esrosedotblog

BOOK REPORT

I just finished a novel called American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

I heard about the author in an article about book shows and, it was said, Gaiman commanded one of the longest lines of autograph hounds at the show, mostly young male adults.

Part of this celebrity is due to the graphic novels (what we used to call comics) that Gaiman has done; yet there is a lot of straight fiction as well.

This one is about, well, American Gods who have been abandoned by the people who brought them here. You would know some of them. Odin plays a key role. Their is Loki. Some Indian goddesses. Like that.

They sort of exist in a half life because they are no longer worshipped. Many are on the way out.

On the other hand there are new Gods; media, television, the net, and so on. These have humanoid forms as well.

I probably shouldn't be telling any of this because the novel starts out as a regular story of a prisoner about to be sprung after a three year term in the slammer and covers his travels into this strange veiled world.

I still don't know exactly why he is chosen for this or what his role is or what the fuck the whole thing means.

It is one of the strangest books that I have read in a long time.

But, I stayed with it and never wanted to quit nor was I even tempted to throw it across the room.

You might like it too. Your tolerance for ambiguity must be rather high. A lot of it is similar to fantasy fiction but totally without the surety of a genré to guide you through the rough spots.

I am stalled at whether to get another Gaiman book. I have a backlog so maybe later.