American Gods by Neil GaimanMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I chanced upon this audiobook while I searched for an engaging read to accompany me at work. Given the TV series is out and everyone's been talking about it, I thought to give the book a shot.
Admittedly, I don't believe I would have survived this book in its printed form - it is too long. As an audiobook, it is more tolerable, especially since the tenth anniversary edition has a good 4000 extra words in it (so the author says in the foreword).
The main story is interesting (spoilers ahead, beware) - Shadow Moon has been in prison for a good three years, and the only thing keeping him going is the thought of going home to his wife Laura. When he's let out a couple of days early, he is hit with the news that his wife died in a car accident.
Once out, he gets a job as bodyguard to Mr Wednesday, a shadowy, sleazy character with equally strange accomplices. Despite his best efforts to stick to the straight and narrow, the past creeps up on Shadow and the impossible keeps happening.
Suddenly Shadow has to deal with the following:
The knowledge that his wife was cheating on him with his best friend at the time of her death;
That his dead wife is up and about and wants to live again;
Wednesday is actually Odin and leading a pack of Old Gods in a fight against the New Gods - callow youths who think they know it all;
An errant hitch-hiker with an air of mystery around her
And those are just off the top of my head. The main story is interesting and arresting. Gaiman has a way with words - on track, compact and action-packed. His writing flows easily, and I can see why so many people have been hooked onto him and his work for so long.
The trouble is the many interludes and subplots - there's too many of them. Several aren't that relevant; if they're not the backstories of the Gods' human lives, what's the point of them? I couldn't concentrate on those parts.
I generally love the central concept - American Gods, what gods? America is full of immigrants, starting with the white British who colonised the place, down to the many races and ethnicities who now call it home. The real American gods are those of the Native Americans - but, and I really don't know much about the subject aside from what Chakotay said on 'Star Trek: Voyager', the Native American idols didn't feature in this book, which is really weird, given that Gaiman takes the time out to feature several other gods from a variety of cultures, including Nordic, African, Egyptian and Indian. Kind of a bummer not to include the originals, no?
Also, and this irks me no end, the only Indian god featured is Kali (in the guise of Mama-ji). This makes no sense to me. The conceit is that the Old Gods get together as they are losing followers - well, Kali's followers were few and far between to start with. Yes, she's the most recognisable god for most non-Indians, because she's Black and evil-looking and that's how people would like to tar and feather most Indians, but frankly, the people who worshipped/worship Kali are small time business people and, unfortunately, thugs. Not a lot of those would be in America (don't quote me on that, though). A far better example would have been Durga/Shakti/Parvati - if for no other reason than to make a strong, proactive and protective female god character in the book. We're woefully lacking in those here.
Most troublesome for me was the Queen of Sheba. She's the quintessential, highly sexualised female character most books (fantasy or otherwise) include. It baffles me, because, if she's a god, and a sexually voracious one at that, why would she take up the life of an escort? I know people will say it's empowering, but the most prominent scene of her with a client has her almost terrified of the guy (he turns out to be a New God), and unable to control the situation. A promiscuous male character in this situation would be a high-powered businessman who would be able to afford as many women as he wanted - why can't the freaking Queen of Sheba get the same deal!!!!!! It's these stupid tropes that drive me nuts and puts me off authors - why can't you get out of it? Don't care if this was written in 2001, powerful businesswomen were already in the news then, what's the excuse for not including them in a book then? It doesn't help that I couldn't stand the voice actor for this character - she just had the most annoying way of speaking.
Now let us come to sexuality. Everyone's straight. Wednesday hits on every good-looking female in his path, irrespective of how young she is. Shadow loves Laura and gets hit on/snogged by a couple of ladies. However, there is a cute, young lesbian couple thrown in with some detail, because of course there is.
The only male gays in sight are the Jinn and a Pakistani lad distraught with his lack of success in the US. He catches a cab which happens to be driven by the Jinn. I don't know if Gaiman was trying to make a point here, but given there is an issue with homosexuality in certain parts of the world, I think it was quite crude to have only one scene depicting gay men to be between the above two people. Why not balance it out with an actual gay couple (not just a hook up) - maybe even a mixed race one - to show the normalcy of it. But no, we spend much more time with the lesbians than showcasing equality among sexualities.
Finally, my biggest grouse is that since the writer is male, we get plenty of detailed (sometimes lurid) descriptions of the female characters. Males, not so much, and never in a voyeuristic fashion - but the ladies, we knew everything about them. *rolls eyes*
This book is good with a central concept and conceit that is mind-blowing and imaginative to the core. But we didn't need that many subplots. And, there are tics that some authors have that don't sit well with me. I mean, hey, maybe Gaiman's newer work is utterly respectful of all people, but this book didn't have that, and I couldn't love it enough.
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