American Gods

by Neil Gaiman (Goodreads author)

book data

22,668 ratings, 4.07 average rating, 2,471 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		39%
4		36%
3		17%
2		4%
1		1%

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published

March 4th 2002 (first published 2001) by Headline Book Publishing

binding

Paperback, 672 pages

characters

Shadow Moon, Mr. Wednesday

setting

The United States

literary awards

Hugo Award for Best Novel (2002), Nebula Award for Best Novel (2003), Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel (2001), SFX Magazine Award (2002), Geffen Award (2003)

isbn

0747263744 (isbn13: 9780747263746)

description

After three years in prison, Shadow has done his time. But as the days, then the hours, then the hours, then the seconds until his release tick away, ...more

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11/30/07

Natalie rated it:

(review of isbn 0380789035)

bookshelves: fantasy, fiction, urban-fantasy

First Neil Gaiman book I ever read, and it might be the last. The idea behind this book seemed so cool, but it didn't really play out in a way that engaged me.

In fact, I had three big problems with this book. (I'm vague at times to avoid spoilers.)

First, his characters are so emotionally detached that I can't care about them. I've read stories where emotional detachment is done well, in a way where you feel pain or pity or something for the character, but this was just.....more First Neil Gaiman book I ever read, and it might be the last. The idea behind this book seemed so cool, but it didn't really play out in a way that engaged me.

In fact, I had three big problems with this book. (I'm vague at times to avoid spoilers.)

First, his characters are so emotionally detached that I can't care about them. I've read stories where emotional detachment is done well, in a way where you feel pain or pity or something for the character, but this was just... hollow. I felt nothing in a bored way, instead of a profound way.

Second, the ending of the book felt like a cop out -- the story already felt aimless, and the one thing you think was going somewhere doesn't at all. I think it could have worked if it had been foreshadowed a little better, maybe? But even then, again, how do you care about what happened, given what happened? Similarly, the whole book has a disjointed, anticlimactic feel to it.

Third, I'm not sure what point the book is trying to make; the only points that jump out at me seem obviously flawed. And this is particularly bothersome, since he seems to definitely have *a* point.

For example, if he's trying to say that Americans care more about emerging technologies than religion, it's irrelevant to drive that point home by saying, "You know, no one worships Horus and Bast and the Norse pantheon anymore." No shit? Americans, and much of the rest of the world today, aren't polytheistic? Wow! That doesn't mean they aren't religious. I mean damn, if you have to skirt around the world's three major religions for your point to make sense, then maybe you don't have a point at all. Furthermore, it's simply not true that Americans are not religious; the United States is (perhaps unfortunately) one of the most religious first world countries.

Then at another junction in the book it seems that he's saying religion AND emerging technologies are all subject to being replaced by something else, which makes sense at least for the technology because it becomes outdated. So it's like he's saying Americans are fickle about what they "worship" and quickly pass it up for the next new thing. But yet again, what of the fact that Judaism and Christianity have been around for over two thousand years, and Islam for over a thousand? Again, it's no wonder why they're barely mentioned in the book; if it's fickle to still believe in a thousand year old religion just because we don't believe in even OLDER polytheistic religions, then shit, call us fickle then. How far back does a religion need to go to please this guy?

At yet another junction it seems like he's saying that both the old gods (polytheistic deities) and the new gods (technology) are things that just deceive people in some vague way, but he never really goes very far with this idea. At the end of the book I thought this must have been the point -- by process of elimination, no less -- but what kind of point is that? Both spirituality and materialism are deceptive, so what's the alternative? Are we supposed to be boring and hollow inside like the main character?

So really, at the end it just feels like a pretentious failure of an allegory where I didn't feel anything for any of the characters and the exciting thing that was supposed to happen didn't. Worse yet, it's a self-important book with no real point. Terribly disappointing.

(less)

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10/02/07

Dan rated it:

Read in October, 2007

recommends it for: americans, gods, and everyone inbetween

This book (in a very round about way) taught me what good literature is. My mother was telling me about this book, and commented that it is good literature. Now, I was surprised to hear this because Neil Gaiman is usually a nonstop sex and violence party of disaffected goth teenager fantasy. Furthermore, I didn't really believe in good literature. I had had so much obvious bull-plop literary analysis crammed down my throat in high school (A high school teacher once said to our class "In...more

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02/21/08

Trevor rated it:

I did like this, I liked this very much.

