Is That Taxi Driver a God?
A mythical, streetwise travelogue through a country that's forgetting its past.
American Gods won the 2002 Hugo, Nebula and Bram Stoker awards for Best Novel. Not bad. It's no surprise that the book was written by Neil Gaiman, whose Sandman became in 1991 one of the most popular, bizarre and acclaimed comics.
American Gods tells the story of Shadow, a tough and taciturn guy who has just been released from prison to find that his wife, Laura, has died in a car accident. She was with Shadow's best friend in a position most of us wouldn't want to find our loved one, dead or alive.
Just then, when Shadow's life seems to be just a memory going down the toilet, a mysterious character, who has the strange ability of being wherever our hero happens to be, offers him a job as a bodyguard and gofer.
Say hello to Mr. Wednesday. If you've been practicing your Old Norse, or just take a look at the Wikipedia, you'll soon find out who this gentleman may be.
What the hell, thinks Shadow, and he takes the job (perhaps thinking that being a widower and performing a few coin tricks is not enough to land a better job).
What comes next is the journey of Mr. Wednesday and Shadow through America's Midwest, meeting with some long forgotten fellows and trying to convince them to join them in a battle against a new common enemy.
The... people... they visit are the gods who arrived to America many years ago, gods that are being rapidly discarded, nearly extincted, and replaced by the new American Gods, those who represent the new religions of money, media and technology. Those are the new bad guys, ruffians with names such as Mr. Town, Mr. Street and Mr. World. These are the real American Gods.
With dark humor and keen insight Gaiman introduces us to ancient Slavic gods, Norse legends and a few Egyptian deities. At times it seems Shadow can't go anywhere without bumping into some god, disguised as your average Joe or Jane.
Shadow starts wondering what's his role in this strange tale, but never thinks he's going nuts, not even when meeting a buffalo man babbling in his dreams or having grim chats with his beloved Laura.
American Gods is not only about Shadow. It's about the spirit of America, if there's still one. The towns and places Shadow visits are part of the tapestry that Gaiman, an English living in Minnesota, weaves around a big country, its diversions, people and culture. Americana meets myth and slang.
This is a bad land for gods
Along the novel there are many stories of the past. Stories of people who brought their dreams, their beliefs and their gods in the journey to America. People who later became part of an unthinking mass, losing their valuable heritage and melting into a mock of national identity.
These small tales are full with tradition, metaphors and Gaiman's smart writing.
Shadow, a guy we learn to care about, discovers in his adventures with the gods much more about himself than he ever imagined. He also finds out that gods and humans have a lot in common.
I enjoyed the ride I took with Shadow and the American Gods through America and a few other places, it felt much more vivid than many of my real travels.
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Submitted by alexis on Sat, 2006-08-19 04:16. Find more books
There are some gods missing
But overall is a nice book, quite crazy and fantastic indeed.
I got lost in some parts, the stories inside the story for example, but once I catched the plot and the general idea it was very funny.
I'm not a comics addict but a few years ago a friend told me about the sandman and I read a few issues, wild thing too!