Neil Gaiman takes the African god of mischief and mayhem, Anansi the spider, and takes him and his family into modern day. Neil Gaiman has an obsession with all things mythological, I think. This book is no exception. Fat Charlie (who's not fat) has always been down on his luck and embarrassed by his father all his life. When his father dies, he soon learns that his father was a trickster god and that his unknown brother got all the awesome god powers. His brother Spider comes into life and starts to mess it up even more. Spider moves in and begins to steal his fiancee, his job, etc. Fat Charlie decides to get revenge which ends up messing up things even more.
It's pretty light-hearted, for the most part. But I have a hard time with characters that get oppressed and oppressed for too long. Charlie didn't get redeemed til toward the end. And overall, I just didn't care a lot about the characters.
I love what Neil Gaiman's trying to do with his books. They make for some interesting stories, for sure. But I haven't been able to really get into his books, yet. I'm working on
American Gods right now....
I read this for one of my book clubs and used a library copy.
The only Neil Gaiman book I've ever read is Neverwhere, but I really enjoyed it and I've meant to read more by him ever since. I've heard a lot of great things about Anansi Boys and American Gods, so I'll probably be heading in that direction next as far as his work goes. Sorry to hear you didn't really care about the characters though!
ReplyDeleteI should really read more of his books. :) Great review.
ReplyDeleteI've only read Neverwhere but would like to give another of his books a try.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to have to give Gaiman another try. I read one of his short story collections and didn't much care for it. But every time I read a review, it makes me think he must, in general, be better than what I thought!
ReplyDeleteI still haven't tried Gaiman but this isn't the one I'll start with. His books intimidate me a little!
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