This was on my to read list and given I’ve never heard of the guy before it must have been recommended to me by someone. No idea who, though. It is a little surprising that when I looked no one I knew had reviewed this book. What had inspired me to read it is lost now.

A friend of mine wrote to me last week about her son’s interest in magic tricks – now, that must be the first time in years that I’ve thought about magic at ...more I did like this, I liked this very much.

This was on my to read list and given I’ve never heard of the guy before it must have been recommended to me by someone. No idea who, though. It is a little surprising that when I looked no one I knew had reviewed this book. What had inspired me to read it is lost now.

A friend of mine wrote to me last week about her son’s interest in magic tricks – now, that must be the first time in years that I’ve thought about magic at all. So, when this one started and the main character turns out to like doing coin tricks I had that strange feeling one sometimes gets when a couple of unexpected lines cross just as your passing and catch your heel so as to make you stumble and skip for a step or two.

There is a Gary Larson cartoon stacked full of all of the gods that no one believes in anymore – I can barely remember it – some sort of retirement home for forgotten gods. If you took that cartoon, stirred in some Tom Waits, added a dash or two of Joseph Campbell, sprinkled a handful of jet black humour, creamed in a murder mystery and plopped a few cubes of Houdini’s more impressive escape acts you might have some idea what this book is like.

More than once I laughed with pure delight, though more often I just smiled at how nicely this was written and how well the story was handled. Okay, it nearly got away from him towards the end and there was probably just a bit too much talking to camera at one point which is always the least impressive way to explain a major plotting point – even after all this had been handled so much competently (ie trusting the reader more) earlier in the book – I still loved this book.

The idea of the Gods being virtually unemployed and eking out a living on road kill or through prostitution was very amusing. Some of the asides were as interesting as the story itself. Who would have thought that Genies would be such queer things?

I’m not really one to read fantasy novels, but this one was quite something. Clever, fast paced and with themes of life, death, love, revenge, obligation, gratitude, desire, loss and the right time for things to happen – how could I not like this book?

I don't believe in God or Gods or so many things - but in fiction, when a mysterious character says, "Believe"... When that happens, I believe. I don't need Gods, but I do need myths and stories and the psychological truths they reveal.
(less)

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4 comments

06/08/08

David rated it:

bookshelves: book-to-re-read, classics, fantasy, science-fiction

Read in January, 2002

Anybody who tells you that the book is about old and new gods, or about a man named Shadow, or about coin tricks, or about having one's head smashed in for losing a game of checkers, is selling you a line, because those are just details, not the story itself.

Much like any Neil Gaiman story, the devil is in the details, and you just have to resolve yourself to coming along for the ride or you'll miss it. It's not one story, or two, it's many, and it's all complete...and you have to ju...more

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06/24/07

Gayla rated it:

(review of isbn 0380789035)

bookshelves: suspense-horror-mystery

Read in April, 2006

This book is great. At times its a little confusing what is going on in this story, but that just adds to the quality of it because the moment you figure out what is going on is like a great slap-in-the-face moment of understanding, like OHHHHHHHHHH, I ... GET IT! This book has some funny parts and it has some interesting concepts that makes you want to take a moment to ponder them, and I just really liked it.

Here is my FAVORITE excerpt from the book, a little long, but SOOO worth ...more This book is great. At times its a little confusing what is going on in this story, but that just adds to the quality of it because the moment you figure out what is going on is like a great slap-in-the-face moment of understanding, like OHHHHHHHHHH, I ... GET IT! This book has some funny parts and it has some interesting concepts that makes you want to take a moment to ponder them, and I just really liked it.

Here is my FAVORITE excerpt from the book, a little long, but SOOO worth reading. This excerpt I had found written somewhere prior to reading the book and was what brought me to seek out this book in the first place.

