Natalie's review

I couldn't agree more, Natalie, but I didn't have the energy to write out everything you so eloquently stated. No point re-inventing the wheel. :) I couldn't have said it better myself, and clearly, I didn't even try. I found the last half of the book aimless and the last quarter self-indulgent. I stuck it out but was anxious for it to end.

I also agree with your review, but I do recommend that you try other books by Gaiman, especially Neverwhere and Coraline.

I'll take your advice - at least I'll read Neverwhere. I've heard good things about it. I read Stardust, which I thought was really tight in terms of the narrative, which is why I was so surprised and put off by the circuitous narrative of American Gods. Anyway - thanks for the advice! Working my way through Uncle Tom's Cabin. I think some Russian literature is next, but I'll come back to Gaiman. Only because you said to. :)

Thanks, Kuba. If I get the time I may give those books you mentioned a try. :-) When I wrote the review everyone I knew who liked Neil Gaiman seemed to think American Gods was the pinnacle of his work, but since then I've also run across some Neil Gaiman fans who didn't like American Gods very much.

Gaiman is much better at short stories than novels. I'd recommend Smoke and Mirrors or Fragile Things, collections of his short pieces, over any of his novels.

Thanks for the tip, Sharon! A bit back I picked up one of his short story collections in the store. I read the first one and I liked it, so that seems like it could be the case. :-)

I agree and wish that I had read your review on this book earlier. You've voiced a lot of what was bothering me, too.

It hasn't put me off to trying Gaiman's other books, though. I've been told he's a hit-or-miss kind of author.

I heartedly disagree. The point of the novel is to emphasize how gods are revered and then forgotten as time goes on. The main character was based on a Norse god himself. The characters may seem detached, but in reality, they are fighting a fight against an age when people forget about their spirituality and concentrate on material things.

To me, this book is brilliant and the pinnacle of Mr. Gaiman's efforts. I enjoy his turn of phrase in most of his work, but this one is stellar.

I agree with Dan. I feel that the book's intention is to say how cultureless America can be sometimes. Let's go with your argument about religion for right now. You say that a religion being over 2,000 years old is here to stay, or at least you infer it. When you look at the total history of mankind, realistically, monotheism in general is a very new idea. And how many people do you know that say they're a religion but never actually practice it? I'd say about 65% for me, personally. There are so many people who drift through their lives, calling themselves Christian, who probably would rather spend time on the computer than go to church on Sunday (or Synagog/Mosque on Saturday).
Anyway, point is, they call America a melting pot for a reason, our culture is realistically nothing more than a random mesh of cultures all crushed together. I think that, as a people, in the process of becoming one nation, we lost something of who we were culturally.
But that's just my opinion.

Wow. I thought about writing a review, but now I don't think I need to. You've expressed everything I felt about the book, and more (didn't think about the still-active religions that Gaiman skipped over). After this book and Stardust the movie, which didn't impress me either, I've been hesitant to give this guy another shot, but I'll check out those short stories sometime.