What happens when you create a belief in your mind? (American Gods - Neil Gaiman)

Name: KingHerrod

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Product:	American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Date:	03.06.02 (443 review reads)
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Gods? How are they created? The traditional Church indoctrinated amongst you will tell me, there is one God and he (but it could be she) created everything on this planet. I would reply, well fine, but what about these ancient Greek Gods, or the Egyptian ones, even those of the African tribes, what did they do? You would scratch your head and probably wonder that yourself. Or am I being hard?

Neil Gaiman, in his book American Gods has thought about the number of Gods that have been created by societies throughout history and across the globe - then added the twist that pretty much everybody, from anywhere at any time has visited the United States, oh yes we are talking pre-Columbus here, pre-pre Columbus and on their visit, their belief in their Gods bought the Gods' manifestation with them. Now there is a school of thought that has existed amongst broad-minded philosophers that if a human being creates something in their mind, then in some respects (these respects differ depending on who you read) that something is created in some form, in some dimension, or even for real. My answer to this is who knows, but Gaiman has said right, obviously all these Gods exist on some level and whatever that level is they are all mooching around the United States at present - some who have few living believers are down on their luck and others "new" Gods, technological Gods, media Gods are fresh with believers and therefore powerful.

Gaiman himself is a writer that has written across the artistic spectrum, children's fiction, graphic novels (grown up comic books), short stories and novels. He is a writer that sits in that populist slot, much like Stephen King or Terry Pratchett, his books are fantasy based, but with a foot in reality as we perceive it. This was my first foray into Gaiman's work, a popular and well respected author and it will probably be my last - well what is a certainty these days?

Woven into this elabora
te God theory (which if you think about it, must hold some merit) is the tale of Shadow. It is Shadow who the God Odin, or Mr Wednesday comes to for help, to employ him as a bodyguard and errand boy. But it is obvious if you pay attention to the narrative that there is more to Shadow than meets to eye. Shadow has just been released from prison to discover that his wife has been found dead, just the day before, with Shadow's best friend's member in her mouth. Welcome back to life Shadow. Down in the mouth, Shadow takes up with the enigma that is Mr Wednesday and discovers that all is not well in God America. The old Gods are under threat from the new. The new want to exterminate the old and have the world of worship to themselves. Gaiman beautifully points out that in modern society we worship an awful lot, television, motorcars, shopping and most of all money. I didn't really buy this, the true and only God of our age, that I can perceive is money and a nasty God it is too.

"There are new Gods growing in America, clinging to growing knots of belief: Gods of credit-card and freeway, of internet and telephone, of radio and hospital and television, Gods of plastic and bleeper and neon. Proud Gods, fat and foolish creatures, puffed up with their own newness and importance."

The narrative is built up well, with Gaiman showing off his own knowledge of ancient cultures and traditions and rather forcefully making his point that it is quite possible, that nothing is as we as individuals in the western world perceive it. But, for a book in the thriller/fantasy genre, there was too much padding for my liking. American Gods is some 630 pages long, epic proportions, but it did not need to be 630 pages long. Some chapters served no purpose except for boosting the writers ego, stories of long lost Gods, how they came to America abound, but I had grasped the point the first time - after this it becomes padding - admittedly som
etimes interesting padding, but this is a fictional book, not a piece of non-fiction work on ancient mythology. The narrative wanders to dream sequences, meant to add mystery to the plot, but because Gaiman is aiming at the populist market, they didn't add mystery to me, they just signposted where we were going to end up in 100 pages time, especially signposting the big twist in the plot line, which was obvious from about one quarter of the way in. Some of these dream sequences were interesting metaphors and allegories, but not subtle enough for their context in the plot line.

Having slated the book thus far, I do have to say that Gaiman poses interesting questions to our narrow-minded western culture. What would happen to Jesus if he were to hitch hike in Afghanistan? He would be ignored of course, where as in Ireland people would bow down before him. What is heaven? What is hell? Just what type of reality do these Gods populate? Are their other dimensions to our own? Is history as we are taught it, just a pack of lies? I could go on, ultimately he answers many of his own questions, including how Gods are formed - I happen to agree with the majority of Gaiman's philosophical views, but that does not make this a good fictional book. Most of all Gaiman builds the reader up to expect a great conflagration, a great storm and when it comes, it is not even a drizzle. It could be viewed as another example of how people create a flase reality, but to me it was just a damp squib.

The writing is standard fare, it is not bad, but nothing spectacular, it is not reduced down brilliance or an example of the beautiful use of language to bring images alive from the page. This is not to say that American Gods is badly written, the writing for the most part flows, but this is true for most of modern day fiction - but nothing about the writing style is any more than average.

This is a book that promised much and in places was almost pro
found.

"None of this can actually be happening. If it makes you more comfortable, you could think of it as a metaphor. Religions are by definition, metaphors after all."

However, the promise never turned into much, I found it hard to form any real identification with characters, any real long term interest in the narrative and ultimately this is a deep book that turns incredibly shallow. To me American Gods and the ideas within held such huge potential that when the potential was ignored and passed over it was all the more galling.

In the end average fiction and only just average fiction. If you are a fan of Stephen King, you will probably like this, but beware, it drags on and becomes tedious.

Published by Headline.

Priced £6.99.

ISBN 0-7474-6374-4.

631 pages long, about 300 pages too long.

Further details can be found at www.madaboutbooks.com and of course www.amazon.co.uk.

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