American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Synopsis: Shadow dreamed of nothing but leaving prison and starting a new life. But the day before his release, his wife and best friend are killed in an accident. On the plane home to the funeral he meets Mr. Wednesday — a beguiling stranger who seems to know everything about him. A trickster and rogue, Mr. Wednesday offers Shadow a job as his bodyguard. With nowhere left to go, Shadow accepts, and soon learns that his role in Mr. Wednesday's schemes will be far more dangerous and dark than he could have ever imagined. For beneath the placid surface of everyday life a war is being fought—and the prize is the very soul of America.
That synopsis seems pretty vague now that I've read the book. I guess it was meant to be, because what it says isn't really telling you much about the book's real storyline. It really involves an upcoming epic battle between the old gods of the immigrants and today's new gods credit cards, TV, and the Internet. It's sort of based on the old quote "when belief in a god dies, the god dies."
Because of the the subject matter and the mythic scope of it all, I really wanted to love this book. I mean I really tried to, but I just couldn't. It's just too busy too often for me and wasn't engaging enough to keep my attention, thanks to a lot of meandering and way too many characters. It keeps shifting the story from the battle of the gods to Shadow's life to strange subplots about secondary characters. It's written very noir style, but I personally just found it confusing. It's sort of like questions answered by other vaguer questions. By the end I liked it, but didn't love it as I wanted. I think it is an awesome idea and I love the rationale behind the plot, it's just a bit off in the execution for my tastes.
Since I finished it I've been to some websites discussing it and places that have a lot more about each of the characters and their roles so I am still enjoying the world created. I like how real places were used for some of key plot points in their travels and it gave it a real "road trip" sort of feel.
I know that a lot of people love this book so I'm really in the minority here in that I am in love with the ideas of the book, but not the book itself. Read it and see for yourself I guess.
6/10