I can believe that things are true and I can believe things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not. I can believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and Marilyn Monroe and the Beatles and Elvis and Mister Ed. I believe that people are perfectible, that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis, nice ones that look like wrinkly lemurs and bad ones who mutilate cattle and want our water and our women. I believe that the future sucks and I believe that the future rocks and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back and kick everyone's ass. I believe that all men are just overgrown boys with deep problems communicating and that the decline in good sex in American is coincident with the decline in drive-in movie theatres from state to state. I believe that all politicians are unprincipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternate. I believe that California is going to sink into the sea when the big one comes, while Florida is going to dissolve into madness and alligators and toxic waste, I believe that antibacterial soap is destroying our resistance to dirt and disease so that one day we'll all be wiped out by the common cold like the Martians in War of the Worlds. I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith Sitwell and Don Marquis, that jade is dried dragon sperm, and that thousands of years ago in a former life I was a one-armed Siberian shaman, I believe that mankind's destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it's aerodynamically impossible for a bumblebee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there's a cat in a box somewhere who's alive and dead at the same time (although if they don't open the box to feed it it'll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself. I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn't even know that I'm alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of causal chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck. I believe that anyone who says that sex is overrated just hasn't done it properly. I believe that anyone who claims to know what's going on will lie about the little things too. I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies. I believe in a woman's right to choose, a baby's right to live, that while all human life is sacred there's nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can trust the legal system implicitly, and that no-one but a moron would ever trust the legal system. I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when your alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it.(less)

Like this review? yes (8 people liked it)

2 comments

06/05/07

Kelly rated it:

(review of isbn 0380789035)

bookshelves: fantasy, fiction

Read in January, 2008

I am giving this book four stars due to two simple facts: the insightful choice of concept and the brilliant way in which the concept was articulated and executed through Gaiman's writing.

I'll start with the idea: I will not claim that the ultimate idea behind this book is particularly novel: the battle of the old ways and the new for the souls of the future, the mixed blessing that is "progress", what we leave behind, and what we learn. These are staples of the fantasy ge...more

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08/29/07

Wade rated it:

Read in September, 2006

i'm a graduate student in theology, so how can i not love this book?
this book is one of the most creative descriptions of my own understanding of theology. gods do not exist on some eternal plane, but they rise and fall with the cultures and peoples who support and worship them. these gods have avatars in many different places--they are not a single entity but many that are called by the same name. mythologies can be more true than reality. and it's a good warning about how careful we sho...more

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06/29/07

Seth Hahne rated it:

(review of isbn 0380789035)

Read in May, 2007

After having come to appreciate Neil Gaiman's voice as expression in the delectable Anansi Boys and other treats (MirrorMask and select episodes from The Absolute Sandman), I thought I'd give American Gods another shot. Years ago, after it had first been released, I purchased it on the strength of rave reviews. I got about two-fifths through and just lost steam. The book is not exciting. Still, maybe it was worth it, so I began anew a couple months ago and read the thing through over the course ...more

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07/01/08

Oceana2602 rated it:

(review of isbn 0380789035)

bookshelves: 2007, english, fantasy, male-writers

Read in September, 2007

"Read Gaiman!" they say. "I can't believe you've never read Gaiman! You have GOT TO read Gaiman!" "Gaiman is SUCH an important part of popular culture and one of the BEST contemporary writers! You HAVE TO READ GAIMAN!"

Well, I've read Gaiman now.

Hi Gaiman!
Bye Gaiman!

Let me quote:
"American Gods is Neil Gaiman's best and most ambitious novel yet, a scary, strange, and hallucinogenic road-trip story wrapped arou...more

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04/15/08

April rated it:

(review of isbn 0380789035)

Read in April, 2008

This is my first Neil Gaiman book. I've been dying to try one of his books since I saw Stardust in the theaters, and to be honest I think I should have started with Stardust itself. American Gods just didn't appeal to me as much as I thought it would, and I wavered on giving between three and four stars on this one.

What primarily turned me off a little was the subject, the various gods from various cultures -- not so much the gods themselves, but the entire hodge podge collection of ...more This is my first Neil Gaiman book. I've been dying to try one of his books since I saw Stardust in the theaters, and to be honest I think I should have started with Stardust itself. American Gods just didn't appeal to me as much as I thought it would, and I wavered on giving between three and four stars on this one.

