If you don't know by now I'm a huge fan of author Neil Gaiman (and I love his wife Amanda Palmer too). I've read all of Gaiman's Sandman, Coraline, The Graveyard Book, Stardust, and Anasi Boys. Recently a friend of mine who borrowed my copy of The Graveyard Book passed me a copy of American Gods.
I have the UK edition published by Headline Review (ISBN 978-0-7472-6374-6), which starts with an introduction on this version of the book, which is different from the previously published version.
"...My editor was concerned that the book was slightly too big and too meandering (she didn't mind it being too odd), and she wanted me to trim it, and I did..."
Gaiman goes on to say the instincts of his editor were spot on because the book won a lot of prestigious awards (Nebula, Hugo, Locus, and the Bram Stoker award). So short story long (?) when Headline wanted to reissue Gaiman's novels he had a whole book that he wanted people to read. This edition of American Gods is 12,000 words longer than the one that won the awards, and it's the version of which Gaiman is "the most proud".
Here is the blurb from the book for those of you who haven't read it:
IS NOTHING SACRED?
Days before his release from prison, Shadow's wife, Laura, dies in a mysterious car crash. Numbly, he makes his way back home. On the plane, he encounters the enigmatic Mr Wednesday, who claims to be a refugee from a distant war, a former god and the king of America.
Together they embark on a profoundly strange journey across the heart of the USA, whilst all around them a storm of preternatural and epic proportions threatens to break....
Now I'm going to be slightly mean here, but please don't hold it against me. As I stated previously I am a huge fan of Gaiman's work, just not this one. I so wanted to like it, but I couldn't read it. First I couldn't read it without thinking it was a very poor imitation of a Haruki Murakami novel (let's be honest as great as Gaiman is he is no Murakami) and then I simply couldn't read it at all.
Every writer ends up writing a book which is a vanity project. I think American Gods is Gaiman's vanity project book, something he wrote more for himself than anything else, and as the reader you either like it or you don't.
Also I hated the name Mr Wednesday. Maybe this is nitpicking but to me Wednesday as a name should only ever refer to Wednesday Addams (of the Addams Family). To say he was Mr Wednesday but not Thursday is a Chesterton reference someone of Gaiman's stature should not have made. Anyone who reads Gaiman has to be aware that he at one point or another read a fair amount of GK Chesterton and really liked it. Why he felt the need is beyond me, but it detracts from my being able to immerse myself in the story.
And with an "odd book" (Gaiman's words, not mine), one thing that is absolutely essential is that the reader lose themselves in the writing. Nothing should feel out of place or unusual unless that is the writer's intention. Especially with some of the fantasy/magical surrealism sort of things Gaiman is trying to pull off in American Gods. The quotes, which are disappointingly from real people who wrote real books as opposed to Borges quotes from imaginary people and imaginary books, don't do anything for the story.
I suppose I will try to read it again sometime because I remain shocked by my dislike of it, but for now I'm going to move on to something else. Gaiman has a new book coming out soonish (The Ocean at the End of the Lane) and I've managed to beg myself an advanced reading copy from a friend at HarperCollins, so hopefully it will be better and I'll be able to get the bad taste out of my mouth, but sadly for this blog I've promised not to review it until it's released (I think in June?).
But fingers crossed. Considering the last book of Gaiman's I read was The Graveyard Book and how much I loved that, well, maybe my hopes and my faith in Gaiman's consistency of output were unrealistic.
I have the UK edition published by Headline Review (ISBN 978-0-7472-6374-6), which starts with an introduction on this version of the book, which is different from the previously published version.
"...My editor was concerned that the book was slightly too big and too meandering (she didn't mind it being too odd), and she wanted me to trim it, and I did..."
Gaiman goes on to say the instincts of his editor were spot on because the book won a lot of prestigious awards (Nebula, Hugo, Locus, and the Bram Stoker award). So short story long (?) when Headline wanted to reissue Gaiman's novels he had a whole book that he wanted people to read. This edition of American Gods is 12,000 words longer than the one that won the awards, and it's the version of which Gaiman is "the most proud".
Here is the blurb from the book for those of you who haven't read it:
IS NOTHING SACRED?
Days before his release from prison, Shadow's wife, Laura, dies in a mysterious car crash. Numbly, he makes his way back home. On the plane, he encounters the enigmatic Mr Wednesday, who claims to be a refugee from a distant war, a former god and the king of America.
Together they embark on a profoundly strange journey across the heart of the USA, whilst all around them a storm of preternatural and epic proportions threatens to break....
Now I'm going to be slightly mean here, but please don't hold it against me. As I stated previously I am a huge fan of Gaiman's work, just not this one. I so wanted to like it, but I couldn't read it. First I couldn't read it without thinking it was a very poor imitation of a Haruki Murakami novel (let's be honest as great as Gaiman is he is no Murakami) and then I simply couldn't read it at all.
Every writer ends up writing a book which is a vanity project. I think American Gods is Gaiman's vanity project book, something he wrote more for himself than anything else, and as the reader you either like it or you don't.
Also I hated the name Mr Wednesday. Maybe this is nitpicking but to me Wednesday as a name should only ever refer to Wednesday Addams (of the Addams Family). To say he was Mr Wednesday but not Thursday is a Chesterton reference someone of Gaiman's stature should not have made. Anyone who reads Gaiman has to be aware that he at one point or another read a fair amount of GK Chesterton and really liked it. Why he felt the need is beyond me, but it detracts from my being able to immerse myself in the story.
And with an "odd book" (Gaiman's words, not mine), one thing that is absolutely essential is that the reader lose themselves in the writing. Nothing should feel out of place or unusual unless that is the writer's intention. Especially with some of the fantasy/magical surrealism sort of things Gaiman is trying to pull off in American Gods. The quotes, which are disappointingly from real people who wrote real books as opposed to Borges quotes from imaginary people and imaginary books, don't do anything for the story.
I suppose I will try to read it again sometime because I remain shocked by my dislike of it, but for now I'm going to move on to something else. Gaiman has a new book coming out soonish (The Ocean at the End of the Lane) and I've managed to beg myself an advanced reading copy from a friend at HarperCollins, so hopefully it will be better and I'll be able to get the bad taste out of my mouth, but sadly for this blog I've promised not to review it until it's released (I think in June?).
But fingers crossed. Considering the last book of Gaiman's I read was The Graveyard Book and how much I loved that, well, maybe my hopes and my faith in Gaiman's consistency of output were unrealistic.
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