Welcome to Manic Monday! Every Monday I pick a book and provide a little insight about it from a reader’s perspective.
Our book for today is from one of the most wonderful author of all time, Neil Gaiman.
As of date, American Gods have different editions but the original was published 2001. Some editions are (from left to right) the 10th anniversary book edition, American Gods with Neil Gaiman’s notes, and the latest hardbound of combined American Gods and Anansi Boys:
Plot
The main idea of the book is about one thing: belief. Immigrants to the United States brought their Gods with them, thus, creating a place full of different beliefs from all around the globe. As time pass by, the belief of the people started fading to give way to new gods: media, technology, drugs, etc.
Shadow Moon is a convict released a week before his official release date after knowing that her wife, Laura, died from a car accident. On his flight home, he meets Mr. Wednesday offering him a job as his bodyguard. Together, they travel around America meeting Mr. Wednesday’s previous colleagues. It takes no time for Shadow to realize that Mr. Wednesday and all of the people they’ve been meeting were all old Gods. He is recruiting his friends in preparation to war with the new Gods.
How I Found It
This is the first Gaiman book I’ve ever read. Sometime in 2008, one classmate of mine brought a couple of books to read in between classes and I asked to borrow this one as it captured my attention. Needless to say, it was the first book that made me admire Gaiman and all his works.
Why Read It ?
Do you know how great this book is? It is so great that they made it into a TV series. You know what makes it so great? It will open your eyes to all the possibilities. To realizing that religion is not only determined by who we pray to, it is also determined by the amount of time we spend our lives to.
Half of the things you’d get from the book is education, knowing all the Gods the school failed to introduce (maybe because we were taught to believe in one God alone – depending on where you live). The other half is knowing that at the end of the book, the important thing is you believe in something.
The depictions of the Gods in the book, for me, is prominent. Thought personified, they were written as Gods, acting as Gods, and deciding as Gods. They are powerful, deceitful, colorful, and sometimes very chaotic.
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