Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman

[Listener]

$8 / $10

When Neil said that Anansi Boys (AB) wasn't a sequel to American Gods, he wasn't kidding.  When he said it was supposed to be a comedy?  Well, at first I doubted.  But by the end, not so much.

One theme in Gaiman's books is that for every main character, there is that one event, that one catalyst that gives him (or her) strength.  In Neverwhere, it's when Richard kills the beast.  In American Gods, it's after Shadow completes his Vigil for Odin.  The same thing happens in AB, and just as in the rest of Gaiman's books, you really get a good feeling when it does happen.

The book itself starts pretty slowly, and in my opinion, kind of weak.  But as we get further into the lives of Fat Charlie and those around him, it picks up and starts moving very well.  It's almost as if Neil wrote the first chunk, then put it down, then came back to it after something had changed in his life and wrote the rest.

He effortlessly manages to weave the mystic with the mundane, which is always a plus.  You never doubt for a second that any of this could be happening.

There is only one really glaring weak point in the book.  At the end, when he's talking about Grahame Coats, he sort of steps out of the omniscient-narrator and becomes the author telling you (second person) a story.  It only lasts a couple of paragraphs, but it really broke the mood for me.

Overall, a nice "next book" in the Gaiman cycle.  As eo might say:  "It was good.  I liked it."

Next book:  The Death and Life of Superman, by Roger Stern

[meredith]

it looks interesting.