Anansi Boys (American Gods, #2)

by Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman, b. 11/10/1960. Bibliography: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Gaiman_bibliography British and Locus Fantasy Awards winner, 2006. I can find no record of this purchase, but I’m glad I have it, to read (again) for the Geeks Read discord group on June 4, 2024. A wise and witty effort, typical of Gaiman, with nice pics by Voss. The omniscient narrator is a treat - assured, smiling, honest (I think), and particularly helpful for scenes where no character is a witness, like the death of Fat Charlie’s father. Or when s/he archly addresses the reader directly, e,g., “Well, yours might not, but Fat Charlie’s certainly did.” p. 18. Also some foreshadowing, e.g., the end of chapter 1. Or just intrudes to tell us a story - s/he’s a bit of a trickster themself. He finally drops the veil entirely with “this author,” p. 330 Are there any unlikable characters here? The villain, Grahame Coats, of course, and how about also Mrs. Noah, Rosie’s mother? Any more? He telegraphs nearly everything, but it’s still a delight to discover what you knew all along. Are the four ladies all witches? Yup - p. 136 “the dusk chorus of a city,” starlings and commuters, p. 62 (The dusk sky was crosshatched with starlings) What is real and what is not? What’s real and what’s not? And does it matter? 66, 88, 95, 116, Charlie’s catchphrase: “Er. Right.” 7 times, plus variants. Charlie may be a Caspar Milquetoast but he’s got a *very* vivid imagination. E.g., “Fat Charlie wondered what Rosie’s mother would usually hear in a church. Probably just cries of “Back! Foul beast of Hell!” followed by gasps of “Is it alive?” and a nervous inquiry as to whether anybody had remembered to bring the stakes and hammers.” p. 84. Anansi the trickster god - “as if he were amused by everything—deeply, dangerously amused.” p. 90 Also Br’er Rabbit: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Br%27er_Rabbit Neither Spider nor dad are so selfish as Anansi in the story on p. 97, nor so mean as boiling Bird p. 158 ff. Starfish ch. 5 p. 94; ch. 13 p. 311 Yellow Bird (song), ch. 1 p. 10; ch. 14 p. 314 DREAMS 51, 94?, 130, 241, 245, And daydreams 61 QUOTES and allusions: John Donne 63 Robert Browning 106 Charles Dickens 131 Byron 145 Kipling 173 J.T. Edson and Louis L’Amour, 196 Franz Kafka 200, 207 Alfred Hitchcock 209 Cop movies: Clint Eastwood in Sudden Impact (1983) and Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon (1987) p. 239 Prometheus 241 Shakespeare 266 Bible (loaves ad fishes simile) 317 Andrew Marvell 328 MAGIC: Confidence plus atmosphere, p. 291 MUSIC: Songs create the world, p. 1 Each person has a song, p. 164 Songs make everything ok, p. 279 LESSONS: “Fat Charlie, if someone ever ask if you want to live to be hunnert and four, say no. Everything hurt. Everything.” Mrs Dunwiddy 234 “Anyone who calls you ‘little lady’ has already excluded you from the set of people worth listening to.” Daisy 289 reprise p. 318 “We don’t have long, Charlie. You want to spend the time we got left fighting?” Anansi 293 QUESTIONS: How did Anansi come to be living in the same neighborhood as the thee interesting women? And to be friends with them? Are they all from the same place? Is Rosie’s visit to St. Andrew’s at that time a coincidence? p. 268 Did their mom know all about Anansi? How did the boys get separated? 235, 293, 306, CHARACTERS: Fat Charlie Spider Rosie Noah Rosie’s mom - ridiculously bitter, because love killed her husband p. 284 Grahame Coats - villain, but so mercilessly mocked y the narrator that it’s hard to take him seriously Daisy 4 weird old women: Mrs Callyanne Higgler Mrs. Louella Dunwiddy Mrs. Bustamonte Miss Noles Maeve Livingstone, victim and duppy Old man in the graveyard - Anansi?

Hit the chapter link or swipe left to ToC for opening note.

Or spoken, Genesis 1, or musicked, The Silmarillion, Part I: Ainulindalë: The Music of the Ainur. All three evince a work of the Imagination.

The great beasts were sung into existence,

Fat Charlie Nancy’s father,

Fat Charlie’s father

With someone like this in the bar, it was going to be a good evening.

FAT CHARLIE

Simile unhelpful

Simile better

Haha yes, Mee too. Simile

Haha simile metaphor

Fat Charlie’s father’s names for things stuck. That was just how it was.

There had been, during the years that Fat Charlie was growing up, a number of candidates for the worst thing about his father:

his total and invincible ignorance

Haha Mee too

Haha

Now I see he was forever after called Fat Charlie.

Haha

Haha uh-oh ….

“Mrs. Higgler,”

“Yellow bird,”

Fat Charlie bit his lip, and prayed to anyone who might be listening

Haha

Simile weird.

Fat Charlie could think of nothing worse than having to attend a party in a cancer ward,

Is FC’s father magical? “Mr. Nancy” is Anansi!

Saint Andrews.

Fat Charlie wasn’t sure what was going on, but whatever it was, he blamed his father.

Haha - “blamed” him for giving his mother new life? How ungenerous.

Haha

Williamstown,

Saint Andrews.

Mrs. Higgler?”

according to Mrs. Higgler, who had not been there,

Haha. Glad there’s an omniscient narrator to assist.

Haha I’ll bet.

Simile haha

It’s worse when you’re embarrassed about something you were not even there to see:

Well, yours might not, but Fat Charlie’s certainly did.

Narrator!

Haha

Haha

Simile

Simile ewww

Haha

Haha

Haha

As do your readers, dear narrator.

Haha

Simile

And the dirt gets heavier and heavier, haha

Haha - makes you wonder ….

Context is everything.