Book Review: American Gods

American Gods
by Neil Gaiman

It seems that the people came before the Gods. Though we sometimes tell ourselves otherwise. But when a people leave their homeland, what happens then? Do they leave their Gods behind them? Or can the same Gods be found again in a new home across the ocean?

Shadow, we are told, got his name from following adults around when he was a kid. The story picks up years later, as he is nearing the end of a stretch in prison. He was the driver. Things didn’t work out. But Shadow is no longer a child. He is big and well built and isn’t afraid of pain. The kind of guy that, on the outside, someone might figure would make a pretty good bodyguard. And it so happens there is a someone. A someone who might be an old-time two-bit hustler. A hustler who seems to know too many things about Shadow to make it easy to say no.

Together, Shadow and his new employer will get on the road. They will plot their way through a winter of cities, of small America towns and backwaters. It’s an America we don’t often see in Hollywood blockbusters. The America of American Gods is a work in progress. There is something that is still uncertain, almost temporary about the places we accompany Shadow to. It’s as though the land and the people are still in the process of drawing a breath, of gathering themselves, of determining who they might be. Grubby, liminal spaces intersect with the gaudy familiarity of fast food chains. The dark uncertainty of the past being drawn into the needy jaws of the future.

This book is dark on the inside like a jumper you are trying to pull confusedly over your head. The world you know will disappear for a while, offering only brief glimpses of what might still be out there. And it’s not certain that you will find your way back out into the light. There are new rules at play. There are tricksters abroad. Or so we hope.

Gaiman’s prose is steady and confident. It has, at times, the feel of Stephen King. The slow construction of place and personality. Quick snapshots of the nightmarish and the obscene. Occasional touches of light and grace. His characters are capable of patience and of irritation. They are opinionated, yet resourceful. And some of them are something other, something more than human. You will find Gods in this book. And the Gods… well it’s been said before, but I’ll say it again…

The Gods are crazy.