John Hattaway

American Gods is written by author Neil Gaiman. Gaiman is best known for his work on DC Comics The Sandman series. I’ve never read The Sandman and couldn’t offer any ideas or insights on what it’s like or how it turned out, but I have recently read two of his books, American Gods and Neverwhere.

My brother, Jack, sent me, a couple of years ago, to a book signing. He paid me something like 20 dollars to stand in line for a few hours (suggesting I get out of bed on a Saturday before 8 a.m. to get in line) at the new downtown public library in Salt Lake City, UT. The result was that I stood in line with a bunch of Goths and Goth wannabe’s who were dressed, in the middle of July, in black and dark red and purple all waiting for this person – this author I’d never heard of, to sign copies of their books.

When I got there the line was already significant but had not left the main lobby of the library. I considered whether or not I would remain in line – and found out later on that Jack didn’t really expect me to continue standing in line – I eventually joined the growing line of counter-culture kids and waited for Neil Gaiman to arrive. At the time I promised myself that anyone who wrote something that appealed to this specific subset of the populated probably wasn’t worth my time. On top of that, I was the person that people, visiting the library, asked what was happening. I really had no idea.

Recently, because of my job working at a bookstore, I came across the Neil Gaiman books. He has three that we stock on our shelves. One of them is a collection of short stories. The two books, Neverwhere and American Gods, just kept jumping out at me saying, if they could speak, “Read me. Read me.” So, after looking at those titles, realizing that I have had very little to do for the past couple of weeks, decided to buy the books and read them.

The latest read was American Gods. American Gods is a book that follows the protagonist Shadow from the point he is getting out jail and we learn that you do your own time, while in jail, and not do someone else’s time (in other words, don’t get into trouble and don’t let other people put their problems on your shoulders) through his going home on plane and in car to his wife’s funeral. The very first part of the book introduces several key characters that Shadow meets and interacts with throughout the book.

American Gods deals with what happens when people from the old world, Europe, Asia, Africa, Egypt, come to the American continent. They bring with them their old beliefs and customs, but, over time, these beliefs and customs become shallow and eventually fall into nothingness leaving behind a disparate collection of gods and beliefs for the people to not believe in any more.

Pretty quickly the reader is drawn into a forthcoming conflict between the old gods from the old world and the new gods dealing with culture, media, and modern bias. The nation is filled with technology, television, movies, and the deity we have created from them. These beings are in conflict with the more experienced gods of the old world who came over with the peoples that eventually inhabited the land.

Shadow is the main character in the book. We follow his movements, his learning, his wisdom, his experiences, his stupidity, and his betrayal. The book, though not high fiction, is a pretty good read, fast in pace, long in pages, and interesting. Even if you aren’t into the science fiction/fantasy genres, the book carries the reader forward in such a way that you learn a lot about the different kinds of deity, demi-gods, imps and creatures that were worshiped or believed in, the beliefs that followed the travelers (by choice and otherwise) into the new world, and what might’ve happened to them if they were forgotten about.

My favorite part in the book is when Wednesday (one of the many gods in the book) begins to share with Shadow the nature of what it means to be a grifter and his favorite two man swindles. There is this one where a gentleman takes an old violin into a restaurant, eats a fine meal, realizes he’s forgotten his wallet, and leaves his precious violin as collateral until he goes and gets his wallet to pay the man. A second man sees the violin, asks to look at it, declares that it is a rare antique and that he would gladly pay half a hundred thousand dollars for the violin.

The characters all seem to work very well together and Gaiman takes the reader out of the world of the impossible creating, in my opinion, a rather plausible environment that removes the belief barrier.

In the end, the most memorable thing about the book is said by Odin, “America isn’t a good place for gods.”

This book is worth reading.

Real Heroes Fly