{"id":8794,"date":"2006-04-13T20:05:24","date_gmt":"2006-04-14T03:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2006\/04\/13\/anansi-boys.html"},"modified":"2006-04-13T20:05:24","modified_gmt":"2006-04-14T03:05:24","slug":"anansi_boys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/04\/13\/anansi_boys.html","title":{"rendered":"Anansi Boys<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Anansi Boys<\/em>, by Neil Gaiman (as read by Lenny Henry)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Finally finished reading — well, that’s not right, finally finished listening <\/em>to Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys<\/em>. I’ve had the hardcover<\/a> for a while, but Stan loaned me the Audio CDs<\/a> and I’ve been listening to them on my commute<\/p>\n

Triffic. Just triffic.<\/p>\n

Not surprising. Gaiman is a master at injecting myth into the modern, at seamlessly blending farce, drama, horror, fantasy, and anything else he puts his mind to. And he does it with a spot-on delightful use of the language. <\/p>\n

Anansi Boys is the story of Fat Charlie Nancy, a rather pathetic Caribbean-descent emigre from the US to the UK. Fearful, phobic, put-upon, and an all-around schlub, he discovers, through various delightful-to-read events, that he has a brother he never knew about; that their father was Anansi the spider-trickster god; and that there are wheels within wheels within wheels that will threaten to destroy his life (not to mention kill him), even while promising something far greater …<\/p>\n

The novel features any number of marvelous supporting characters, bound together by a storyline that, weblike, is not always obvious, but eventually brings everyone together in the end.<\/p>\n

I’ve been a Gaiman fan for years, so it’s not surprising this tale grabbed me. It’s both touching and stirring, shifting effortlessly from a familiar-enough-to-make-you-cringe psychological study of Fat Charlie, to a holy-crap bit of high magic and myth, interspersed with tales of Anansi both modern and timeless. It’s more intimate than American Gods<\/em>, but broader in scope than Neverwhere<\/em>. It’s just too much fun.<\/p>\n

Lenny Henry does a great job, too, as the reader on the CD set, his voice carrying the pathos of Fat Charlie, the slickness of Spider, the playful cantankerousness of Anansi, the smarminess of Graham Coates, the unctuous threat of Tiger — all of the characters come alive in his rendition.<\/p>\n

I cannot speak well enough of the novel, even if the ending is just a bit weak — the problem with a novel where the characters actually grow and change is that sometimes they change away from what made them most appealing. But I don’t regret a single minute I spent listening to Anansi Boys — and, in fact, am taking the hardcover on my upcoming business trip so that I can enjoy some of the fine language at my leisure, and am loaning onward the CDs to Margie to listen to on her <\/em>commute.<\/p>\n

In short: highly recommended. Thanks, Stan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman (as read by Lenny Henry) Finally finished reading — well, that’s not right, finally finished listening to Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys. I’ve had the hardcover…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_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-8794","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":7400,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/03\/15\/this_would_be_s.html","url_meta":{"origin":8794,"position":0},"title":"This would be so cool …","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 15-Mar-05 7:31am","format":false,"excerpt":"Neil Gaiman is auctioning off the naming rights for a ship in his upcoming novel, Anansi Boys, proceeds to go to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Be immortalized in...","rel":"","context":"In "Comics & Comic Books"","block_context":{"text":"Comics & Comic Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9703,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/05\/06\/bad_omens.html","url_meta":{"origin":8794,"position":1},"title":"Bad Omens","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 6-May-06 2:38pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Margie has been very much enjoying the Anansi Boys audio discs that Stan loaned us. I am disappointed to learn that there is not an audio book version Gaiman and...","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":14288,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/03\/20\/unblogged-bits-for-friday-20-march-2009.html","url_meta":{"origin":8794,"position":2},"title":"Unblogged Bits for Friday, 20 March 2009","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 20-Mar-09 6:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Links that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ... Firedoglake \u00bb Death and Taxes - Proof that there is, perhaps, a God. Trolling for Jesus - What a scumbag. And, no, it's not acceptable behavior to this Christian. Ex-Bush admin official: Many at Gitmo are innocent\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disney\/Pixar"","block_context":{"text":"Disney\/Pixar","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/disney"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10454,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/01\/11\/booky_meme_of_my_own.html","url_meta":{"origin":8794,"position":3},"title":"Booky Meme of My Own","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 11-Jan-07 6:20pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It's the meme that's sweeping the circle of blogs I read! And write. Anyway, here are \"51 (I like being odd) of my favorites\" (as Kate put it) ... feel...","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":21402,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/07\/02\/unblogged-bits-sat-2-jul-11-1730.html","url_meta":{"origin":8794,"position":4},"title":"Unblogged Bits (Sat. 2-Jul-11 1730)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 2-Jul-11 5:30pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... Lance Mannion: God has called me to defend Michele Bachmann - \"The journalists covering her know what she really is but they don\u2019t feel they can say it unless they can find a Democrat\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10369,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/02\/02\/book_review_the_neil_gaim.html","url_meta":{"origin":8794,"position":5},"title":"Book Review: The Neil Gaiman Audio Collection","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 2-Feb-07 10:31am","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 The Neil Gaiman Audio Collection by Neil Gaiman (2004) Overall Story Re-Readability Audio A marvelous and charming collection of tales written and read by Neil Gaiman, including \"The...","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars4.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8794","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=8794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8794\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}