What primarily turned me off a little was the subject, the various gods from various cultures -- not so much the gods themselves, but the entire hodge podge collection of them, the combination of rare, small, and obscure gods, and all of them explained very little or not at all. I am versed in and like some Greek mythology, but none of those gods were featured here. We have Norse, Hindu, African, and what have you, but none of those gods really tweaked my interest as I know very little about them and the author didn't really get into them. He made a whole lot of references to the old myths and the old images, as though he expected the reader to already know about them or to go and find out about them. I'm familiar with some of the Irish and Asian references, as well as some of the Native American and older pagan stuff, but they played only a small part in the book.

I kept thinking that the author must like the idea of footnotes in his book one day when he's long gone and his book is taught in a literature class. That, or the book is intended as something like an inside joke, something that only other fellow voracious readers of every imaginable god in all of time and history would truly and perfectly understand.

On another level, I suppose the offhand references to these gods with very little explanation was intended to illustrate just how much of these gods we have forgotten -- except in my case I never knew most of them, so there was nothing to forget in the first place. Rather than intrigue me to want to read more about the original gods, it made me feel either that I was blindly reaching out for anything familiar among all the weird symbolism and obscure references or simply drudging through them, hoping that it didn't really matter.

The whole concept, however, was very intriguing, though I think an old one. I have always imagined what it must be like for all the old country ways and beliefs to be reborn and evolved in this country -- a melting pot of nearly everything from the old world.

However, I did eventually get into the subject. The road story helped to provide me with something on which I could primarily focus, though the whole journey seemed kind of aimless at first. I couldn't relate to Shadow very well because he didn't seem to have much of a will or much of an opinion. He just sort of let himself float like a leaf in the wind, allowing some stranger whose mead he drank make all the decisions. Despite what we find out in the end, I couldn't understand his attachment to Wednesday, which was so strong that he was willing to give up his life for him.

And all the references to a storm about to brew, a war about to be waged, only brought to mind Stephen King's The Last Stand. With that and the gods, it felt just a tad derivative.

BUT ... the book got better towards the end. The true purpose of the journey made itself clear to Shadow, which explained the earlier plot points somewhat. Some of the revelations could have used a little more foreshadowing, though, or perhaps a little bit of flashback to remind the reader of what came before, because when Shadow had his discoveries and epiphanies, I couldn't even fully remember the initial mention of the mysteries.

It was in the trunk, for instance.

I remember the joke or the story being told about the man with the elephant head, or perhaps it was an illustration of a coin trick -- I don't quite remember -- but when Shadow recalls it, only that tiny bit about it being in the trunk is repeated. There's no flashback to remind the reader who said it (was it Mr. Nancy?) and what the context was, and there's no other mention of that bit about the trunk, nothing to make the reader think that perhaps that bit of information might be significant later -- significant enough that when Shadow recalls it, poof! He has a big idea.

Despite my nitpicks, I enjoyed the book, and I could not have predicted the ending, which I liked. I'm still eager to read Gaiman's other books, and I know I will probably like them better. This one was just not to my taste as I had hoped.

Finished reading April 23, 2008.(less)

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12/29/08

Laura rated it:

(review of isbn 0380973650)

bookshelves: adventure, fantasy, mythology

Read in July, 2001

American Gods is so different, and rambling, that I think it takes a couple of readings to take it all in. Play spot-the-god, enjoy the interludes, be happy to have grown up in Lakeside, CA and not the Lakeside in this book (shudder).
A good story about this one: I pre-ordered it and had it mailed to camp, because it was published in (I think) July. That weekend, my friend Chelsea was staying with me over the break. I had already warned her that I planned to see Neil Gaiman reading and s...more

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10/02/08

Becky rated it:

(review of isbn 0380789035)

bookshelves: --2009--, 4-star, fantasy, mythology, owned, owned-read, reviewed, tnbbc-winter-challenge-08, _author-gaiman-n

Read in February, 2009

This was my first of Gaiman's novels-- not counting Good Omens, which he co-authored with Terry Pratchett-- and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Both books took well-known themes and twisted them into something new and unique, and I really enjoy that. I will definitely be reading more of Gaiman's work.

