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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780060558123
ISBN: 0060558121
Label: Harper Perennial
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 624
Publication Date: September 01, 2003
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Release Date: September 02, 2003
Studio: Harper Perennial
Alternate Versions: Click to Display
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com Review:
American Gods is Neil Gaiman's best and most ambitious novel yet, a scary, strange, and hallucinogenic road-trip story wrapped around a deep examination of the American spirit. Gaiman tackles everything from the onslaught of the information age to the meaning of death, but he doesn't sacrifice the razor-sharp plotting and narrative style he's been delivering since his Sandman days.
Shadow gets out of prison early when his wife is killed in a car crash. At a loss, he takes up with a mysterious character called Wednesday, who is much more than he appears. In fact, Wednesday is an old god, once known as Odin the All-father, who is roaming America rounding up his forgotten fellows in preparation for an epic battle against the upstart deities of the Internet, credit cards, television, and all that is wired. Shadow agrees to help Wednesday, and they whirl through a psycho-spiritual storm that becomes all too real in its manifestations. For instance, Shadow's dead wife Laura keeps showing up, and not just as a ghost--the difficulty of their continuing relationship is by turns grim and darkly funny, just like the rest of the book.
Armed only with some coin tricks and a sense of purpose, Shadow travels through, around, and underneath the visible surface of things, digging up all the powerful myths Americans brought with them in their journeys to this land as well as the ones that were already here. Shadow's road story is the heart of the novel, and it's here that Gaiman offers up the details that make this such a cinematic book--the distinctly American foods and diversions, the bizarre roadside attractions, the decrepit gods reduced to shell games and prostitution. "This is a bad land for Gods," says Shadow.
More than a tourist in America, but not a native, Neil Gaiman offers an outside-in and inside-out perspective on the soul and spirituality of the country--our obsessions with money and power, our jumbled religious heritage and its societal outcomes, and the millennial decisions we face about what's real and what's not. --Therese Littleton
Product Description:
Released from prison, Shadow finds his world turned upside down. His wife has been killed; a mysterious stranger offers him a job. But Mr. Wednesday, who knows more about Shadow than is possible, warns that a storm is coming -- a battle for the very soul of America . . . and they are in its direct path.
One of the most talked-about books of the new millennium, American Gods is a kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth and across an American landscape at once eerily familiar and utterly alien. It is, quite simply, a contemporary masterpiece.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
Good writing, good pacing, but I couldn't help but wonder at this book's treatment of a theme similar to that written by Doug Adams several years earlier in "The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul". Adams' treatment was comedic, rather than dramatic, however.
Rating: -
AMERICAN GODS is a refreshing treat amidst current Urban Fantasy fiction. I'm sorry I did not have the chance to read this book when it was first published. It's a beautiful blend of myth, wonderful prose and original characters. Gaiman is masterful and holds the reader spellbound from beginning to end.
Rating: -
I have only a passing familiarity with Gaiman's works, so this was a leap of faith for me. I have always had a fascination with mythology so the crux of the novel was bound to please me, and I was thrilled that many of the central characters and events related to Norse mythology.
It is a "road trip" novel, the book description makes no secret of this, but that does mean it will seem to wander without much purpose at times. Some of the "coming to America" side stories run a bit long in my opinion, but overall don't detract from the novel.
A nice conclusion that neatly wraps up all the dangling subplots, which I did not expect to be done well, but it works convincingly.
In short, highly recommended. Be prepared for a meandering journey instead of a heavy plot-driven novel, but still a rewarding read.
Rating: -
You need to appreciate a bit of ambiguity in your fiction to really enjoy this book. Aspects are slowly revealed. Some of the side stories tie in directly but others only add flavor. Even the key moments are not delivered in a dramatic fashion. So there's a bit of a dream-like feel to it, but that's appropriate to the storyline. Everything is not wrapped up tidily at the end, although there is a closure. A bit like life.
I loved the basic concepts of gods being defined by our belief in them and our sacrifices to them and what happens, what could happen, when belief changes or shifts to other things. It was easy to become invested in the main character and his journey was well worth reading about.
Rating: -
I wasn't quite sure about this book when I first started reading it, but as I understood more of the story I ended up really loving this book! It takes you places you've never been before, and I love thinking about the concept of gods in an American way, with our values and culture superimposed on an ancient belief system. Makes you think very closely about your way of life. I do recommend it.
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