American Gods

Last year about this time, I was fervently in love with the idea of Urban Fantasy. A nice modern setting peopled with all sorts of fantastical/ gothic creatures and elements. It was a genre in which I wanted to read copious amounts so that I could somehow get a feel of how to merge the two seemingly polar opposites together. Like I said, I was drawn to it, I still am.

That’s how I stumbled across Neil Gaiman’s work and, for me, American Gods stands out as one of the best in the genre. It is such an intricately crafted work, with different elements all meshing together. The truth is the idea of Gods coming to a new land or being created by faith was not in itself completely new. Somehow the idea reminded me of Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Puck of Pooks’ Hill’, (I love this book for some reason and this book was perhaps the only reason why I finished Kim.) which has somewhat slightly similar premise.

It helps of course that it incorporates large chunks of Mythology (I adore that). I wish my knowledge of Norse Mythology was a little better though and I remember finishing the book and making up my mind to look it up a bit more. (Then college happened and I am still stuck at that ) My own personal peeve with the book is the slight error when it comes to Kali. (Now I am not quite sure, but surely the character is not supposed to be addressed as mamaji?)

Shadow…I was so surprised when I realised how much I liked this character. I am usually far more easily impressed by the flashier, fast talking smart-alecky characters. But Shadow had this inane quietness to him…a self-possession I guess. You ‘got’ Shadow through his quietness…no unnecessary words about what he thought or what expression he wore. He is on the most surreal ride of his life and unlike many characters that would have had a dozen questions or more about this situation he just accepts it with a shrug. A friend of mine found him a little too passive…a tad dumb she said, but that’s not how I felt about him.

Laura…Laura…Laura…okay, here’s the thing. I hate it when the main protagonist already has a love interest from the beginning. This stems from reading as a child too many swash buckling adventures where the hero leaves his hometown to have a hell lot of awesome adventures and meets up with amazing new people and creatures and he still comes home to settle with his childhood sweetheart. I have always detested the early love interest because the chance that the main character will continue to live a life of adventure when there is this stupid person waiting at home was pretty slim. (okay, okay so I was ten years old and adventures were way better than an ew! Romance.)

Though I am a vastly more mature (stop laughing!) person today, an early love interest is still not very high on my list of favourite things about a book…but Laura I have to admit kind of rocked.

She was downright creepy and morbid (in a good way, it must be understood). The common place scenarios that Shadow’s interactions with her usually took place in added to the eerie quality of their relationship and I am glad their strange slightly extended relationship resolved itself in the way it was meant to be (albeit by a more fantastical means.)

I loved the restless atmosphere of the book. It starts right at the beginning and it stays with Shadow throughout…the ‘there’s something more‘ quality. I was so very smug about predicting some of the many twist and turns that I was really surprised that I didn’t notice the biggest twist of them all until the eleventh hour and so all I could do was go: “Hey! I should have seen that coming!”. Hugely Satisfying.

Lastly, why I know that I really liked the book is how it made me feel as I read it. I am one of those ruthless readers who go through books with all the speed of a hurricane. Many point out that you miss the nuances in a book when you do that, that you must let it grow on you and so on and so forth. But what I know from experience is that with good books I make a conscious effort to slow down. I don’t want the book to end and so I’ll read a Para and I’ll put the book down deliberately and walk around the house but because it’s a good book I’ll end up making beeline to it inevitably within the next ten minutes. Good books make me restless…fill me with an urge to read and also not to read…weird huh?

Ps: As an aside, American Gods is one of the few books in which I had a real person in my head as I read through it. The thing is I was watching Prison Break at that point of time and weirdly enough Wentworth Miller fills my head every time I think of Shadow. Not that it had anything to do with why I liked the character

Edited to add: Over the last year, I’ve read more of his work and my literary crush on him is advanced enough that I’ll push his books into people’s faces with the ominous threat of ‘Read it or Else‘. As I can’t do that to you and as I still feel it’s my duty to guide you to his work( if you still haven’t read it), I’m settling with providing a link to his blog