Week 8- American Gods

I was reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman for a couple weeks and got about 56% though. I was mostly listening to it or reading on my kindle so I can’t quite tell how long the book actually is but it seemed to go on forever. The short stories about the gods that were told separate from Shadow’s story were fun, but I found myself disengaging from the story as a whole. One of the first of these in the book was the goddess who ate the man through her vagina. Wow. I was thought, “what on earth kind of book did I pick?” However, it was pretty entertaining.

It was really interesting how he explained traditional gods in different ways. Gaiman keeps their essential mythology intact but makes them relevant to the time in which we see them. My favorites were Mr. Ibis and Mr. Jaquel, who like their original Egyptian names, Thoth and Anubis, were responsible for the dead. I liked that Jaquel, specifically was responsible for autopsies and embalming. I was already familiar with Anubis, but had not heard of Thoth before.

Perhaps given how far I got, I never understood who Shadow was meant to be and what his role was, or at least his significance in name or in the story. I’m disappointed that I never understood, however for the time being I’m not interested enough to attempt finishing the book.