I really liked the concept of this book. In a very amateur way, I enjoy mythology, mysticism, religions, rituals and belief structures. By "amateur way" I mean that I am interested i...more This was my first of Gaiman's novels-- not counting Good Omens, which he co-authored with Terry Pratchett-- and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Both books took well-known themes and twisted them into something new and unique, and I really enjoy that. I will definitely be reading more of Gaiman's work.

I really liked the concept of this book. In a very amateur way, I enjoy mythology, mysticism, religions, rituals and belief structures. By "amateur way" I mean that I am interested in these things, but I'm too lazy to actually "study" it. I like the entertainment that mythology and the like offer, I like the escapism. One passage that I really liked from the book represents this perfectly:

"Fiction allows us to slide into these other heads, these other places, and look out through other eyes. And then in the tale we stop before we die, or we die vicariously and unharmed, and in the world beyond the tale we turn the page or close the book, and we resume our lives." (pg. 323)

Anyway... This is one of those rare treats of a book that never fully give up their secrets on the first reading. As I was going through, I marked some passages that made me sit back, reread and just absorb them. One, which I found almost heartbreakingly sad and cruel, is:

"A whole life in darkness, surrounded by filth, that was what Shadow dreamed, his first night in Lakeside. A child's life, long ago and far away, in a land across the ocean, in the lands where the sun rose. But this life contained no sun-rises, only dimness by day and blindness by night.

Nobody spoke to him. He heard human voices, from outside, but could understand human speech no better than he understood the howling of the owls or the yelps of dogs.

He remembered, or thought he remembered, one night, half a lifetime ago, when one of the big people had entered, quietly, and had not cuffed him or fed him, but had picked him up to her breast and embraced him. She smelled good. Hot drops of water had fallen from her face to his. He had been scared, and wailed loudly in his fear.

She put him down on the straw, hurriedly, and left the hut, fastening the door behind her.

He remembered that moment, and he treasured it, just as he remembered the sweetness of a cabbage heart, the tart taste of plums, the crunch of apples, the greasy delight of roasted fish.

And now he saw the faces in the firelight, all of them looking at him as he was led out from the hut for the first time, which was the last time. So that was what people looked like. Raised in darkness, he had never seen faces. Everything was so new. So strange. The bonfire light hurt his eyes. They pulled on the rope around his neck, to lead him to the place where the man waited for him.

And when the first blade was raised in the firelight, what a cheer went up from the crowd. The child from the darkness began to laugh with them, in delight and in freedom.

And then the blade came down."

After finishing the book, I came back to this passage and found it even more interesting after learning the implications. I feel like when I revisit this book there will be a TON of missed references sprinkled throughout the book. I look forward to it. (less)

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07/08/08

Jackie "the Librarian" rated it:

bookshelves: adultfiction, fantasy

Read in July, 2008

recommended to Jackie "the Librarian" by: Randomanthony, I think
recommends it for: If you are interested in mythology, and like fantasy

This is a work of dark, urban fantasy with roots going back to the dawn of man. The old gods who came to America with immigrants from cultures worldwide have faded with their believers. Now, they are in a battle for existence with the new deities of technology, transportation, and telecommunication. Can Odin rally the old gods to battle? Or is it too late?

* I really like all the background mythology flashbacks, with the different cultures and gods. And I was verrrry curious as to who...more

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18 comments

03/14/08

whatthedeuce rated it:

