|
|
| Friday, January 15, 2010 03:43 PM |
| Book Report - American Gods |
 by Fëanor |
One describes a tale best by telling the tale. You see? The way one describes a story, to oneself or to the world, is by telling the story. It is a balancing act and it is a dream. The more accurate the map, the more it resembles the territory. The most accurate map possible would be the territory, and thus would be perfectly useless.
The tale is the map that is the territory.
You must remember this.
-Mr. Ibis in Neil Gaiman's American Gods
For some reason, even though I'd read and enjoyed many comic books by Neil Gaiman, and seen various movies based on his work, and I follow him on Twitter, I'd never gotten around to reading any of his non-graphic fiction. (Well, I did read a preview of Odd and the Frost Giants, which I liked, and the beginning of Good Omens, which I didn't, but as I didn't finish either work, they don't really count.) The last time I was looking around for something to read, I decided to finally correct this oversight, and picked up a copy of American Gods. I'd heard mixed things about it, but it was what I had on hand, so I decided to give it a shot.
It sunk its talons into me right away. I'm still in the process of writing my own novel at the moment, so what I felt a number of times while reading this book, especially during the opening sequence, was envy. When our main character, Shadow, first slips into his recurring dream about a buffalo-headed man sitting beside a fire in a cave, the magic and mystery of it gave me chills.
Shadow is a two-bit thief waiting out a five year prison sentence, counting down the days until he can return home to his wife Laura. But on the eve of this simple dream being fulfilled, it's snatched away from him forever. He finds himself set adrift without purpose and without hope. In this blank and vulnerable state, he's easily convinced to accept an offer of employment as bodyguard from a mysterious man named Wednesday. Wednesday is a conman, a grifter, a master manipulator, and a born leader. His true identity quickly becomes clear to anybody with a basic knowledge of mythology. Shadow is a little slower to figure it out, but he gets there in the end. Wednesday reveals to Shadow another world that exists parallel with the one he's always known, and involves him in an epic conflict that's brewing between the old Gods and the new Gods of America.
But that's not the only story in the book. In fact, it's crammed to bursting with subplots and backstory and dreams and jokes and histories and supplemental tales, all of them fascinating, all of them interconnected. It's a tale of tales, a tale of the power of belief. The Gods in it are just people, and the people are stronger. It's achingly beautiful and wise. It's full of wonderful characters - like Czernobog and Wednesday - and entrancing settings - like Lakeside and The House on the Rock. It's a great work of art, but also an irresistible page-turner. It's an incredibly impressive book.
But as Mr. Ibis points out, the best way to describe a story is to tell the story. Thus the best way to experience American Gods is to read it. So if you haven't done that yet, I recommend you do so at the earliest opportunity.
"Gods are great," said Atula, slowly, as if she were imparting a great secret. "But the heart is greater. For it is from our hearts they come, and to our hearts they shall return..."
-Neil Gaiman, American Gods |
|
|
|
|
|
|
