Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Anansi Boys
Book Review: A Great Follow Up to American Gods.
Summary: 4 Stars
Not so much a sequel, as an "enrichment" to the world Gaiman created in American Gods, Anansi Boys is a much more light-hearted and accessible read. Though not possessing the same level of ambition as AG, it is perhaps more successful because of it. Solidly entertaining.Book Review: A New Universe to Believe In
Summary: 5 Stars
Who can suspend disbelief better than Neil Gaiman? This book was released in 2005, and it's still a bestseller. I've read all of Neil Gaiman's Sandman graphic novels, and now I'm making my way through his other books.
I liked Anansi Boys even better than American Gods. This book had more developed characters (the sons of Anansi), and Gaiman seemed to enjoy filling them out. It's amazing how Gaiman can make a character likeable (Spider), then unlikeable, then likeable again. Who else can create characters that are outlandish, petty, and still endearing? What a storyteller.
I read the book in a single 24 hour period, and even though I was exhausted, it still kept me up until midnight. That's the sign of a really fantastic book.
Book Review: A Story Set at a Jaunty Angle
Summary: 3 Stars
For me, "Anansi Boys" was one third Douglas Adams, one third Robert Rankin, one third Jasper Fforde and one third Neil Gaiman. (I know, but it's that kind of book.)
There's the "wacky things happen when you least expect it, but roll with it" aspect that I always enjoy. An ordinary bedroom in a London flat can suddenly seem the size of a football field with a different view out the window than what is really there, one person can be seen as a completely different person even to those who know him best, and there are gods walking the earth. Supernatural meeting the mundane with witty banter along the way.
I certainly wouldn't say this is one of my favorite books of this type - but it was an enjoyable read. I picked it up mostly because I recognized Gaiman's name from Coraline which my kids saw and liked. Based on that frame of reference that I had, this book was NOTHING like that. Which is fine. Oh, but before I go further, I should mention that the main character's name is Fat Charlie.
"Fat Charlie tried to remember what people did in prison to pass the time, but all he could come up with was keeping secret diaries and hiding things in their bottoms. He had nothing to write on, and felt that a definite measure of how well one was getting on in life was not having to hide things in one's bottom."
It's an interesting story with colorful characters as Fat Charlie discovers the world behind the one he had been inhabiting all his life. He has a good set of eyes with which the reader can see this unusual world, and sometimes his vision provides the reader with more than one might expect.
"Different creatures have different eyes. Human eyes (unlike, say, a cat's eyes, or an octopus's) are only made to see one version of reality at a time. Fat Charlie saw one thing with his eyes, and he saw something else with his mind, and in the gulf between the two things, madness waited. He could feel a wild panic welling up inside him, and he took a deep breath and held it in while his heart thudded against his ribcage. He forced himself to believe his eyes, not his mind."
Fat Charlie is the definition of everyman, plodding along through life until he is forced to learn more about his father and his newly discovered brother, Spider.
"If he (Spider) had not been perfectly certain of his own sanity, certain to a degree that normally is found only in people who have concluded that they're definitely Julius Caesar and have been sent to save the world, he might have thought he was going mad."
I guess, in the end, I enjoyed this book but didn't love it. I liked Gaiman's easy writing style and most of the supernatural goofiness and found several of the parts to be funny in a gentle way.
"Charlie pushed his fedora back onto his head. Some hats can only be worn if you're willing to be jaunty, to set them at an angle and to walk beneath them with a spring in your stride as if you're only a step away from dancing. They demand a lot of you. This hat was one of those, and Charlie was up to it."
Charlie, who somewhere along the way, stopped being Fat Charlie and became a man of his own. With a jaunty hat.
Book Review: A Story That is Many Things
Summary: 5 Stars
Anansi, one of the gods featured in Gaiman's American Gods, is a spider god who owns all the world's stories. This is probably the most important thing to understand about him. His son, Fat Charlie, though, is a man who doesn't even live his own story. When Anansi dies and Charlie meets his brother, he is forced to face the two parts of himself: the part that is Fat Charlie and the part that is Spider, who lives a life Fat Charlie could only dream of.
This story is many things all at once. In a way, it's a coming of age story (even though Fat Charlie is an adult). It's also a story about families, love, and the nature of life and death. It's a thriller, with its own maniacal killer, and it's a story about the history of the world and how we came to understand it, mainly through Anansi's stories. It's fast-paced, moving, hilarious, and scary. I would recommend this book not only to fans of modern fantasy, but also to anyone who simply wants to read a great story.
Book Review: A Story Which (as all stories do) Belongs to Anansi
Summary: 4 Stars
When Fat Charlie Nancy's father drops dead (rather extravagantly and ridiculously), while singing karaoke, Fat Charlie decides to invite the brother he never knew he had into his life. The only problem is, now Spider doesn't want to leave. He's taking over Fat Charlie's life and turning Fat Charlie's careful boring world on its head.
Fans of Neil Gaiman's American Gods will enjoy this similar tale of old world gods and even meet some old friends. Though Anansi Boys does not possess sheer volume or characters quite as engaging as American Gods it plunges the reader back into Gaiman's enchanting world where everyday people hold the power of gods made flesh. The story is rather like a spider web, in which single strands seem quite independent of one another until they are slowly wound into a beautiful pattern at the center.
Though I cannot say that Anansi Boys has become one of my favorite novels it kept me thoroughly entertained bother with Gaiman's witty prose and interesting plot twists. In whatever he is doing Neil Gaiman's work is always a rather unique brand of fantasy. I have never read a novel quite like Anansi Boys except, of course, for American Gods. Gaiman is a fantastic writer whom I would recommend to lovers of fantasy and a good laugh.