Now a STARZ® Original Series produced by FremantleMedia North America starring Ricky Whittle, Ian McShane, Emily Browning, and Pablo Schreiber.
Locked behind bars for three years, Shadow did his time, quietly waiting for the day when he could return to Eagle Point, Indiana. A man no longer scared of what tomorrow might bring, all he wanted was to be with Laura, the wife he deeply loved, and start a new life.
But just days before his release, Laura and Shadow's best friend are killed in an accident. With his life in pieces and nothing to keep him tethered, Shadow accepts a job from a beguiling stranger he meets on the way home, an enigmatic man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. A trickster and a rogue, Wednesday seems to know more about Shadow than Shadow does himself.
Life as Wednesday's bodyguard, driver, and errand boy is far more interesting and dangerous than Shadow ever imagined. Soon Shadow learns that the past never dies . . . and that beneath the placid surface of everyday life a storm is brewingâ??an epic war for the very soul of Americaâ??and that he is standing squarely in its path.
"Mystery, satire, sex, horror, poetic proseâ??American Gods uses all these to keep the reader turning the pages."â??Washington Post… (más)
Despite the title, or perhaps because of it, the 'gods' in this story are not truly American, nor are they truly gods, and they remain elusive, peripherally seen beings for the first half of the book. That's because the story is not their story. It's the story of an ex-convict named Shadow, a brooding, guilt-ridden man that we meet on the day of his parole. He meets a mysterious stranger and his life takes a series of odder and odder turns that he seems to take in stride.
He discovers that the mysterious stranger and the even more mysterious folk to which the stranger introduces him are all incarnations of the gods brought to the New World by various immigrants. Now trapped on this side of the ocean, living unrecognized on the edges of society, they are not as powerful as their Old World counterparts and their existence is increasingly threatened by the new gods of the modern age. They are ready to fight back and Shadow has been recruited as part of their plan.
It is a credit to Mr. Gaiman's authorly skills that he is able to tread the line of realism and fantasy so fascinatingly for almost 600 pages. He creates an entirely believable unbelievable world for the characters to inhabit and crafts a set of rich characters steeped in folklore, yet not requiring a graduate degree in mythology to decipher. It's a story. And it's well done. ( )
I have put off reading this book due to its frequent tagging as horror, a genre that I dislike. While there were some horrible scenes, it turned out that it wasn't what I think of as 'horror' or perhaps my sense of the genre is too influenced by the movies.
Anyway, I found the book strange and interesting. I have come across the concept that gods are created and fed by people's emotions before or I might have given this 4.5* ( )
This is a super weird book and I think I hate it. Which means I'm 0 for 2 with Neil Gaiman novels. I think I'll try one more before officially declaring Neil Gaiman "not for me."
Sidenote: There was a time in my life when I considered reading abridged versions of anything as cheating. But the more unabridged texts I've read, the more convinced I am that including everything the author wants in there makes a book worse, not better. I think I would have liked this book more if I had gotten my hands on the original version, not the bloated "author preferred" version. ( )
I loved the way everything came together at the end. For a while I was confused at how the different threads worked together in this story. It honestly felt like everything just sort of happened to Shadow and that he didn't really do much but experience. He didn't seem to have an effect on the story. But after the halfway point, after Wednesday's death, everything started coming together. It was satisfying. If Gaiman decides to return to Shadow's story, I would read on. ( )
One question that has always intrigued me is what happens to demonic beings when immigrants move from their homelands. Irish-Americans remember the fairies, Norwegian-Americans the nisser, Greek-Americans the vryókolas, but only in relation to events remembered in the Old Country. When I once asked why such demons were not seen in America, my informants giggled confusedly and said, "They're scared to pass the ocean, it's too far," pointing out that Christ and the apostles never came to America.
--Richard Dorson, "A Theory For American Folklore", American Folklore and the Historian
The boundaries of our country sir? Why sir, on the north we are bounded by the Aurora Borealis, on the east we are bounded by the rising sun, on the south we are bounded by the procession of the Equinoxes, and on the west by the Day of Judgement -The American Joe Miller's Jest Book
They took her to the cemet'ry In a big ol' cadillac They took her to the cemet'ry But they did not bring her back. -old song
The first edition of this title was published in 2001. The 10th anniversary edition (published 2011) AND the Folio Society edition (published 2017) of the author's preferred text, are expanded editions. Please do not combine these expanded editions with the original.
Now a STARZ® Original Series produced by FremantleMedia North America starring Ricky Whittle, Ian McShane, Emily Browning, and Pablo Schreiber.
Locked behind bars for three years, Shadow did his time, quietly waiting for the day when he could return to Eagle Point, Indiana. A man no longer scared of what tomorrow might bring, all he wanted was to be with Laura, the wife he deeply loved, and start a new life.
But just days before his release, Laura and Shadow's best friend are killed in an accident. With his life in pieces and nothing to keep him tethered, Shadow accepts a job from a beguiling stranger he meets on the way home, an enigmatic man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. A trickster and a rogue, Wednesday seems to know more about Shadow than Shadow does himself.
Life as Wednesday's bodyguard, driver, and errand boy is far more interesting and dangerous than Shadow ever imagined. Soon Shadow learns that the past never dies . . . and that beneath the placid surface of everyday life a storm is brewingâ??an epic war for the very soul of Americaâ??and that he is standing squarely in its path.
"Mystery, satire, sex, horror, poetic proseâ??American Gods uses all these to keep the reader turning the pages."â??Washington Post
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He discovers that the mysterious stranger and the even more mysterious folk to which the stranger introduces him are all incarnations of the gods brought to the New World by various immigrants. Now trapped on this side of the ocean, living unrecognized on the edges of society, they are not as powerful as their Old World counterparts and their existence is increasingly threatened by the new gods of the modern age. They are ready to fight back and Shadow has been recruited as part of their plan.
It is a credit to Mr. Gaiman's authorly skills that he is able to tread the line of realism and fantasy so fascinatingly for almost 600 pages. He creates an entirely believable unbelievable world for the characters to inhabit and crafts a set of rich characters steeped in folklore, yet not requiring a graduate degree in mythology to decipher. It's a story. And it's well done. (