American Gods, is a fantasy novel and winner of the Hugo and Nebula award. Written by British author Neil Gaimen. I don't know if you can easily classify American Gods as a fantasy novel, because it is actually a blend of American studies, fantasy fiction and ancient mythology. Since its publication in 2001, American Gods has been gaining increasing popularity. HBO, after its success of adapting George R.R. Martin's "Game of Thrones", is currently producing a six seasons long TV adaptation of "American Gods", to be released in 2013.
So what is it about this novel that captured so much attention? To be honest, I started reading this book with no idea what to expect. At the end of the story, I cannot but help to think that this is one of the most original fiction novel I've read in many, many years.
Synopsis:
America, is a land of immigrants (much like Australia). It is a cultural melting pot, it is a huge piece of land where people from all over the world come to pursue a better live. Along the way, they bring their cultures, as well as belief systems into the country. So in a way, the American society is somewhat a product of the blending of all the cultures. At the same time, America is the technological flagship of the world, where everything is moving, improving and changing all the time.
THe premises of American Gods is that, when people come to America, they bring their belief to that land. In the process they also bring their gods to America. These gods thrive on people's belief in them. In 21th century America, people are turning to the new gods and forgetting the old gods. These new gods of internet, media, mobile phone, drugs etc.. are like the rising sun. While the old gods that came with the immigrants are gradually fading away as people forget them.
The story of American Gods follows an ex-con named "Shadow". Who served 3 years in the prison after he committed a crime of assaults. When Shadow is released from the prison, he tried to go back to his former life. He had a wife Laura waiting for him, and a good friend Robbie who offered Shadow a job once he is out of the prison.
However, just as Shadow is released from the prison. Tragedy struck, his wife and his best friend died in a car accident together. At his wife's funeral, Shadow was informed of the truth that his wife was actually having an affair with his best friend while he was in prison.
Out of bitterness and disappointment, Shadow had nowhere else to go. When a mysterious man called "Mr. Wednesday" appears (Mr. Wednesday? Can you guess who this is? To give you a hint, think of which god in the Nordic pantheon is Wednesday dedicated to), and offered Shadow a job as a personal guard. Having no other choice, Shadow accepted the job. It is not long before Shadow realized he has got himself involved in a business that will change his life forever...
My thoughts on the book:
American Gods is a very well written novel, I think it has one major plot and two subplots. The story has a lot of surprising twists, and the subplots are very well integrated into the main plot. A word of warning though, the story contains some very violent scenes and graphic sex scenes.
As I said in the beginning of the review. American Gods is the most original fiction novel I've read in many, many years. Neil Gaimen cleverly used a mythological tale of "old gods vs new gods" in his novel to illuminate the underlying social phenomenon of a materialistic, consumerism based society in America and the struggle of the old cultures among its own people.
It is pretty clear that in the novel. The old gods such as: Odin, Bast, Thoth, Anansi, Mad Sweeny etc.. represent the origin of the people of America, and the cultures that they belong to. These old gods are gradually being forgotten by people, they live in fear, uncertainty and are struggling to adapt to the rise of the new gods. The gods of Internet, mobile phones, media, drugs etc.. on the other hand, the new gods of 21th century America, while thriving and rising, also live under the constant pressure because they know that new technologies are being invented everyday, and unless they keep up, they will also be forgotten by people and share the same fate as the old gods. One of the catch phrase in the book is "America is a bad land for gods, a land that has no time for gods". While I was reading this book, I had the feeling that Neil Gaimen was trying to convey a message about the nature of belief, and that is a belief is made up by people. In the book, the gods are all created by people's own belief. The old gods were created because people needed to believe in something for protection, and the new gods of the 21th century are created by people, because people built their lives around these things and "worship" these new technological gods.
While I do agree with some of Neil Gaiman's underlying message in American gods, but I do not agree with his message that all belief systems are created by human beings. As we all know from our own experiences, a belief system/faith can be built based on good reasons, evidence and revelation from a sentient being that want you to place your faith in him. For example, when you believe that your spouse loves you, it is not because you created your own belief system (or delusion) that your spouse loves you, out of your own need. In contrast, you believe that your spouse loves you, because your spouse has revealed him/her thoughts to you, and backing it up with actions that forms evidence, so you can have faith in their declaration based on good reasons.
Similarly, I do not think Christianity is a belief system created by human. The Bible is a love letter to human beings, where God revealed himself to us about his nature, character and purpose. God also shows that he meant what he meant through the actions of Jesus, which are recorded testimonies in the New Testament. Here we have God's own revelation of himself, through the evidence of Jesus's life on earth, and we can place faith in him based on good reasons.
Is my argument circular? Yes it might be, but not more circular than the reason you believe or place your faith in anything of this world. While this book is making a statement about the nature of belief, but it forgot to mention that after all, we all believing in something. Without believing in something, meaningful relationships can never be formed.
Final rating (4.5/5):
While I do not agree with the underlying message about the nature of belief in this novel, but I really think Neil Gaiman has written a master piece here. This is the kind of book that people can write pages and pages of literary analysis on. At the same time, the pace of this book is lightning fast, and highly entertaining as a fantasy fiction novel. It is very thought provoking, but as a final word of warning, this book contains some graphical sex scenes and very violent scenes that might upset some readers.
P.S. The next review would be Neil Gaiman's "Anansi Boys", stay tuned.
Thanks, Dan
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