American Gods II: British and Caribbean Gods

So I have finished my first book for this experiment/resolution. As I have discussed in a couple of status reports, I read Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman.

I liked it very well, which wasn't surprising. As I mentioned in my previous post, I was a little annoyed that I saw the mid-story "twist" coming from around the time that Fat Charlie's mysterious brother, Spider, was mentioned. However, the more I think about it, the less I mind. It ended up being less important to the story as I got to know Fat Charlie and Spider, anyway.

The story is: Fat Charlie has an embarrassing father (anyone who has met my father and seen him dance knows that I empathize, deeply), Mr. Nancy, who dies in the first few pages of the book mid-Karaoki. To make matters worse, his last dying act as he reached out while falling from the stage was to rip the tube top off of a woman sitting next to the stage. But, really, it's how he would have wanted to go, anyway.

Fat Charlie (who was nicknamed that by his father at a young age, and is unable to remove the "Fat" from his name, no matter how much distance he puts between himself and his father) has been living in London, and returns to his native Florida for his father's funeral. While in Florida, he learns from an old neighbor that his father was a god (Anansi) and he has a brother he never knew about, named Spider. Fat Charlie doesn't meet Spider until he returns to London and, following his neighbor's advice, asks a spider to bring his brother by.

As you can well imagine, this was not a good choice for Charlie. Spider wreaks havoc on Fat Charlie's life, dating Charlie's oh-so-sweet fiancee (while she thinks Spider is Charlie), causing him to spend a night in jail due to suspicion of white collar crime at his workplace (an accurate assessment, but misplaced blame), and generally being a poor houseguest.

All-in-all, enjoyed the book greatly. It makes me want to go back and re-read American Gods, which I will have to do once the pile of books in my room goes down a little more. It also made me think about the parallels between this book and Neil's first adult novel, Neverwhere, a topic which I hope to discuss later, because now I am too enthralled in the tawdry details of a friend's new romance to elaborate.