BOYS by Neil Gaiman
Review by Nickolas Cook

For those familiar with Gaiman's past work, like me, you've probably come to appreciate his intelligent humor, story telling élan, and philosophical bent on the human condition. With "Anansi Boys" he again proves all of those qualities and more.
'Fat' Charlie Nancy is the disgruntled son of the forgotten African god, Anansi (we met him in Gaiman's masterpiece to date, "American Gods"), a mischievous spi More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 10, 2008

Marc rated it:

I really had no idea what to expect from this book when a certain friend of mine loaned it to me. Reading the synopsis on the back, I thought, "This is going to be REALLY weird reading." And it was. But it was also a really good book that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Fat Charlie is a very dull person, who works in a dead-end job and has very little life. He is engaged to a girl who doesn't love him, but who stays with him because he's safe. His greatest goal in life is to avoi More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Feb 09, 2008

Chris rated it:

When I started in on this book, I knew there were a few things I could expect from Neil Gaiman - insight, clever twists on literary assumptions, a good perspective on the nature of our reality. What I didn't expect was to spend most of the book laughing out loud and disturbing the people around me.

Seriously, there were some times when teachers in the rooms next to the staff room had to explain to students that no, Chris is not eavesdropping and laughing at you, he just has a really f More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 30, 2008

Dini rated it:

"Stories are webs, interconnected, strand to strand, and you follow each story to the centre, because the centre is the end. Each person is a strand of story."

Neil Gaiman skillfully weaves the strands to make an amusing tale of two sons of the trickster spider-god, Anansi. Fat Charlie, who's actually only fat briefly during childhood, lives a normal if not boring life for twenty-something years without knowing the true identity of his estranged father. Only after his father More...

4 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 12, 2008

Donna rated it:

Okay, I just have to say this — Neil Gaiman is too fun for words. *grin* Anansi Boys is quite simply the funnest book I’ve read since I don’t know when. You know you’re into the pages of something truly wonderful when the book makes you laugh out loud – as you read – all alone — in your third-floor dusty garret. I’m sure my flatmate thinks I’ve quite lost my mind. Suffice it to say that Gaiman really knows how to spin a great story, or in this case maybe I should say “web.” Anansi Boys walks a v More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Sep 09, 2007

Lisa rated it:

What a great read! I have enjoyed all of the books I have read by Gaiman but this one in particular, I found exceptional. His style reminds me a bit of Christopher Moore with his subtle tongue in cheek humor. This story is about a "God" who dies and unbeknownst to his son Charlie, leaves him a portion of his godly powers. Charlie is a plain man with a bland life and no aspirations. He is getting married to a equally bland and uninteresting woman. This is how he comes to find out his fa More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jul 08, 2007

Scott rated it:

Even though I consistently enjoy him, I'm quite convinced that Gaiman is one of the most consistently overrated authors writing now. I somehow think that he may actually be a better essayist than storyteller, because he has very interesting ideas about the role of stories and myth, but, though he has hit a few narrative home runs (I think of The Game of You and Coraline in particular), most of his other works fall short for me storywise.

Maybe part of my problem with this book was re More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jun 27, 2007

Max rated it:

Neil Gaiman, author of American Gods, is a god of story telling. And his new novel, Anansi's Boys, is a story about a god of story telling.

You've all heard me mention Neil Gaiman before. He's more popularly known as the writer of the spectacular Sandman series. He's made many forays into fiction. His children's story, Coraline, won awards. His novel, Good Omens, co-written with Terry Pratchett, is a cult favorite. And the previously mentioned novel, American Gods, is one of the most More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 13, 2009

Dave rated it:

I was looking to listen to audiobooks on my commute and Jen recommended this. It is linked (in a small way) to American Gods, which I had already read and liked, so I decided to try it. It ended up being really good!

I think not all books work well as audiobooks, but this one is outstanding! Not only is the reader very good, but this is a story about stories, and Neil Gaiman has done a great job of making it feel a lot like story meant to be heard and told rather than read. This book More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 13, 2008

Happydog rated it:

Anansi Boys is not as intense as American Gods, and lighter in tone overall. It's also not as good as American Gods, but then again I think that American Gods is very, very good, and it would be hard to make every book that good every time out. The characters are likable and interesting, and the central twist of the book. although it's an idea that has been known of for years in mythology, is well handled. I think the word to describe this book is adroit. It is well crafted and moves swiftly, an More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jul 20, 2011

Zoe rated it:

Mr. Gaiman has the same problem as Terry Pratchet. He can present the material, but he can't make me care. It's not a good sign when you're halfway through a book and you realize that if you put down the book and walked away right then and there, and never found out how the book ended, you wouldn't care. I don't care whether things work out between him and Rosie. I don't care if his dad is still alive or not. I don't care if he and his brother ever make up. I wouldn't care if the author ended th More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Apr 22, 2009

SomePig rated it:

I have high expectations of Neil Gaiman. This book did not let me down. Anansi Boys is a compelling read that succeeds in simultaneously evoking humor and pathos. Like Gaiman's Stardust, The threads of the plot intertwine to create a tight, satisfying ending. The characters are interesting; the plot is never predictable. I love how, at its foundation, Anansi Boys is built on myth, song, and storytelling: where all great stories begin.

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 13, 2008

Brooke rated it:

This is a stand-alone book but also in a way a sequel to American Gods, which is one of my least favorite books of his. Anansi Boys is great though, his usual blend of legend, myth, folklore and wierdness, all brilliantly combined into a gumbo of a story. Enjoy!

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Feb 09, 2009

chambejd / Joy rated it:

I did enjoy this book though it is not one of my favorites. I'm not really one who enjoys tall tales or things that are over-the-top like I consider this story to be. I like believable things...it doesn't have to be real or actually possible, just beleivable. I was annoyed by Spider and, in the beginning, the brother situation reminded me of the friends in Fight Club.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 16, 2009

Meg rated it:

The last one hundred pages or so very much redeemed the first chunk of the book. Maybe it's because I have such a huge soft spot for American Gods, but Anansi (or his boys) would never have been the one I would have picked for the focus of a spin-off/sequel. Maybe it's because Wednesday lords over most of American Gods, but man, imagine a book filled with Wednesday and Loki just conning their way across the states.

But if you can get through the first 200 pages of not really havin More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

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