Ed reviewed American Gods by Neil Gaiman
3 Stars
3 stars
Enjoyed it but not my favourite work by the author.
Paperback, 592 pages
English language
Published Sept. 11, 2009 by HarperPerennial.
American Gods
by Neil Gaiman
4 stars
(75 reviews)
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. --back cover
Review of 'American Gods (en español): American Gods (Brainstorming)' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
It's been a looong read (since Dec'18!), enjoyed it without doubt, sometimes confusing, but smart, and entertaining.
Review of 'American Gods (en español): American Gods (Brainstorming)' on 'Storygraph'
2 stars
This book was a kind of a disappointment to me, meaning, it was not as good as I thought it was. For many years I've heard wonders about this book and how it was amazing. It was on my "to-read" for at least a couple of years and I purchased because of a Kindle deal, and last month I decided to give it a try. Well, I think the book starts pretty well, telling us about the situation of Shadow, his time in jail and how he is mysteriously released from prison one day earlier than expected. I enjoyed that first part of the book up until how Shadow met Wednesday. Then, many parallel stories start to come up in the middle of the narrative, Shadow's errands becomes uninteresting, and for me the road trip became quite boring from the middle of the book forward.There are many references of American …
This book was a kind of a disappointment to me, meaning, it was not as good as I thought it was. For many years I've heard wonders about this book and how it was amazing. It was on my "to-read" for at least a couple of years and I purchased because of a Kindle deal, and last month I decided to give it a try. Well, I think the book starts pretty well, telling us about the situation of Shadow, his time in jail and how he is mysteriously released from prison one day earlier than expected. I enjoyed that first part of the book up until how Shadow met Wednesday. Then, many parallel stories start to come up in the middle of the narrative, Shadow's errands becomes uninteresting, and for me the road trip became quite boring from the middle of the book forward.There are many references of American culture, religion, ancient and modern mythology from around the globe, which is inherently interesting, but the way all these elements were put together in the story didn't work very well, in my opinion. I read the 2011 version (tenth anniversary edition), that one with additional 12,000 words, and maybe that was one of the reasons I thought there were whole chapters of the book that seemed not be essential to the story. So the rhythm of the story is irregular, there were great chapters and then a couple ones that simply dragged and I couldn't wait for the narrative to get back on track.All in all, the premise of the book is great, I enjoyed the "weird fantasy" aspect of the story, but for me it was not executed very well.
Review of 'American Gods (en español): American Gods (Brainstorming)' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
Había leído otros dos libros de Gaiman, Coraline y Neverwhere, que me han gustado bastante más que este "American Gods". Cerca de mil doscientas páginas de las que me han sobrado muchas. Empecé a leerlo por el reto de una web y porque lo tenía en pendientes. Y aunque la historia y su trasfondo sean interesantes, me han sobrado dioses por un tubo.
La novela comienza cuando a Sombra le queda muy poco tiempo para salir de la cárcel, donde ha pasado tres años, y reencontrarse con Laura, su mujer, la mujer de su vida, que le espera. Con tan mala pata, que a falta de una semana, Laura muere en un accidente de tráfico. En la cárcel tienen el detalle de adelantarle la salida para que pueda acudir al funeral. En el viaje de vuelta, Sombra coincide con un hombre, Wednesday, bastante extraño, que le ofrece un trabajo que …
Había leído otros dos libros de Gaiman, Coraline y Neverwhere, que me han gustado bastante más que este "American Gods". Cerca de mil doscientas páginas de las que me han sobrado muchas. Empecé a leerlo por el reto de una web y porque lo tenía en pendientes. Y aunque la historia y su trasfondo sean interesantes, me han sobrado dioses por un tubo.
La novela comienza cuando a Sombra le queda muy poco tiempo para salir de la cárcel, donde ha pasado tres años, y reencontrarse con Laura, su mujer, la mujer de su vida, que le espera. Con tan mala pata, que a falta de una semana, Laura muere en un accidente de tráfico. En la cárcel tienen el detalle de adelantarle la salida para que pueda acudir al funeral. En el viaje de vuelta, Sombra coincide con un hombre, Wednesday, bastante extraño, que le ofrece un trabajo que no podrá rechazar. Pero Sombra lo rechaza en la creencia de que tendrá trabajo en su pueblo, tal y como le prometieron, en el gimnasio de su amigo. Las cosas no salen tan bien como él cree y, visto el plan, y ya que no tiene nada más que perder, decide aceptar la extraña propuesta de Wednesday.
