American Gods


          American Gods did something that I never knew I wanted, happen AND made it wildly enjoyable. While the read was a bit hard, as there was a lot of context I felt I needed to understand each of the gods and how they relate to the plot. I felt Neil Gaiman did a great job making myths relevant to the contemporary world. Incorporating Norse, Hindu, Egyptian, Irish, African, and Slavic gods were what I was expecting- they are well established gods relating to more abstract concepts like wisdom and time. The introduction of “new gods” relating to the internet, television, conspiracy theories and stock markets was refreshing. Those elements, while also more abstract, are more relatable to people in their day to day lives. I will say the inclusion of John Chapman (aka Johnny Appleseed) was a little strange. Not the character, but Johnny Appleseed seemed a little “one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-other” in the novel.
Incorporating these abstract and somewhat disregarded deities in the novel as very real, very humanistic characters worked very well in this context, and I’m sure translated well into a tv show.


Comments

  1. Abby FitzgeraldDecember 3, 2017 at 11:47 PM

    I've been thinking about reading this book, and it sounds like I really should! It's so interesting that Gaiman incorporated not only a variety of old gods but created modern ones as well. I agree that Gaiman does an excellent job of blending modernity with fantasy in his novels; he's got a knack for it.

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