Book Review: Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

Anansi Boys, is a spin-off novel of Neil Gaiman's American gods. Published in 2005, this novel won both Lotus award and British Fantasy society award. Compared to American gods, Anansi boys is a shorter and a lighter novel. This is a book that contains elements of fantasy, mythology, fairy tale and comedy.


Synopsis:

This novel takes place in the same world as the world in American gods. Anansi, is a trickster/spider, a dominant mythological character in West African and Caribbean folktales.

Anansi (Mr. Nancy from American gods), is a god of Western African origin who arrived in America with the immigrants. The story follows Anansi's son, "fat Charlie". Who is perpetually embarrassed of his father because of his father's attitude and carefree lifestyle.

Fat Charlie lives in England, works in a job he doesn't like because he has a bad boos, and is not very adventurous. He was planning a wedding with his fiancee Rosie, and his difficult future mother in law. His future wife insisted fat Charlie to invite Anasi to their wedding. When trying to contact his father, fat Charlie found out that his father had died in an embarrassing manner at a karaoke bar. Fat Charlie travelled to Florida from London to attend his father's funeral, and met up with his father's neighbors and old family friend, Mrs Higgler, who informed fat Charlie that his father was the incarnation of the West African spider God, Anansi. Furthermore, Mrs. Higgler also informed fat Charlie that he has a long lost brother, a man named "Spider", who inherited most of Anansi's magical powers. Mrs Higgler told fat Charlie that to summon his brother, all he had to do is to ask any spider to pass on the message that he wishes to see him.

Fat Charlie dismissed all of those information as ridiculous fantasies. Until one night, he drunkenly told a spider that he would like to see his long lost brother. The next day, a mysterious man shows up at fat Charlie's doorway and introduced himself as fat Charlie's long lost brother "Spider". This re-union marked the beginning of a series of eventful adventures for the two brothers.

My thoughts of the book:

Unlike "American gods", "Anansi Boys" is a much lighter novel, and it is also alot more funnier and humorous. In the story, fat Charlie represents the kind of man who is shy, reserved, less adventurous with a sense of low self confidence. Most of Charlie's personality can be attributed to his feeling of embarrassed towards his father, with further explanation later in the novel.

This is a story about breaking out of normal life patterns, making riskier decisions, and overcoming brute forces with cunning and intelligence. While Anasi Boys has less philosophical depth compared with American gods, but this book is also funnier, light-hearted, and has less sexual/violent contents. The story is very readable, and the pace is lightning fast.

While Anansi Boys isn't as thought provoking as American gods, but Neil Gaiman has written a book with one of the most intriguing opening lines in modern literature:

"It begins, as most things begin, with a song".

My favorite quote of the book is this one:

"Each person who ever was or is or will be has a song. It isn't a song that anybody else wrote. It has its own melody, it has its own words. Very few people get to sing their song. Most of us fear that we cannot do it justice with our voices, or that our words are too foolish or too honest, or too odd. So people live their song instead.”

Without spoiling too much of the story, the main plot is somewhat revolved around "songs". What does this mean? Well, read the book yourself and find out.

Rating:4.5/5
Conclusion:
While Anansi Boys is not as deep (philosophically) as American gods, but this book is funny, lighter, enjoyable, less sexual/violent contents, and extremely well written. The character development is great. I enjoyed this book and thought it was a great read, highly recommended for readers of any taste (fantasy, mythology, fairy tale and comedy).

Book Review: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

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.

Book Review: Arabian Nights (Barnes and Noble leatherbound classics)

1001 nights, is a collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian folk tales over many centuries. It is one of the most collectible literature in the world, full of wonderful and amazing stories, and form the basis for many modern fictions. Some of the stories are so popular that most people would have heard a story of two from 1001 nights. For example, Aladdin and the wondrous lamp, Ali Baba and the 40 thieves, or Captain Sinbad and his 7 voyages.

In this book review, I will focus more on the quality of this particular edition of Arabian nights and less focus on the content of the book. This is because the story of 1001 nights is so popular that I assume everyone would have heard at least, one or two tales from the entire collection sometimes in your life.

Synopsis:

The story of 1001 nights started when a Persian king, discovered the unfaithfulness of his brother's wife, and became even more shocked when he discovered that his own wife has also cheated on him. Out of bitterness and rage, he executed his wife, and decided that all women are treacherous in nature. So he started marrying virgins in his kingdom day after day, only to execute them after the first night of their marriage. After a long period of cruel massacre, the people in his kingdom trembled with fear and were hateful against his tyranny. Until one day, the daughter of the king's vizier, a young lady named Scheherazade volunteered to marry the king, she was determined to save the girls in the kingdom by changing the king's heart with her own wit and power of persuasion.

On the night their marriage, Scheherazade started to tell the king a story, but doesn't end the tale. So the king was forced to stay the execution until the next day. Scheherazade repeated the same trick on the king, night after night. By telling him tales of wonders and amazement for 1001 nights. Until the end where she bore the king 3 children, and managed to persuade the king to have a change of heart, and abandoned his previous ways.

All the tales told by Scheherazade were collected together, and became known as "1001 nights".

The book itself:

By chance, at the beginning of this year, I found out that Barnes and Noble have been publishing a series of leatherbound classics, for really affordable price of 18 dollars per book. The collection included classical literature such as: The Divine Comedy, Lewis Carol, Mark Twain, Edgar Allen Poe, the complete Grim's tales, Narnia, Iliad and Odyssey etc....

So I ordered quite a few of these books. And one of them is "Arabian Nights". This edition probably doesn't contain all of the stories from 1001 nights, but it does have 20 stories. The book is decorated with numerous color illustrations. Overall, the quality of this book is excellent. It is leatherbound, with gold gilded edges and a book ribbon. As you can see from the picture, the cover of the book is beautiful and really stands out on any bookshelf.

The only possible annoyance for some people is that, this edition uses the translation from Richard F. Burton. The translation is dated back to 1850. The style of language is therefore, quite old. For example, to give you an idea what the use of language is like: "Ho thou, I once visited thy Hammam and thou entreatedst me with honor and accomplishedst all my needs..."

However, if you are like me, and don't mind the use of old fashioned English language in a book. Then I think you will definitely love this beautifully decorated edition of Arabian Nights. The only possible side effect after being exposed to more than 700 pages of old fashioned English language might be, when you are visiting your friend's house, and asking your friend to bring you a glass of water, you might say: "Ho thou, have me a glass of water bringeth so I may quench the thirst of my throat and adore the beauty of thy shelter"... After which your friend might respond with a raised eyebrow!

The bottom line is, if you like classics, if you like beautiful leatherbound books at low price. Then don't wait, go get this book, this is a good edition of 1001 nights. It's good, real good.

Rating: 4.5/5