{"id":21658,"date":"2011-07-19T15:06:07","date_gmt":"2011-07-19T21:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=21658"},"modified":"2011-07-19T15:06:07","modified_gmt":"2011-07-19T21:06:07","slug":"book-review-american-gods-10th-anniversary-edition-by-neil-gaiman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/07\/19\/book-review-american-gods-10th-anniversary-edition-by-neil-gaiman.html","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: “American Gods: 10th Anniversary Edition,” by Neil Gaiman"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"American<\/a>American Gods: The Tenth Anniversary Edition: A Novel<\/a> by Neil Gaiman<\/a><\/p>\n

My rating: 5 of 5 stars<\/a><\/p>\n

This is a remarkable book, big and sprawling while also close and intimate. The idea of the gods of America — old gods brought from the various Old Worlds, new gods engendered by American culture — is presented in ways both wildly fantastic and hauntingly gritty.<\/p>\n

I read this book several years ago (though I didn’t review it, dagnabbbit), but it’s gotten better with age (or I’m more of a fit to it). I liked it a lot then, but consider it “amazing” now.<\/p>\n

The main protagonist, “Shadow,” is arguably the weakest part of the tale. He’s a bit of a hole, a player somewhat sleepwalking through the tale, as through his life. Even his wife comments that he’s not really alive, not living<\/em>. This allows for some projection by the reader, perhaps, into that void, but it also makes the story more about the setting and the actions of the supporting cast, less about the protagonist. Perhaps that’s appropriate in a myth, and certainly the setting and cast more than uphold their end, but at times it rings a bit odd.<\/p>\n

The Tenth Anniversary Edition includes text that was originally trimmed out (though not all of it). I don’t know all the bits that were restored, but the book doesn’t seem to have suffered for it.<\/p>\n

Highly recommended.<\/p>\n

View all my reviews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

American Gods: The Tenth Anniversary Edition: A Novel by Neil Gaiman My rating: 5 of 5 stars This is a remarkable book, big and sprawling while also close and intimate. The idea of the gods of America — old gods brought from the various Old Worlds, new gods engendered by American culture — is presented … Continue reading “Book Review: “American Gods: 10th Anniversary Edition,” by Neil Gaiman”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-books"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":32659,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/03\/01\/neil-gaiman-news.html","url_meta":{"origin":21658,"position":0},"title":"Neil Gaiman news","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 1-Mar-13 11:47pm","format":false,"excerpt":"On all sorts of cool projects.Reshared post from +Shannon TurlingtonAmerican Gods coming to HBO. Neil Gaiman Updates Us on HBO\u2019s American Gods, Doctor Who, and More | Tor.com Neil Gaiman Updates us on the HBO American Gods, Doctor Who, and more. View this post on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4580,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/08\/04\/only_the_gods_a.html","url_meta":{"origin":21658,"position":1},"title":"Only the gods are real","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 4-Aug-03 2:10pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A fine site with both annotations of all the gods in Neil Gaiman's American Gods, and pictures of the carousel at the House on the Rock. Fun. (via Gaiman)...","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132923,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/02\/24\/waiting-for-american-gods.html","url_meta":{"origin":21658,"position":2},"title":"Waiting for "American Gods"","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 24-Feb-17 7:37am","format":false,"excerpt":"Great Neil Gaiman novel, and everything I've heard about this series sounds like it will be a lot of fun. But ... we don't currently get Starz, and I'm not going to add it to my line up just so that I can watch a single new show. Presumably there\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131530,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/09\/14\/gaimans-norse-mythology-is-coming.html","url_meta":{"origin":21658,"position":3},"title":"Gaiman's "Norse Mythology" is coming","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 14-Sep-16 8:16am","format":false,"excerpt":"This looks like it should be awesome. Gaiman has played with some of these characters in the past, from Sandman to American Gods, and it's always been entertaining. From the Amazon description [http:\/\/amzn.to\/2cJ1CLp]:'Neil Gaiman has long been inspired by ancient mythology in creating the fantastical realms of his fiction. Now\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/tjMbZfXimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/tjMbZfXimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/tjMbZfXimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":135482,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/01\/american-gods-trouble.html","url_meta":{"origin":21658,"position":4},"title":"“American Gods” is in trouble","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 1-Dec-17 7:24am","format":false,"excerpt":"We love the Starz American Gods series in its first season. Showrunners Michael Green and Bryan Fuller took Neil Gaiman's excellent novel about belief, faith, religion, and what Americans truly worship, and made it into an even more excellent and trippy TV series. Shockingly, the two gents are leaving the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/American-Gods-mad-sweeney-getting-punched.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":133399,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/05\/american-books.html","url_meta":{"origin":21658,"position":5},"title":"American Books","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 5-May-17 9:59am","format":false,"excerpt":"Even realizing it's all associated with the Starz \"American Gods\" series, it's still neat to see a stand-alone display full of Neil Gaiman books in front of an airport bookstore. \u00a0 View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/2017%2B-%2B1imgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21658\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}