Boek
American Gods
| Auteur | Neil Gaiman |
| Eerste Uitgave | 2001 |
| Uitgave | 2004 |
| Uitgeverij | Headline Book Publishing |
| Vorm | roman |
| Taal | Engels |
| Bladzijden | 658 bladzijden |
| Gelezen | 2011-04-25 |
| Score | 8/10 |
Inhoud
Days before his release from prison, Shadow learns that his wife has been killed in an accident. On the plane ride back home for the funeral, he meets the enigmatic Mr. Wednesday, who offers Shadow a job. Shadow accepts but soon discovers that Mr. Wednesday is far more dangerous than he could ever have imagined and Shadow is now caught in up a war for the very soul of America.
Together they embark on a profoundly strange journey across the heart of the USA, whilst all around them a storm of preternatural and epic proportions threatens to break.
Scary, gripping and deeply unsettling, AMERICAN GODS, takes a long, hard look into the soul of America. You'll be surprised by what - and who - it finds there...
Bespreking
A real American mythology
When Shadow is getting ready to be released from prison he is eager to start his life anew. Returning to his wife, starting a new job. But fate has something else in store for him. A few days before he is allowed to leave, his wife Laura dies in a car crash while going down on Shadow’s best friend Robbie, the guy who was going to provide Shadow with a new job. Alone and without any prospect on a bright future, Shadow reluctantly accepts the job of bodyguard for a mysterious guy called Mr. Wednesday. Soon enough it becomes clear that Wednesday is one of the old American Gods and is on a mission to fight the New Gods. Shadow supports his employer while travelling across America, but does not realize that his task is much bigger than he could anticipate.
With Neil Gaiman there are no boundaries to the fantasy worlds he creates. In American Gods he elaborates on the realm he created in the famous Sandman comics and builds upon the premise that gods only exist because people keep believing in them. In what is basically a road movie, Neil slowly reveals that crazy reality with a panache that is so typical to this fantastic author. Although the pace of the story is rather slow, it brings enough fresh ideas to invigorate the reader’s attention. His visual style lends itself perfectly for the more exuberant chapters like the one with the succubus-like prostitute, a chapter that in my twisted mind deserves even an actual spin-off. For readers with enough knowledge of mythology is probably is also a lot of fun to try to link the characters to known mythological figures.