Anansi Boys

Neil Gaiman

The first thing about this book is that it’s fun, good-humoured, a rollicking yarn. Gaiman...more

The first thing about this book is that it’s fun, good-humoured, a rollicking yarn. Gaiman can tell a story, and stories within and about stories, totally holding our interest while knitting them together into a colourful and madly logical crazy quilt. He can sweep readers up into his extraordinary world and into a kind of boyish exuberance – like, at the bawdy end of the market, Tom Robbins, at the chaste end, Terry Pratchett. The second thing is that it’s in an oblique way wise and deep. Oblique: it’s not boringly spelt out; that’s what reviewers and philosophers, without the great gift of story, are reduced to. It’s all there in the way the story glints. But I’ll spell it out a bit, trying to persuade you. This review contains plot spoilers. If you are going to read the book anyway, read the book first. If you haven’t decided to read it, read the review. If it prompts you to read the book you’ll still get more enjoyment from that than grief from the spoiling. In the main arc of story the very ordinary, overcivilized Charlie Nancy learns that his father was the Spider-god Anansi, and that he has a long-lost brother, Spider, who inherited all the god stuff. His father had made his life a misery, his brother comes to. By a long route he comes to reclaim his inheritance; to embrace his shadow. Anansi is the trickster archetype. (All the Jungian jargon is mine, not Gaiman’s, but the themes glare.) One gloss on the trickster stories is new, as far as I know. They were originally Tiger stories, about getting what one wanted by brutality; but Anansi stole them (“earnt” them, he claims), adapting them into stories about getting what one wanted – sex, food, victory in struggles – by cunning. People take on the shapes of the stories and songs that surround them; so people started to think their way out of their problems – sometimes, of course, into worse problems. That’s when they started to make the human world. So far, improvement, but no goals beyond the selfish. So Anansi must be superseded as surely as Tiger. The conceit that Spider is the severed shadow of Charlie is put to use. If Charlie starts as a symbolic eunuch (my image, not Gaiman’s), Spider starts as what was cut off from him; and as Wayland Young summed up his tract Eros Denied, if there’s one thing even more pathetic than a eunuch it’s his severed balls. Gaiman works to a happy resolution. Not merely does Charlie grow his inner Spider; despite God-like powers, Spider was even more limited as a human than Charlie, and he learns grow his inner Charlie. He learns care for some others, even something like commitment. – My pompous “moral-drawing” is enormously flat; the story detail does it all, and is vastly hillier. The book deals with deep evil too, but in an interesting and unusual way, mirroring the way Charlie deals with it in the climax: taking away its power by mockery. (Read it; you’ll see how it works. Just that is worth more than the price of admission.)   hide

As something of a sequel to his previous outing "American Gods", Anansi Boys takes the Gaiman's...more

As something of a sequel to his previous outing "American Gods", Anansi Boys takes the Gaiman's concept from the epic to the intimate and, in doing so, is likely to appeal to both his traditional audience and new readers alike. The concept in question is simple. The gods of humanity are real, they came into existance when someone first imagined and worshiped them. Like any lifeform, they need t ofeed - in their case, however, it's worship that they require. As numerous cultures left their old deities behind, they were forced to find other ways to get by. Anansi the Spider-God, a trickster, was a minor but memorable character in the previous book but any reader could see that there was more life in the old trickster than that. And they were wrong. Anansi is dead and the story follows his mortal son coming to grips with the death of a particularly embarrassing parent. It's the family relationships (particularly with regard to siblings) that make this and, despite Anansi's death, he's present throughout. Despite the "fantasy" setting that you might be expecting, it's all very mundane and (the presence of ancient deities aside) realistic. The USUAL problem with sequels is that they require the casual consumer to go for the original product first. Not so here. "Anansi Boys" seems tailor made for readers who have no idea of the events or concepts of the previous book. It might be more true to call it a book that deals with the same universe and shares one or two characters with the earlier work than a true sequel. This intelligent decision to make it read like a stand-alone book will pay dividends, making it more attractive to Gaiman-virgins, yet to the already initiated none of it feels like you're playing catch-up. It's an emotional, funny and genuinely surprising read - possibly his best work yet and it's proof of his growing reputation among "serious" authors being utterly well-deserved. Give it a go, you'll be glad you did. 8.5 out of 10   hide

It begins, as most things begin, with a song. In the beginning, after all, were the...more

It begins, as most things begin, with a song. In the beginning, after all, were the words, and they came with a tune. That was how the world was made, how the void was divided, how the lands and the stars and the dreams and the little gods and the animals, how all of them came into the world. They were sung. The story follows Fat Charlie Nancy as his life is forever and drasticly changed altered after he discovers that his father has died, that his father was a god and that he has a brother. These events send Fat Charlie’s normal nine to five existance into a tail spin as he struggles to regain control of his life. Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys is one of the most enveloping and engrossing books I have read in quite some time. The writing is wry and witty, the story is rich and the characters come to life from your first encounter with them. I could not put this book down and felt an immediate need to re-read it once I was done. I cannot recommend this book enough. Need to buy a last minute gift? Get them this book. Need something to read over the holidays? Get yourself this book. Bottom line is, READ THIS BOOK.    hide

Neil Gaiman is clearly a creative guy who presents some great themes in "Anansi Boys". The...more

Neil Gaiman is clearly a creative guy who presents some great themes in "Anansi Boys". The perpetually embarrassing father who turns out to be a deity: personal and ironic. A fantasy based on neglected Afro-Caribbean mythology with a black protagonist: both overdue. Unfortunately "Anansi Boys" seems a little flat and maybe overly enthralled with its own cleverness. This is my first Neil Gaiman book, but it reminds me of other British fantasy/science fiction authors like Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams, who draw sympathetic characters that engage the reader, but never manage to make me feel deeply. I appreciate the humor, irony, charm, and all that, but it's too detached for my taste when the story and characters deserve better.    hide

I listened to this book rather than read it. The reader was Lenny Henry and he was perfect for...more

I listened to this book rather than read it. The reader was Lenny Henry and he was perfect for reading this book. He is Jamaican and he absolutely nailed the accents of the Caribbean characters.The story is about Fat Charley Nancy, a young man living in England about to be married. Then he is called by an old family friend who tells him that his father has died. He hasn't seen his father, who lived in Florida, for a number of years but he decides he should go to the funeral. While in Florida he is told, to his shock, that he has a brother. The old woman tells him that if he wants to meet him all he has to do is tell a spider. That opportunity arises soon after his return to England when his fiancee finds a spider in his bathtub. His brother, Spider, arrives and Fat Charley's life is turned upside-down. It's a mixture of fantasy, comedy and ghost story and I loved it.   hide