American Gods

The last time I attempted to read Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, it was right after finishing the works of Franz Kafka *puffs chest with pretentious, literary pride* and, sadly, it had put my brain into a weird place where I could not fathom or immerse myself in what the story was about. 

So, two years later I tried again and this time, I finished it! American Gods is the slightly gothic road story about an ex-con and forgotten gods from around the world. 

Days before his release from prison, Shadow learns of his wife’s death in a car crash. On his journey home, he meets a strange fellow named Wednesday, a former god, who offers him a job of being his bodyguard. With no better prospects, Shadow accepts the job and the two embark on a bizarre road trip across America, recruiting forgotten gods to fight in an upcoming war against the new gods of America. 

It’s probably because the book I read prior to this was Douglas Adams’ The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul, which deals with similar themes, but I definitely got more out of American Gods this time around. It’s a compelling and fascinating read for a number of reasons and, at the same time, it’s one of those strange books where nothing seems to happen for hundreds of pages, but for some reason you continue ploughing through it page after page. 

The central idea is fresh, relevant, and downright fascinating. It must have been a lot of fun to research. It explores the idea that different gods from all over the world migrated to America with the people who believed in them, but slowly over time became forgotten as ethnic traditions and beliefs dried up or changed into something else. As a result, there are these poor gods wandering about the place, undernourished because no one believes in them anymore. 

The central conflict is between the old and the new: epics gods from myths and legends fighting new-age gods of technology and the material world. 

In the middle, representing the mortal man is Shadow who is something of a strange hero figure. Going through the trials of the quest narrative as well as his own weird journey of self-discovery, Shadow is an interesting character because he remains something of a mystery right to the very end. Whilst the majority of the story takes place around him, aside from segments that tell tales from hundreds of years before him, little of himself is properly revealed and there are often times when his actions cause a bit of a stir within the bosom of the reader, making them put the book down and go ‘huh’. 

Gaiman writes the entire book with this element of mystery behind it; never just saying something like it is, but twisting it into some vague semblance of something, and it’s our primal need to know what we’re reading about that causes us to continue turning pages. There are a lot of different experiences to be had whilst reading this book, or indeed any of Gaiman’s prose, and it might be this teasing, string-along effect that turns many of his works into film and television adaptations. 

That or the incredible imagery that he manages to create within his books: some of the scenes in American Gods can get a little graphic and bizarre a la Videodrome, but the stories and the experience of reading them make up those moments of ‘uh um ee oh what’. 

After all, the book has won several awards and been made into a TV series starring Ian McShane, so it’s got to be doing something right! 

Author: Neil Gaiman 

Published: 2001, Headline Book Publishing