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A review by enobong
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
2.0
If you’ve never reads Neil Gaiman novel before, maybe don’t make this your first one 😅
I’ve wanted to read Coraline and Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman for a while now but this year I basically only have time to listen to audiobooks and I sneak in a few physical books when I’m able so I searched my local library to see which Neil Gaiman audiobooks they had available and all they had was American Gods (I was put on the waitlist for Coraline).
I was intrigued by the premise. Every immigration that has landed on American has brought with them their own gods from their native lands. But America is no place for gods. It’s a land of skepticism and unbelief and the gods are suffering and slowly dying out. The new gods do not believe there is enough space for the old and so a battle is waged. At the middle of all this turmoil is Shadow, an ex-convict who loses his wife the day he is set to be released and becomes the errand boy of a Mr Wednesday aka Odin. Shadow enters into a strange, wonderful, deceptive world of mythology and finds himself embroiled in the battle for America’s soul.
I enjoy a good thriller, I love mythology, and you can’t go wrong with a good hero story… or so I thought. I found myself spending too much time trying to figure out which gods from which mythological pantheons were being featured and not enough time actually caring about the characters. I also couldn’t help feeling like I’d read a much better version of this story… it’s a called THE STAND by Stephen King. Now that one should read.
Then there were things that just didn’t track such as Anansi having a Caribbean accent when he’s a west African god, the Queen of Sheba being blonde when she’s either Arab or Ethiopian and just the overall writing of women in general.
What I thought worked well is that as a Brit, Gaiman was able to bring an outside view of what the rest of the world sees about America. Sometimes Americans are too entrenched in the cult of America to be able to write an honest viewpoint and that worked well here.
Final verdict: it’s not worth your time.
I’ve wanted to read Coraline and Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman for a while now but this year I basically only have time to listen to audiobooks and I sneak in a few physical books when I’m able so I searched my local library to see which Neil Gaiman audiobooks they had available and all they had was American Gods (I was put on the waitlist for Coraline).
I was intrigued by the premise. Every immigration that has landed on American has brought with them their own gods from their native lands. But America is no place for gods. It’s a land of skepticism and unbelief and the gods are suffering and slowly dying out. The new gods do not believe there is enough space for the old and so a battle is waged. At the middle of all this turmoil is Shadow, an ex-convict who loses his wife the day he is set to be released and becomes the errand boy of a Mr Wednesday aka Odin. Shadow enters into a strange, wonderful, deceptive world of mythology and finds himself embroiled in the battle for America’s soul.
I enjoy a good thriller, I love mythology, and you can’t go wrong with a good hero story… or so I thought. I found myself spending too much time trying to figure out which gods from which mythological pantheons were being featured and not enough time actually caring about the characters. I also couldn’t help feeling like I’d read a much better version of this story… it’s a called THE STAND by Stephen King. Now that one should read.
Then there were things that just didn’t track such as Anansi having a Caribbean accent when he’s a west African god, the Queen of Sheba being blonde when she’s either Arab or Ethiopian and just the overall writing of women in general.
What I thought worked well is that as a Brit, Gaiman was able to bring an outside view of what the rest of the world sees about America. Sometimes Americans are too entrenched in the cult of America to be able to write an honest viewpoint and that worked well here.
Final verdict: it’s not worth your time.