Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
:: Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman ::
by William the Bloody
Fat Charlie is getting married. His fiancée, Rosie, wants Charlie to invite his father, mainly because the two haven't spoken in years and she wants them to reunite (they didn't fight or have an argument; Fat Charlie just finds his dad to be tremendously embarrassing). However, when Fat Charlie calls his old neighbor to get his father's current whereabouts, he discovers his father has just died. I could tell you how he died, but it's just too embarrassing. So, Charlie flies back to the States and visits with the old lady who lived next door and she tells him things. Weird things. Fantastic things. It seems, Charlie's father was none other than Anansi, the African spider trickster god, and also, Charlie has a brother that he never knew about. The old lady tells Charlie that if he should want to contact his brother, he should just tell a spider. Yeah, right. This has got to be his father's last attempt at humiliating him from beyond the grave, hasn't it? A couple of nights later, Charlie's back at home, and drunk, so he... talks to a spider. The next day, his brother turns up on his doorstep. Now, Fat Charlie is a pretty normal fellow with no apparent awesome god-like abilities, but his brother, it seems, has inherited quite a bit. After the brothers spend a night mourning the loss of their father, Fat Charlie's brother decides Charlie is too hung-over for work and goes in for him (it's really easy to pretend to be someone else if you're a god, or even part-god; you just have to tell people you are who you want them to think you are and they believe you). Normally, you might think this was a nice thing for a brother to do. It was. At first. Fat Charlie's brother quite likes being Fat Charlie, especially the part where he has a lovely fiancée. Charlie sees what his brother is up to, but he can't get rid of his brother on his own, so he seeks help. Unfortunately, Fat Charlie gets in way over his head, and the two brothers will have to work together to make sure they can both get out alive.
The Good: In case you didn't already know, Neil Gaiman rocks my socks and this book is no exception. It is a sort-of sequel to American Gods, but you can still thoroughly enjoy this novel without having read its prequel. All of the main characters are wonderful, including Fat Charlie's selfish and feckless brother, his cheerful, jolly and carefree father, and, of course, the would-be mother-in-law with her deeply rooted dislike for Fat Charlie that not even god like magic could break. The book is also very hilarious in many places, and it actually did make me laugh out loud (particularly at some of Fat Charlie's jibes at said mother-in-law, and also police woman's Daisy Day's internal theme song! I love the chorus... if only I could hear it out loud!) The chapter titles are even humourous, particularly Chapter 6: In Which Fat Charlie Fails to Get Home Even By Taxi (but if you're a Gaiman fan from his Sandman days, then you're already familiar with this little penchant of his). The narrative jumps around from various perspective points, but this this very helpful in ensuring we get all of the details. There are some lovely dream sequences, too. I'm a big fan of the meaningful dream sequence, I am.
The Bad: Once again, despite all of his awesomeness, Gaiman is reverting to roles and archetypes. If you've read American Gods (and you know you should), then this book may feel not only like a sequel, but a more personally set redo. Nearly every character in Anansi Boys has a parallel in American Gods, not only in character, but also in the role they play in the story. I just expect a little bit more creativity from Gaiman than what he gave as far as the characters go here. The ending was a tad too all-around happy.
In the end, I loved it. In fact, when I finished it, one of the first things I said was "you really should read this book" to a friend who was sitting next to me. It's not perfect and the author felt just a little lax on the creativity, but it still pulled together one one great read. It's quite funny and a more personal story than American Gods, and therefore perhaps more relatable to your more everyday person. This book is very clever, witty and exciting. Highly recommended!
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