El libro relata la llegada de todos los dioses a América: Shiva, Odín, Thor y toda la pesca, que vinieron con los que emigraron a aquellas tierras durante siglos y se unieron a los que existían ya entre los indios. Y de cómo se fueron olvidando y sustituyéndose por otros más prosaicos y menos espirituales. Y el problema es que te cuenta la historia de cada dios y acaba siendo un peñazo porque el 90 % de ellos no tiene presencia en la historia más que en ese momento en el que te cuentan su historia.
En fin, la novela es una historia de cómo se enfrentan los dioses antiguos y los nuevos (la informática, la fama). Y esto en sí puede resultar interesante y llevarte a una reflexión de qué es lo espiritual en estos momentos y tal y cual. Pero la cuestión es que estás deseando que se acabe y llega un momento en que te saltas cosas porque sabes que no tienen nada que ver con la historia principal.
Así que, dado que todas tenemos mil libros pendientes de leer, podéis borrar éste de vuestra lista.
el dang reviewed American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Review of 'American Gods' on 'LibraryThing'
4 stars
Hugely entertaining book, full of weirdness and references - not only the gods themselves but I could see enough subtle little literary allusions to realise there must be many more there. Also some that I suspect may just be looking too hard, but oh well - they didn't detract anything from the book....
I love the broad ambition of this story, the multiple levels it runs on, and the ease with which Gaiman can switch between those levels. It suffers a little from trying to pack too much in. By the end I was a bit tired of new characters being introduced without development, and wishing a few of the subplots had been explored better. It's both telling and a good move that when Gaiman wrote a ~sequel (Anansi Boys) he picked up one of the second-tier characters from American Gods, fleshed him out beautifully, and told a much more …
Hugely entertaining book, full of weirdness and references - not only the gods themselves but I could see enough subtle little literary allusions to realise there must be many more there. Also some that I suspect may just be looking too hard, but oh well - they didn't detract anything from the book....
I love the broad ambition of this story, the multiple levels it runs on, and the ease with which Gaiman can switch between those levels. It suffers a little from trying to pack too much in. By the end I was a bit tired of new characters being introduced without development, and wishing a few of the subplots had been explored better. It's both telling and a good move that when Gaiman wrote a ~sequel (Anansi Boys) he picked up one of the second-tier characters from American Gods, fleshed him out beautifully, and told a much more focussed story with him. Anansi Boys ends up being a stronger book as a result.
A few references I'm wondering about:
About halfway through part one, there seemed to be a subtle allusion to Eliot's Journey Of The Magi. I'm not sure if it's either intended or real, but read or listen to the poem: www.poetryarchive.org/poem/journey-magi - it seems to fit, eh?
One thing I was left not understanding at the end was why Wednesday needed Shadow. It seemed that he could have orchestrated the whole con at less risk without Shadow involved, which was the one thing I found unsatisfying about the otherwise very clever ending. I read somewhere that Monarch Of The Glen explains more about who Shadow is, so I'm looking forward to reading that.
The two-man con idea feels like a wonderfully biting allegory about US politics. If so, then Gaiman was pretty prescient - it's a thing that has become much more obvious since.
The two-man con and its motivations also feels like an allegory about the "Clash of Civilizations" nonsense that has potential to be so self-fulfilling. I'm pretty sure this on my mind because I happen to have read the book in a week when anti-Muslim attacks in the US are more prominent in the news than usual, but I wonder if it wasn't also an intended message, given that the book was first published in 2001. But then... that crap didn't get much airtime until 9/11, and this book must have mostly been written before that.
And finally, I really want to learn more about Sammy Black Crow. I was expecting her to be more significant in the end.
el dang reviewed American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Review of 'American Gods' on 'LibraryThing'
4 stars
Hugely entertaining book, full of weirdness and references - not only the gods themselves but I could see enough subtle little literary allusions to realise there must be many more there. Also some that I suspect may just be looking too hard, but oh well - they didn't detract anything from the book....
