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American Gods

Neil Gaiman takes us on a journey through a mythical America

By Tony Whitt June 25, 2001

AMERICAN GODS by Neil Gaiman
© 2001 HarperCollins

The latest novel from SANDMAN and NEVERWHERE author Neil Gaiman answers an interesting question: When immigrants bring their own religions to America and then cease to believe in their gods, what happens to the gods themselves?
The story centers on an ex-convict named Shadow who finds out that his wife Laura has died in a car crash on the eve of his release from prison. On the plane home, he is approached by Wednesday, a peculiar man who seems to know Shadow better than he knows himself. Wednesday offers Shadow a job as his bodyguard and errand boy while Wednesday in reality, the Norse father god Odin takes on the task of organizing his fellow gods to fight the coming onslaught by the new American gods, who will stop at nothing until the old ones are vanquished. Shadow soon discovers that the task will not be as easy as it seems: His boss keeps him in the dark most of the time; the old gods are not that willing to enter into a war, even to save their own lives; and Laura refuses to remain in the grave, preferring to follow him around and kill his enemies.
AMERICAN GODS shares with NEVERWHERE its ability to take an ordinary place in this case the small towns of America rather than the streets of modern London and turn them into something mythic, epic, extraordinary. But while NEVERWHERE followed a fairly linear quest by its main character Richard Mayhew to reclaim his life, AMERICAN GODS takes a lot of back roads to get where it's going, luxuriating along the way in retellings of myths and stories about the gods currently inhabiting America.
Gaiman's also not afraid to play the part of the trickster god with his readers he seems to take great joy in subverting your expectations at every step along the way. At first, the novel appears to be a straightforward Good vs. Evil epic fought between gods and monsters in the style of Stephen King's THE STAND. But then Gaiman transforms it, by turns, into a mystery, a character study, a cultural study, and much more. It ends up becoming a story as expansive and varied as America itself.
Because of this, however, AMERICAN GODS may disappoint some readers who can't keep up with the novel's many shifts. Some of the transitions are smooth, even when they leave you gasping for breath, while others require you to regroup mentally in order to keep up. It's not an easy book, but it's certainly an enjoyable one, sharing with SANDMAN and NEVERWHERE all of the easy grace and lyrical quality of Gaiman's prose.
One other possibly disappointing element is the lack of concrete characterization of Shadow, but one has to wonder whether this is intentional on Gaiman's part or not. Several characters speak openly about how Shadow is far more intelligent than his large frame and bouncer-like appearance suggest, and the reader ends up sharing their confusion, given that he's such a difficult character to pin down. Even by the end of the book, when Shadow's background has been explained, we still come away with no clear picture of who this man is, what he looks like, or what motivates him he's almost a cipher, which is a disturbing weakness for any Gaiman character to have, especially the lead.
On the other hand, the rest of the characters are every bit as captivating as any in Gaiman's previous works. Wednesday is a particular triumph, an untrustworthy father figure that you come to love in spite of yourself. Gaiman also continues to be interested in people trapped between the twin agonies of life and death Shadow's wife Laura both elicits our sympathy and our horror as she alternately tries to win his forgiveness for the indiscretions that led to her death and (quite violently) protects him from harm. And as always in Gaiman's work, the line between good and bad blurs often, as characters like the kindly old Hinzelmann turn out to have unexpected hidden qualities.
The plot also carries loads of surprises. Gaiman is skilled at bringing together clues that you won't even notice and surprising you with truly unexpected revelations, some of which make up the book's best moments. Again, it's Gaiman's subversion of the expected that makes AMERICAN GODS such a treat. Be advised, however: It's a treat best enjoyed by simply ignoring your own expectations, losing yourself in the beauty of the prose, and treating the book like the coast-to-coast road trip that it truly is.