Thero’s Recommended Reading: American Gods

This probably won’t be last time I’ll recommend a Neil Gaiman novel. In fact, I actually had a hard time choosing one to recommend first. In the end, I decided American Gods  was a good place to start.

American Gods follows Shadow, a recently released convict struggling to deal with the death
of his wife and his recently earnt freedom. He crosses path with Mr. Wednesday, a mysterious individual, who offers Shadow a job helping in a war against the old gods and the new ones. As they journey across America, Shadow discovers what has happened to the gods that emigrated to America with their followers, as well as the gods that the modern world has created.

Now, I love novels that put ancient gods into the modern world and this book is one of the ones that does it well, along with Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips. One of the things that American Gods does well is use gods and goddess that less well known in popular culture, like Czernobog from Slavic mythology and Eostre, a Germanic goddess, as well as use gods from more popular mythologies, like Ancient Egyptian.

I should point out that Neil Gaiman tells very strange but detailed tales and if you don’t pay attention, you will miss the point of it. This can make American Gods a challenge to read and it isn’t a small book either but I found it rewarding once I finished it. SO if you want a book that looks at modern day America and how ancient gods cope with living and competing in it, then this is the book for you!

 

Book cover was found on goodreads.com.