Item reviewed

American Gods

Review type

Book

Review

It is not the polished, strange, and slow pace tempo in which the story was penned; neither does it have to do with its magical suspense and unpredictability.

To me, it seems more like the mystic freedom that comes from knowing a truth which was once hallowed but has since been forgotten.

Locked behind bars for armed robbery, Shadow was serving out the final days of three quiet years. He has metamorphosed into a fearless man with only one longing. To start a new life with Laura, the wife he deeply loved.

But then, there is a tide in the affairs of men, Julius Ceasar affirms. And that affirmation was made manifest in the life of Shadow.

Days before his release, Laura and Shadow's best friend are killed in a road accident. With his life in shambles and nothing to re-arrange him, Shadow is forced to accept a job from an enigmatic stranger he meets on the way home; a mysterious man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday.

An intelligent rogue who seems to know more about Shadow than Shadow does himself.

However, Shadow’s life as Wednesday's bodyguard, driver, and errand boy did turn out to be more interesting and dangerous at the same time, than he could ever imagine.

He would later learn that the past never dies...and that beneath the day to day routine of everyday life a storm is coming.

The central conceit of the book is revealed when it transpires that Mr. Wednesday is not just the intelligent rogue that he seems. He is a god. One of the old ones we know.

But it would take shadow an excruciatingly long time to come to this realization.

Mr. Wednesday, who was the personification of Odin (Odin is the one eye god of the Viking's creed. He is also the god the Greek methodology refers to as Zeus. And Jupiter to the Romans) was not the only old god in flesh, living in America.

As a matter of fact, there are countless of them.

America, as we know it to be, is a nation made up of a vast number of world’s peoples. Is it, therefore, not a clever thing to think that each round of colonization or settlement brought with it-- its own gods from the old country?

After all, you can separate a man from his home and family with the aid of distance, but there is no sea that is vast enough to keep a people away from their belief.

And if this is true, as it seems to every clear thinking person, then it is a thing of depth and insight for Gaiman (The author) to direct the line of his story on this course.

Be that as it may, Wednesday and his fellow gods are tied with a common problem. The belief and glorification that was once held for them are gone. There are no worshipers anymore.

That which was once experienced is now being considered as a fairy tale.

But worse than the above problem, are the new gods in America with countless numbers of worshippers -- the gods of TV and the internet, of shopping malls and credit cards, technological gods whose eyes glow with the green of vintage computer monitors.

It is the intention of the new gods to checkmate the old guards. They want the old gods out of the way. And as the writer tells us often in the book, a storm-- is coming.

I have heard it said that American Gods is a chilly book for a beach read. I smiled with agreement. But it can also be said to be a book with depth and insight

.

The depth of American Gods will drag you into the ocean of forgotten knowledge, and when you pull yourself out, you will be thankful for the experience.

Learning about the gods and the war they are fighting, Shadow travels across America. It is the same America we can recognize if we want to -- even if we have never been there -- and an America that is secret and hidden.

There is horror, but there's also hope. There is darkness and of course, there is a sense of light and wonder. It is this mixture of downs and ups that make American Gods a satisfying and enriching experience.

Review rating

I rate American Gods 9/10. It is one of those rare books that cannot be compared to just any other book.

Created by

Neil Gaiman

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