Goodreads | Chris's review

Chris's review

Anansi Boys: A Novel
by Neil Gaiman (Goodreads author!)

[close]

blog this review

Copy/paste the text below into your blog.

<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/373951.Anansi_Boys_A_Novel?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Anansi Boys: A Novel" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1174261494m/373951.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/373951.Anansi_Boys_A_Novel?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Anansi Boys: A Novel</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1882.Neil_Gaiman">Neil Gaiman</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/14145499?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 5 of 5 stars 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 funny book. I can only hope they believed them. Either way, I'm sure Anansi would be very happy to know it.
 
 The book was, of course, wonderful. While by no means a sequel to <a href="/search/search?q=American Gods&t=title">American Gods</a>, it inhabits the same universe. It follows the unfortunately nicknamed Fat Charlie, whose life has been ruined by his father's death across the Atlantic. Fat Charlie wasn't his real name, of course, only a nickname given to him by his father. But his father gave names that stuck like gum to the underside of a school desk, and no matter where he went, Charlie Nancy inevitably became Fat Charlie.
 
 The reason for this phenomenon, of course, is that Fat Charlie's father is a god. He is Anansi, the Spider, a trickster god who managed to steal all the stories from Tiger back when humanity was young, and who managed to trick, deceive, swindle and humiliate nearly every other god there ever was. He was good at it, and nothing he wanted that he couldn't get.
 
 Fat Charlie was, very probably, a disappointment. Where his father was debonair, Fat Charlie was a klutz. Where his father could command the respect of men and women, Fat Charlie was a doormat. Where his father was the embodiment of confidence, Fat Charlie was a crumbly mess. I suppose it's normal, really, being the child of a god, and not really his fault, even if he didn't know it until his father was dead.
 
 He didn't know about his brother, either. And when Spider comes into the picture, everything goes horribly, horribly wrong. Think The Odd Couple, except that Oscar Madison has divine powers and absolutely no sense of consequence.
 
 This is a funny, funny book that reminds me in places of <a href="/search/search?q=Dave Barry&t=author">Dave Barry</a>, though that might be a side effect of the Florida settings. There's also a few footnote jokes, so I suspect that Neil has been hanging out with <a href="/search/search?q=Terry Pratchett&t=author">Terry Pratchett</a> recently. Despite the laugh-out-loud general tone of the book, there's a lot of Meaning to be found as well - the meaning of story and song, of family, and why you should always be nice to spiders. And birds. Definitely be nice to birds.
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/858949?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Chris's review
rating:
bookshelves: fantasy, gaiman, top-shelf

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 funny book. I can only hope they believed them. Either way, I'm sure Anansi would be very happy to know it.

The book was, of course, wonderful. While by no means a sequel to American Gods, it inhabits the same universe. It follows the unfortunately nicknamed Fat Charlie, whose life has been ruined by his father's death across the Atlantic. Fat Charlie wasn't his real name, of course, only a nickname given to him by his father. But his father gave na...more 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 funny book. I can only hope they believed them. Either way, I'm sure Anansi would be very happy to know it.

The book was, of course, wonderful. While by no means a sequel to American Gods, it inhabits the same universe. It follows the unfortunately nicknamed Fat Charlie, whose life has been ruined by his father's death across the Atlantic. Fat Charlie wasn't his real name, of course, only a nickname given to him by his father. But his father gave names that stuck like gum to the underside of a school desk, and no matter where he went, Charlie Nancy inevitably became Fat Charlie.

The reason for this phenomenon, of course, is that Fat Charlie's father is a god. He is Anansi, the Spider, a trickster god who managed to steal all the stories from Tiger back when humanity was young, and who managed to trick, deceive, swindle and humiliate nearly every other god there ever was. He was good at it, and nothing he wanted that he couldn't get.

Fat Charlie was, very probably, a disappointment. Where his father was debonair, Fat Charlie was a klutz. Where his father could command the respect of men and women, Fat Charlie was a doormat. Where his father was the embodiment of confidence, Fat Charlie was a crumbly mess. I suppose it's normal, really, being the child of a god, and not really his fault, even if he didn't know it until his father was dead.

He didn't know about his brother, either. And when Spider comes into the picture, everything goes horribly, horribly wrong. Think The Odd Couple, except that Oscar Madison has divine powers and absolutely no sense of consequence.

This is a funny, funny book that reminds me in places of Dave Barry, though that might be a side effect of the Florida settings. There's also a few footnote jokes, so I suspect that Neil has been hanging out with Terry Pratchett recently. Despite the laugh-out-loud general tone of the book, there's a lot of Meaning to be found as well - the meaning of story and song, of family, and why you should always be nice to spiders. And birds. Definitely be nice to birds....less

Like this review? yes flag

comments (showing 0-0 of 0)

newest »

date

all Chris's books »