Andare, Partire, Tornare ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- American Gods review A couple of people have commented on _American Gods_ so I thought I'd devote an entry to it. Firstly, I'll say outright that I really enjoyed the book in a "can't put down" sort of way, which is something I haven't been experiencing with my library books recently. Spoilers if you haven't read the book, however. I do sometimes take issue with Gaiman's frequently passive protagonists - this one does work in certain ways, because Shadow is a stand-in for us - the window through which we see this world. But as somebody on rec.arts.sf.written commented, it's difficult to get angry on behalf of a person who doesn't seem to care enough about anything to get angry on their own behalf. At the end of the book, Shadow, though he has come through some profound things, seems to be essentially the same person he was at the start of the book - very little growth occurs. I was also curious about the neo-pagans. The one token representative pagan waitress was hardly an answer to the question, "what about all these people who claim to be currently worshiping Odin, or Jove (remember that link to Nova Roma I posted earlier? They don't let anybody become a priest or priestess unless they are faithful worshipers of the Roman pantheon.) Does it help Odin out at all, or is it simply insufficent? The lack of appearance of the four major religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism) - well, there are a few token mentions but nothing substantial - is disappointing but understandable. But I itched for those scenes just to see how they would be handled. A caveat - I don't pick up plot holes well on the first read-through. It's only after I've read the book, discussed it, read reviews on it, and then reread it that I see anything. So I'm going to reread it at some point with a more critical eye. But on the whole, the book moves along very well for me despite a bit of drag in the middle, and it was a pleasurable bit of brain-exercise. And I love the god-name-dropping. If you like this sort of thing, go read Pratchett's _Small Gods_ and Will Shetterly's _Dogland_, both excellent, though very different books that have elements of _American Gods_ in them. 11:33 a.m. - 2002-06-26 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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