American Gods: Book Review

This was a difficult book to read, took me a long time, and I don't properly remember all of it, so this may influence my overall opinion.

Oh, how to summarize American Gods... Well, on the surface, it's the story of a man named Shadow who, after being released from prison, finds that his wife is dead, and a strange man named Wednesday draws him into an ancient conflict. Stranded in America by the original immigrants, the gods of the old lands are painfully fading. Scraping by on whatever worship or sacrifice they can capture through art or trickery. They are beset by the new gods of technology and consumerism. In one last effort at survival, Wednesday, with Shadow's often reluctant help, works to convince the gods band together to fight one last battle for survival.

But there's so much more to it than that. Much like Gaiman's sprawling Sandman series, this novel is made up of thousands of different threads. It's like a tapestry where a single thread might be beautiful, plain, or even ugly. But you must step back to see the whole picture.

When stories are told like this, I can never quite say that I personally loved or hated the whole. Part of the story will stick with me while other parts seem wholly unsatisfactory. However, it is more in the way that I find certain aspects of life that the book addresses to be unsatisfactory. So the portrayal is not necessarily incorrect. I can never say that any of it doesn't fit. All I can definitely say is that the novel is well written, expertly planned, and powerfully poignant. The complex and varied nature of the narrative fit the subject of gods well.

Still, it's a long, dark journey.

* * * * *

Now I'll address specific parts of the story for all those who have read it. If you haven't and don't want to know specific plot points, I would recommend you stop reading now.

So, the ending is freshest in my mind. I have to say it didn't have the resolution I generally crave in a story, so personally, especially after so long a book, it did not sit well with me. But, then again, that is life. I can't quarrel with the truth of it. And after reading it again and thinking about it I cannot say it is simple or without meaning. The coin in the air, for me, represented the fleeting nature of life. Not waiting to see it fall seemed to me a rejection of any predestination, not wanting to see the outcome life. Plus, I thought the gold of the coin could represent the sun, just as the silver coin was the moon. Since the moon guided Shadow in death, it makes sense that the sun would guide him in life. This is supported by his last location being Iceland during the time of the year when the sun practically never sets. Still, even in Iceland, someone wishes him a happy fourth of July. Even when he's not in America, some of it has come with him-importantly, the independence aspect.

I could go on, but I won't. It is well written in the sense that I could probably write an entire thesis on the last chapter alone. Now that I examine it, I think it may have been the independence part that bothered me. On one hand, it ties in nicely with one of my favorite lines toward the end:

"I think I would rather be a man than a god. We don't need anyone to believe in us. We just keep going anyhow. It's what we do."

So from the perspective of the novel, humans are independent of worship. At least, of a need to be worshipped. Though many would like to be worshiped. Still, for reasons I won't get into in this blog, I often don't feel Americans in general are nearly as independent as Shadow is represented at the end of this book. I don't mind that Gaiman is British. Oftentimes I think it takes an informed outside perspective to truly see a country. But I suppose I've also lived too long in America. I can't be happy with the entire tapestry anymore than I can all aspects of America.