American Gods

While it was a good read it didn't live up to the hype that was promised.

It is an interesting concept about gods having to feed off of our interests in them or else they get weak, and how our new interests are giving rise to new gods.

What was I supposed to get out of this book? After reading it I didn't have the urge to see/read more from that world. I also didn't have any major feelings/reactions in me. It was all just meh....cool story.

I haven't watched the TV show, and now have no desire to.

When 'American Gods' was first recommended to me, I was told it was a cultural war. The sides waging war being the idols we used to worship vs the idols we actually worship now. Maybe in an effort to save me from spoilers they never mentioned that the gods in question would be lesser known Gods. In my mind I thought that Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, Chebbeniathan, and other prominent modern Gods would be the main characters warring against internet, and media.

I was taken aback by the inclusion of much older lesser known Gods. I loved the native American and ancient tribal God segments. I never imagined Odin would play such a focal point in a story like this. I was blown away by my inability to see that the United States that I know is only a few hundred years old. Being that most of it's current citizens have relatively recent immigrated from somewhere else, the gods are foreign and far beyond my scope. So characters like Czernobog and Mr. Nancy were awesome. Midway through the book I accepted what I was reading and really enjoyed it.

It wasn't until the end where Gaiman addressed his omission of Jesus specifically. He said that it was because he didn't write a prominent role for him, and that only lightly including such a larger than life character wouldn't be the proper way to go about it.

I'm curious what the rest of you think about it. I know that often what we say to explain our actions often veils intentions that we not only keep from others, but ourselves. He seems to be someone with a clear history of some denomination of Jesus based worship.

Fear doesn't necessarily seem to be the right word I'd use. But speaking as someone who formally used to partake in Christian and catholic worship, publicly representing Jesus in a way that doesn't align with the Bible isn't something I don't mind seeing when tasteful. But it's definitely not something I'd do publicly or professionally myself.

I loved the bit that he wrote for him visiting shadow on the tree. That whole vigil for Odin as well as shadow himself ran some not so subtle parallel with the crucifixion.

Overall I thought the book was great, I'm sad to hear that the show had so many problems.

Edit: I thought this would be an interesting subject to talk about between a few people. Responding to some of the strong opinions is a bit much.

But to all of you saying that Jesus isn't a God, I agree with you that he is depicted as a prophet and the son of God. But you all need to convince the "Jesus is Lord" people. And Neil Gaiman himself considered adding him as one of the gods. AND apparently the show included him as a God.

On top of all of that, one of the God's in the book is a leprechaun, so, there's that.

Wear boxing gloves please.

2nd Edit: I'm not a Bible thumper, I was hoping for a Jesus either jaded by American culture or radicalized by the mega churches. Maybe even a gun crazed Jesus. His character is not sacred to me personally.

{Spoilers of course}

Alright, maybe some of you remember my post from last week discussing Gaiman's American Gods. To sum it up, I was seeking input on whether or not I should finish the book as I felt the dialogue was awkward, it was too cryptic in conveying it's purpose and I basically felt that it was more or less sloppy writing, etc.

I'll just get right into it, I'm glad I finished the book. I was actually a little bit past the halfway mark where I left off, and honestly even for a chapter or two after that I was still having the same issues. But the last quarter of the book was so much better than the rest and it made the whole trip worth it for me.

Native American beliefs were present from the beginning, but once it got a lot more prevalent to the story specifically with meeting Whiskey Jack, I found myself much more invested than I had been before. It was something that I really enjoyed, the relationship between Native American beliefs vs these "new" Gods from other lands.

A lot of people who commented on the last post said that most of my confusion would be explained by the end save maybe a couple of things and yeah, that was the case. But I'm definitely satisfied with how much was cleared up by the end, I'd say there's only a few things I'm still a bit peeved about but nothing that is actually killing me. (Yes, mainly everything with the coins and the coins tricks is still a mystery to me, that's the biggest thing. Like I should emphasize that it's bothering me, just because of how lost I am with it lmao. It's gnawing my brain, it's gnawing, IT'S GNAWING)

And as for my whole rant on the "NPC conversing" I felt a lot of the characters had, I've reasoned that most of that dialogue were simply just the ways Gods communicate, a way to portray how followers of a certain God are often unsure of their beliefs or what their creator asks of them. A clever way to create the barrier between mortal and immortal. I've also just sort of concluded that the minute interactions Shadow has that have followed the pattern of awkward convo have also just been with someone he's unaware was a God. I got this idea after his altercation with Hinzelmann at the end of the book and also with the end battle, when it revealed how many random and unseen gods really existed in the states. I got the idea that the majority of those Shadow meets throughout the book are in fact Gods and given the circumstances of the book the readers just don't catch on at first.

It was also pointed out to me several times that I might be confused by parts just because I'm probably not well versed with the mythology surrounding certain Gods. While this is definitely true, I felt it wasn't too difficult for me to distinguish parts that were associated with a specific mythology. Some parts definitely did go over my head, but for the most part I think I could tell when prior knowledge of a certain belief would've helped.

I also want to give a quick shoutout to the few people that suggest I treat it as a sort of travel book, or a "road trip". Those tips made the book easier to digest.

A couple commenters on the last post considered it a modern classic, which I don't agree with, but in the end I enjoyed it much more than I was expecting. I agree that it was a bit of a tough read in terms of how it's structured, but it does smooth out at the end. It's definitely a work that is one of a kind, and it's uniqueness establishes it as a must read for Gaiman fans or for anybody that is subscribed to similar themes and genres.

Thanks y'all :)