American Gods: A Novel
Where to buy American Gods: A Novel books online?
- ISBN13: 9780060558123
- Condition: USED – VERY GOOD
- Notes:
Product Description
Unrestricted from prison, Shadow finds his world turned upside down. His wife has been killed; a mysterious weirder offers him a job. But Mr. Wednesday, who knows more about Shadow than is possible, warns that a storm is coming — a battle for the very soul of America . . . and they are in its direct path.
One of the most talked-about books of the new millennium, American Gods is a kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth and across an American landscape at once eerily familiar and utterly alien. It is, reasonably simply, a contemporary masterpiece.
Amazon.com Review
American Gods is Neil Gaiman’s best and most ambitious novel yet, a scary, weird, and hallucinogenic road-trip tale wrapped around a deep examination of the American spirit. Gaiman tackles everything from the attack of the information age to the meaning of death, but he doesn’t sacrifice the razor-sharp plotting and narrative style he’s been delivering since his Sandman days.
Shadow gets out of prison early when his wife is killed in a car crash. At a loss, he takes up with a mysterious character called Wednesday, who is much more than he appears. In fact, Wednesday is an ancient god, once known as Odin the All-father, who is roaming America rounding up his forgotten fellows in preparation for an epic battle against the upstart deities of the Internet, credit cards, television, and all that is wired. Shadow agrees to help Wednesday, and they rotate through a psycho-spiritual storm that becomes all too real in its manifestations. For instance, Shadow’s dead wife Laura keeps showing up, and not just as a ghost–the difficulty of their continuing relationship is by turns grim and darkly amusing, just like the rest of the book.
Armed only with some coin tricks and a sense of purpose, Shadow travels through, around, and bottom the visible surface of things, digging up all the powerful myths Americans brought with them in their journeys to this land as well as the ones that were already here. Shadow’s road tale is the heart of the novel, and it’s here that Gaiman offers up the details that make this such a cinematic book–the distinctly American foods and diversions, the bizarre roadside attractions, the decrepit gods cut-rate to shell games and prostitution. “This is a terrible land for Gods,” says Shadow.
More than a tourist in America, but not a native, Neil Gaiman offers an outside-in and inside-out perspective on the soul and spirituality of the country–our obsessions with money and power, our in a state religious heritage and its societal outcomes, and the millennial decisions we face about what’s real and what’s not. –Therese Littleton
Buy Cheap American Gods: A Novel Online
Related posts:
This is perhaps the worse garbage I’ve ever read. The leader claims to have grown up on C. S. Lewis and Tolkien, and sounds more like a juwe opportunist trying to capitalize off the genuine talent Lewis and Tolkien had. The devise of pitting ancient mythologies in conflict with modern American consumerism and the socalled surprise ending bespeaks deliberate lack of talent. I read it through just to see what all the hype was about, and realized only the village idiot could like this socalled literature. People with a vocabulary that says “dude” alot, or “really rocks” alot, or “awesome,” are the class of idiots that would indulge in this garbage. Such a person is a bald headed sissy that wears rock and roll t-shirts, and sports an unshaven chin.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
Starts off with a weird sex scene and morphs into a collection of weird tales. Got 2/3rds through it and trashed it. What a waste of time. I am reading “State of Dread” br Micheal Critchen. Much better read. Some people seem to like artsy crap just because it offends people. Why?
Waste of money – as I tried an leader I was not familiar with, which is excellent to do. But not Neil Gai man again.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
I have never read Niel Gaiman before alternative up this book. I do not plot to read him again. The entire plot is pointless, and absurd. The ancient gods are envious of the new gods. Who cares! If you like to waste time reading terrible books then by all means pick it up, otherwise don’t.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
The book starts out in prison, and immediately kills the first nice character that comes along – Shadow’s wife. He is unrestricted, and heads for home. We are told of this fantastic like they had, but there is no emotion in this character whatsoever. The next female character devours a partner in the act of sex as he worships her as a Goddess. Honestly, I gave up before long thereafter. This book did not kindle my interest at all. I had hoped it would be mentally uplifting, something to link Americans with the deities of their own land. As a replacement for, it started hideous and dark, and I saw small to cause me to reflect it would improve. Very disappointing, considering that friends had recommended this as a must read. It’s a work of fiction, of course, and it seemed to be in the genera of books that take themselves too seriously, where darkness somehow equals depth.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
Admittedly, I read only a few pages. The language was clumsy, the descriptions were mundane, and the characters were goofy. I’m a fan of Gaiman’s “Sandman” series, but this novel is just childish.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5