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Loading... Anansi Boysby Neil GaimanLibraryThing recommendationsMember recommendations
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. This was a fun book but probably not Gaiman's strongest work. Anansi is a trickster God, and he is dead. His two sons, powerful Spider and diminuitive Fat Charlie reunite and venture into the land of the gods. Funny and entertaining. (  ) ccavaleri | Nov 12, 2009 |  Though it's set more or less in the same universe as American Gods, I don't think you need to read that one first to enjoy this one. It's the story of Charles Nancy, who discovers his recently deceased father is actually the spider god Anansi, and he has a brother he never knew. The story is fairly light as these things go, with some very funny bits and the general tomfoolery you can expect from any Gaiman book. I enjoyed it, but I would only recommend it to someone who already enjoys Gaiman. Not the best book to get introduced to his work with, but a decent read all the same. (  ) melydia | Oct 28, 2009 | I enjoyed this book a lot--not quite as much as American Gods, but the plot runs in much the same way--twists and turns, and a satisfying ending. ( ) ascgrrl | Oct 21, 2009 | So, I keep hearing Neil Gaiman's name lately. Everywhere I go it's Sandman this or Coraline that and I wanted to see what the hub-bub was about. This was the only used Gaiman book at the store (always a good sign, means people want to keep his books instead of selling them) so I got it, read it and I really wasn't impressed. It was an okay book and I was moderately entertained but it's not the magical super-awesome writing I was expecting. In this book Gaiman doesn't live up to his hype. I'll try American Gods and see if I like that better. From what I understand that's his best. ( ) WNW3 | Sep 30, 2009 | Typically, I am one to wait a few years between readings of the same book. Not so with this: as soon as I finished it, I dived back into the beginning and re-read the whole first half, eager to increase my understanding and appreciation of the work. It withstood the test: masterfully constructed, "Anansy Boys" is littered with apparently innocuous images, clues, snippets that, re-read in the light of the ending, make you go "aaaaaaaaaah yes I get it now". For exactly the same reason, some people have called it "predictable"; and maybe it is, plot-line wise, but no matter: it's beautifully written, filled with characters you really feel for (in both good and bad ways), contains quite a few funny moments, not to mention that - for once - it is good to see people get what they deserve. (  )1  BookJumper | Sep 30, 2009 | 
 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.
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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."
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:16 -0400)
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