I love the broad ambition of this story, the multiple levels it runs on, and the ease with which Gaiman can switch between those levels. It suffers a little from trying to pack too much in. By the end I was a bit tired of new characters being introduced without development, and wishing a few of the subplots had been explored better. It's both telling and a good move that when Gaiman wrote a ~sequel (Anansi Boys) he picked up one of the second-tier characters from American Gods, fleshed him out beautifully, and told a much more …
Hugely entertaining book, full of weirdness and references - not only the gods themselves but I could see enough subtle little literary allusions to realise there must be many more there. Also some that I suspect may just be looking too hard, but oh well - they didn't detract anything from the book....
I love the broad ambition of this story, the multiple levels it runs on, and the ease with which Gaiman can switch between those levels. It suffers a little from trying to pack too much in. By the end I was a bit tired of new characters being introduced without development, and wishing a few of the subplots had been explored better. It's both telling and a good move that when Gaiman wrote a ~sequel (Anansi Boys) he picked up one of the second-tier characters from American Gods, fleshed him out beautifully, and told a much more focussed story with him. Anansi Boys ends up being a stronger book as a result.
A few references I'm wondering about:
About halfway through part one, there seemed to be a subtle allusion to Eliot's Journey Of The Magi. I'm not sure if it's either intended or real, but read or listen to the poem: www.poetryarchive.org/poem/journey-magi - it seems to fit, eh?
One thing I was left not understanding at the end was why Wednesday needed Shadow. It seemed that he could have orchestrated the whole con at less risk without Shadow involved, which was the one thing I found unsatisfying about the otherwise very clever ending. I read somewhere that Monarch Of The Glen explains more about who Shadow is, so I'm looking forward to reading that.
The two-man con idea feels like a wonderfully biting allegory about US politics. If so, then Gaiman was pretty prescient - it's a thing that has become much more obvious since.
The two-man con and its motivations also feels like an allegory about the "Clash of Civilizations" nonsense that has potential to be so self-fulfilling. I'm pretty sure this on my mind because I happen to have read the book in a week when anti-Muslim attacks in the US are more prominent in the news than usual, but I wonder if it wasn't also an intended message, given that the book was first published in 2001. But then... that crap didn't get much airtime until 9/11, and this book must have mostly been written before that.
And finally, I really want to learn more about Sammy Black Crow. I was expecting her to be more significant in the end.
Kyrylys reviewed American gods by Neil Gaiman
Review of 'American gods' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Reseña completa:http://markapaginas.blogspot.com.es/2014/08/american-gods-neil-gaiman.html
He de decir que el libro me gustó mucho, y lo hice sin saber nada de él. Creo que así he podido disfrutarlo muchísimo. Sobre todo de la primera parte en la que a Sombra vuelve al mundo después de haber pasado una temporada en prisión, y tiene que lidiar no sólo con el estigma de haber estado preso, si no que además tiene que afrontar la vida sin su esposa que recientemente acaba de fallecer. Así que no tiene nada que perder cuando accede trabajar para el "loco" del señor Wednesday.
La verdad que leyendo esta novela sentí, creí por momentos que hubiese cosas que pudieron ser. Es una sensación rara, aunque muy parecida a lo que he sentido con pocas obras. Era como si debajo de todo Gaiman te estuviese susurrando un secreto.
Terrance reviewed American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Review of 'American Gods' on Goodreads
5 stars
One of the most amazing books I've ever read. Perfectly written and the character of Shadow is wonderfully crafted an fleshed out over the course of this monumental story. Bravo Neil Gaiman!
Review of 'American Gods (en español): American Gods (Brainstorming)' on 'Goodreads'
No rating
Second reading and I loved it all over again.
Strakul reviewed American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Review of 'American Gods' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
This was a very interesting concept and a pretty good book. It's not among my favorites, but I can't quite point to anything that was particularly disappointing. Maybe I just felt a bit disconnected with the story having never lived or traveled through middle America.
Overall though, it's a good book and good read.
cristianopala reviewed American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Review of 'American Gods' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Che dire? Sicuramente appartiene alla serie " I Libri della mia Vita". Un romanzo non perfetto, ma di sicuro indimenticabile che, una volta finito, lascia la triste sensazione di aver perso un amico da cui non ci si sarebbe mai separati.Leggetelo e sono sicuro che Shadow, Mr. Wednesday, Laura, Mr. Nancy, Mr. Jaquel e Mr. Ibis rimarranno nel vostro cuore per sempre.
Subjects
- National characteristics, American -- Fiction.
- Spiritual warfare -- Fiction.
- Ex-convicts -- Fiction.
- Bodyguards -- Fiction.
- Widowers -- Fiction.