This is yet another book that has me feeling a bit ambiguous now that I'm finished with it because I didn't exactly enjoy it as much as I'd expected, but there were definitely aspects of it that I liked and that made the novel worthwhile. For one thing, it took me over 150 pages before I got anywhere near oriented about the events taking place and thus could start becoming interested in what was happening. I was seriously so confused at the start when Shadow met Wednesday on the plane, but I bel...more This is yet another book that has me feeling a bit ambiguous now that I'm finished with it because I didn't exactly enjoy it as much as I'd expected, but there were definitely aspects of it that I liked and that made the novel worthwhile. For one thing, it took me over 150 pages before I got anywhere near oriented about the events taking place and thus could start becoming interested in what was happening. I was seriously so confused at the start when Shadow met Wednesday on the plane, but I believe it may very well have been Gaiman's intention for the reader to be as bewildered as Shadow himself initially is after he discovers his wife has died and that he's about to leave prison a tad earlier than expected. I can appreciate that because I think it's never a bad thing if a writer can evoke the same feelings and/or responses in the reader that his/her characters are enduring. That mirror effect is intriguing and not easy to produce, I'm sure. Anyway, once I grew familiar with the characters and grasped what was happening to Shadow, I found myself caring about the tribulations the character endured and became immersed in what was agonies and trials he'd face next. I also enjoyed the premise of old and new gods facing off against each other, the old gods being figures from immigrant folklore, and the new ones being incarnations of modern technology, such as television and the Internet. The book compelled me to examine what it is that we Americans hold dear nowadays, and I have to say that I felt guilty for being so attached to things like clothes and the myriad TV shows I watch. I can well imagine how an old god might harbor resentment towards those that have forsaken their ethnic and/or religious roots in place for glitzy false idols, but I also know how difficult it would be to shake off the new gods that surround us today. I certainly wasn't expecting Gaiman to raise questions about what and how people worship, but he did exactly that, and he achieved that in a startlingly grim, but compelling, manner. I thought I'd walk away from the novel feeling gloomy and dejected, but it left me hopeful, really. Hopeful for what, I'm not entirely sure, but I think there may be a future reading more Neil Gaiman stories waiting for me! When all's said and done, I'd recommend this to anyone looking for a more slowly-paced and thought-provoking read.(less)

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01/18/08

Loren rated it:

(review of isbn 0060558121)

Read in November, 2007

From ISawLightningFall.blogspot.com

American Gods, the fourth novel by Neil Gaiman is an unholy mess. (I’m writing as a fan.) Yet it’s also an intriguing, engrossing read.

The premise goes something like this: Shadow, an unlucky ex-con, gets out of prison and is almost immediately recruited by a mysterious fellow who calls himself Wednesday. (Yes, as in the day of the week.) Turns out that Wednesday is actually an incarnation of sorts of the ancient Norse god Odin. Gaim...more From ISawLightningFall.blogspot.com

American Gods, the fourth novel by Neil Gaiman is an unholy mess. (I’m writing as a fan.) Yet it’s also an intriguing, engrossing read.

The premise goes something like this: Shadow, an unlucky ex-con, gets out of prison and is almost immediately recruited by a mysterious fellow who calls himself Wednesday. (Yes, as in the day of the week.) Turns out that Wednesday is actually an incarnation of sorts of the ancient Norse god Odin. Gaiman’s central conceit is that immigrants brought their native deities to America and, when their devotion began to wane, abandoned them to diminished lives as petty grifters. Wednesday’s goal is to bring his compatriots together against a new threat. During a confab, he proclaims, “There are new gods growing in America, clinging to growing knots of belief: 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.”

That quirky central logic, the idea that American versions of ancient (and modern) gods are still bumping around, is the book’s most interesting part. Shadow encounters scores of figures from Chinese, Native American, African, Indian and German pantheons, just to name a few. Gaiman obviously possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of ancient mythology, and the ease with which he redacts his gods into the 21st century is enviable. Try to figure out you’d convincingly fit a child-snatching kobold into small-town Minnesota, and you’ll get an idea of the breadth of his imagination.

The novel also fascinates because it insists that secular, skeptical Americans still worship gods, albeit ones they may not immediately recognize. The Internet (a fat, unsocialized kid who cruises around in a limo) and Media (a pert, professionally dressed woman who speaks entirely in clichés) and Television (whose spokesmen include Mary Tyler Moore and Lucille Ball) all make appearances. “I’m the all-seeing eye and the world of the cathode ray,” Television tells Shadow. “I’m the little shrine the family gathers to adore.” When Shadow asks what sacrifices people bring her, she replies, “Their time, mostly. Sometimes each other.”

