Anansi Boys starts with the father, who was a god (specifically Anansi, the spider), falling over and dying of a heart attack in a rather undignified way. At least, it's that way for his son Fat Charlie, who learns of his death and has to fly back to the states for the funeral. Afterward, he learns that he has a brother, Spider. The odd thing: he's told in all seriousness that if he wants to meet his brother, he needs to tell a spider to let him know.

And when Hurricane Spider comes in--oh boy. I didn't like the setup with Spider at first because he reminded me of all those ditzy idiot girls in 1930s or 1960s rom-coms that just barge in and create a hundred misunderstandings for the main character (and you just wanna yell shut up and explain the situation in 30 seconds or less... but that would make it a 5 minute movie). Spider is as mysterious as he is reckless, and Charlie ends up with all kinds of mishaps because of his brother suddenly being in his life... all within a few days. Spider causes issues with so many people in Charlie's life.

Once the hurricane that's Spider lost a bit of steam, and Charlie is fed up and goes back to the ladies from the funeral for help getting rid of him, the action really takes off. they're both in danger, and some secrets about their father and their childhood come to light (secrets I don't quite get and wish there was a bit more on, but the journey to rectify things is a great enough read I can just let it be).

You don't have to have read American Gods already (though this could be some kind of companion book to that, and maybe that's what it is--certainly part of the same rules, same universe) to get this book. Actually, this book's a lot easier to understand because we're not dealing with a thousand locations and characters.

Worth a shot. I think I'll tackle this one again.