Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman

American Gods 'lite'

American Gods was a dark and sinister novel and although Anansi Boys is a sequel or is it a prequel or just a sub-plot, it is a much lighter and light-hearted book. I think I preferred the brooding darkness of American Gods but Anansi Boys, which is in contrast almost a comedy was still a very good read and another example of Neil Gaiman's undoubted talent. The central character is Fat Charlie a gawkish young man and the son of one of the American Gods whose life is thrown into turmoil when he invokes his spider God twin brother who is everything that Fat Charlie isn't. Of course if you're a Neil Gaiman fan you will read this book and not be disappointed.

A little too by-the-numbers

As with all Neil Gaiman's fiction, this is incredibly easy to read, well paced and it's got this peculiar ability to make you instantly believe in the set-up. I'm a huge Gaiman fangirl but for some reason, I just didn't love this.

The book has all the sly touches of Gaiman humour that we've come to expect. I particularly enjoyed the retailing of Anansi's final moments on earth (just before he collapsed on an American tourist), the tricks he used to play on poor Fat Charlie, and some of the scenes with the villainous Grahame Coats were v. amusing, albeit in a black humour way. However, there is a peculiar lack of ... soul to the piece.

I don't empathise with Fat Charlie's worsening week (starting with his dad's death, moving onto the discovery that he has a twin brother with God like powers who takes a shine to his fiancee, Rose, his being framed for fraud by Grahame Coats and ending with a battle against the resentful and malevolent Tiger) because you know that it's going to turn out alright. As it becomes obvious that Gaiman's setting up Fat Charlie with policewoman, Daisy, you know that it's okay for Rose to have never really loved him but you would have still liked something more than the pat resolution he comes up with. Similarly, Fat Charlie's twin, Spider, is going to have some form of chastisement for trying to screw over his brother, but Gaiman set-up telegraphs the fact that he too will have a happy ending with Rose.

There's also a certain patness to some of the characters - Grahame Coats in particular, whilst amusing, is very two-dimensional on the page. I'd have liked to see more of his motivation or just something more than low level cunning and homicidal tendencies on the page - the closest we get is his pact with Tiger at the end, and whilst beautifully written, it didn't satisfy me.

Where Gaiman does succeed very well is in conveying a certain Caribbean rhythm to the writing. He credits Nalo Hopkinson with helping him with the dialogue, and the result is excellent and very compelling - I can believe in his large, elderly, bustling Caribbean women chattering with each other and chiding Fat Charlie. There's also a real Caribbean vibe to the narrative voice and the sections where Gaiman recounts some of Anansi's adventures feel very authentic.

Boys, boys!

Neil Gaiman is best known for his witty, slightly wonky brand of dark fantasy. But he gets a bit lighter for "Anansi Boys," a sort of unconnected sequel to his hit "American Gods." You think your dad is embarrassing? Well, at least he's not a trickster god.

Fat Charlie's dad has always been weird -- brass bands for the terminally ill, nicknames that stick, and much more. But even away from his dad, Charlie isn't happy. Then he gets the news that his dad died during a karaoke song; when he goes to the funeral, an old neighbor tells him that Daddy was really Anansi the spider god. Even worse, Charlie finds out he has a brother.

Spider is everything Charlie isn't -- charming, debonair, witty, and magical. Soon he has not only taken over Fat Charlie's house, but his fiancee as well, distracting Fat Charlie from his boss's attempts to frame him. Determined to get rid of Spider, Fat Charlie enlists the Bird Woman's help -- but soon finds that his pact will only get them in deeper trouble with the ancient gods.

Trickerster gods -- Anansi, Loki, Kokopelli -- are always fun. And Gaiman makes the idea even more fun with "Anansi Boys." Sibling rivalry forms the backbone of the book, but it's also sprinkled with corporate intrigue, romance, and the old Anansi legends (which Gaiman inserts periodically). And of course -- lots and lots of humour.

With this lighter tone, Gaiman sounds a lot like his pal Terry Pratchett, right down to wry humor and comic timing. "There are three things, and three things only, that can lift the pain of mortality and ease the ravages of life. These things are wine, women and song." "Curry's nice too." Gaiman seems to be having a lot of fun in this book.

And nowhere is the fun more clear than in Spider and Fat Charlie. They're like yin and yang, one charming, conscienceless and godly, while the other is nervy, awkward and mundane. Spider's charm leaps out from the page, while Fat Charlie is sort of Gaiman's "Charlie Brown."

Everyone gets annoyed by their siblings and embarrassed by their dad, but the "Anansi Boys" have a life more complex than most. Lighter than most Neil Gaiman books, but hilarious, dark and imaginative.

an excellent read

the twists and the turns, though sometimes predictable, were really good. Neil Gaiman's writing style is, to me, not dissimilar to that of Terry Pratchett in its style of humour though perhaps a bit darker. i particularly liked the footnote at one point in the book in reference to the expression "there's more than one way to skin a cat" a literal interpretation of the expression at which i found myself laughing out loud while walking home from work oneday almost a week after reading the book, inducing a few strange looks from passers by. a great read and well worth puttin your hand in your pocket for!!!

If only.....

If only this novel was a good as all the hype I'd of been very happy. I myself hoped after reading Gaiman's "American Gods" that his follow up novel would be an improvement upon it. As it so happens I find it's not even as good as "Gods", which I rated as a 3 star read. This in my view only get's a 2 star award. Nothing wrong with the writing and the story has a few funny passages that made me laugh. The problem is the story for me, It just didn't grip me and I've held back from posting a review for a few weeks so as to resist diving in with a bad review. I wanted to reflect about the story and I'm afraid that I still feel dissapointed with "Anansi Boys". I'm hoping I find Gaiman's collection of stories ,"Fragile Thing's", the 5 star Gaiman book I'm waiting for.