In the end, though, the theology of American Gods is strictly secular. That might seem odd, given that deities pop up everywhere from New York cabs to Midwestern supermarkets. But to a one they’re disappointingly small things, pitiful things, the product of peoples’ belief instead of the inspiration for it. Man is at the peak of Gaiman’s Olympus, not Zeus. An ancient priestess tells her tribe, “Gods are great. But the heart is greater. For it is from our hearts they come, and to our hearts they shall return.” After Shadow chides Wednesday for trying to steal $10 from a waitress, the god explodes, “What the hell else can I do? They don’t sacrifice rams or bulls to me. They don’t send me the souls of killers and slaves, gallows-hung and raven-picked. They made me. They forgot me. Now I take a little back from them.” Even Christ can’t escape marginalization. “Jesus does pretty good over here,” one being tells Shadow. “But I met a guy who said he saw him hitchhiking by the side of the road in Afghanistan and nobody was stopping to give him a ride. You know? It all depends on where you are.”

This is where the conceit starts to unravel, because a god of one’s own imagining isn’t really a god at all. Shadow’s conclusion that “people imagine and people believe: and it is that belief, that rock-solid belief, that makes things happen” rings false in a world where birds of thunder flash across the sky and leprechauns snatch gold coins from midair and the pagan goddess Estore scatters flowers behind her as she walks. A gripping plot might have distracted from this contradiction, but American Gods doesn't really have much of one. I suppose it’s good that it doesn’t.(less)

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08/28/07

Jane rated it:

(review of isbn 0380789035)

bookshelves: fantasy-sci-fi

Read in August, 2007

So I understand the hype now. I'd made the mistake of picking and reading Anansi Boys first as it sort of hits my embarrassment squick and I was forced to abandon/skim the book. As a result, the American Gods universe didn't hold my interest as it should. It didn't help that the back flap had created a first impression that American Gods was more of the horror/thriller genre (which it is not, btw). But the book was on sale at the library so I decided to give it a try nonetheless as Neil G...more

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05/29/07

Nichole rated it:

bookshelves: fantasy

Read in June, 2007

I feel a sort of obligation to like Neil Gaiman simply because he's good friends with Tori Amos, who I love. So that of course colored my decision to read this book, and was hovering over me the whole time. I kept hearing things like "So where's Neil when you need him?" and "If you need me, me and Neil'll be hanging out with the Dream King" running through my head.
But about this book. The premise of the book was actually quite intriguing. Every culture across the world ...more

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12/24/08

Quandra Chaffers rated it:

Read in July, 2007

I enjoyed the Sandman graphic novels by Gaiman. I appreciated that Gaiman is well read in myths and incorporated diverse array of cultures and characters into his writings. However, those novels were freaky and they are more compilation of several loosely short stories than an on going series. All the same I wondered what he would do with an adult novel, and I am constantly looking for new good Fantasy novels.

It's easy to instantly fall in love with Shadow, the muscular ex-con protag...more

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12/28/07

Randomanthony rated it:

bookshelves: favorites

Read in December, 2002

recommends it for: People who don't hate fantasy...

Neil Gaiman transcends the "fantasy fiction is only for nerds" stereotype every time out of the box, but this book is a remarkable achievement that deserves greater attention. Plus, I'm from the American midwest, and much of this book is set in places I've explored. I've read this book three times...each time I feel as if I discover it new.

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01/17/09

Sonja rated it:

Read in February, 2009

Somewhere over the rainbow- the gods live.

Except they don't; they live right here. In our own world. Living our miserable lives. God is a bus driver, a prostitute, god owns a local bar.

They are forgotten and replaced, forced to live the same pitiful existence as the humans they once ruled; only with the painful memory of their once glorious reign.

This book is magnificent. Amazing, breathtaking, epic. I loved reading it, walking into that incredible world where...more

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quotes from this book

""This is the only country in the world," said Wednesday, into the stillness, "that worries about what it is." "What?" "The rest of them know what they are. No one ever needs to go searching for the heart of Norway. Or looks for the soul of Mozambique. They know what they are."" More quotes...