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Loading... Anansi Boys (2005)by Neil Gaiman
I really enjoyed this story and am looking forward to seeking out other Gaiman titles. I particularly enjoyed it because there were many threads that slowly pieced together like a good puzzle. Truly enjoyable and fun. I think it would be a good story to share with the kids. :-) (  ) Zura27 | May 7, 2013 |  3.25 stars “Fat” Charlie learns he has a long, lost brother, Spider, after his father dies. He also learns that his father was and his brother is a god. Unfortunately, it seems that finding Spider and bringing him into Fat Charlie’s life is creating very big problems - Spider is managing to mess up Fat Charlie’s life in very big ways. It was o.k. I’m not big into fantasy, but urban fantasy is more appealing. In this book, I found myself much more interested in the “urban” and far less interested in the “fantasy”. It was also pretty funny. I am adding on an extra quarter-star (and debated about adding a half-star) for the narrator of the audio (Lenny Harry), who is amazing!!! He does those different voices and multiple accents so very well. I love the voices of the old Caribbean women, especially. (  ) LibraryCin | Apr 21, 2013 | I have no idea why, but I didn't like this book anywhere near as much as American Gods. It's still interesting and fun to read, but... there's a different tone, definitely. ( ) shanaqui | Apr 9, 2013 | I usually rate books just out of pure entertainment value, and this book was quite entertaining, which merits it a 3 to 3.5 star rating. But it gets bumped to a 4 because of the ending. It didn't feel rushed, it unfolded nicely and it felt worthwhile. (  ) Paganmoon | Apr 8, 2013 | It was fun, I know I enjoyed it, but now I come to review it I don't much remember what happened. ( ) veracite | Apr 6, 2013 |
 Gaiman kutoo tapansa mukaan sujuvan ja houkuttelevan kertomuksen, joka ammentaa tarinoiden ja myyttien maailmasta. Sujuvan lukukokemuksen viimeistelee onnistunut suomennos. Gaimaniin mieltyneille Hämähäkkijumala on puolipakollinen kirjahyllyn täyte ja kevytfantasiaa hakeville ihan yhtä hyvä tutustumiskirja kuin mikä tahansa varhaisempi romaani. Vaikka kirjan juoni ei juuri yllätäkään, Gaiman esittelee tarinankertojan lahjaansa: kykyä tehdä mahdottomasta todenmakuista.  And Charlie, who has become a successful singer and fathered a son, has come to terms with the powers and responsibilities of ''a boy who was half a god," having learned what Gaiman knows better, and communicates more forcefully, than any other contemporary writer: Stories and poems, songs and myths, represent us, sustain and complete us, and survive us, while also ensuring that all that's best in us survives with them. The focus on Anansi and tricksters, I think, goes a long way towards explaining the tone of this novel. It really feels more like some of the established "funny" sci-fi/fantasy authors (like Gaiman's Good Omens co-author Terry Pratchett) than "classic" Neil.  The problem in "Anansi Boys" is the type of fantasy Gaiman has chosen. The tales of Anansi outwitting his foes leave you feeling you've eaten something heavy and sugary. There's an Uncle Remus folksiness to the stories that sends the airy blitheness of the farce plummeting down to earth. There is also, I regret to say, the warm hand of instruction lying uneasily on this tale. Charlie works through his ineffectualness and his family issues to find happiness, contentment and - ugh - acceptance. It leaves you with the uncomfortable feeling that for Gaiman, farce by itself would simply have been too frivolous, that he feels the need to impart a lesson. Anansi Boys contains a couple of traditional-style Anansi fables, and the book itself takes a similar ambling but wry, pointed tone; like any good Anansi story, it's about cleverness, appetite, and comeuppance, and it's funny in a smart, inclusive way. And like any good Gaiman book, it's about the places where the normal world and a fantastic one intersect, and all the insightful things they have to say about each other. Is contained in
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Fat Charlie Nancy's normal life ended the moment his father dropped dead on a Florida karaoke stage. Charlie didn't know his dad was a god. And he never knew he had a brother.
Now brother Spider's on his doorstep—about to make Fat Charlie's life more interesting . . . and a lot more dangerous.
(retrieved from Amazon Wed, 02 Jan 2013 20:03:08 -0500)
One of fiction's most audaciously original talents, Neil Gaiman now gives us a mythology for a modern age -- complete with dark prophecy, family dysfunction, mystical deceptions, and killer birds. Not to mention a lime. Anansi Boys God is dead. Meet the kids. When Fat Charlie's dad named something, it stuck. Like calling Fat Charlie "Fat Charlie." Even now, twenty years later, Charlie Nancy can't shake that name, one of the many embarrassing "gifts" his father bestowed -- before he dropped dead on a karaoke stage and ruined Fat Charlie's life. Mr. Nancy left Fat Charlie things. Things like the tall, good-looking stranger who appears on Charlie's doorstep, who appears to be the brother he never knew. A brother as different from Charlie as night is from day, a brother who's going to show Charlie how to lighten up and have a little fun ... just like Dear Old Dad. And all of a sudden, life starts getting very interesting for Fat Charlie. Because, you see, Charlie's dad wasn't just any dad. He was Anansi, a trickster god, the spider-god. Anansi is the spirit of rebellion, able to overturn the social order, create wealth out of thin air, and baffle the devil. Some said he could cheat even Death himself. Returning to the territory he so brilliantly explored in his masterful New York Times bestseller, American Gods, the incomparable Neil Gaiman offers up a work of dazzling ingenuity, a kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth that is at once startling, terrifying, exhilarating, and fiercely funny -- a true wonder of a novel that confirms Stephen King's glowing assessment of the author as "a treasure-house of story, and we are lucky to have him."… (more)
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