Neil Fein's Blog

Anansi Boys
by Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman has become something of a phenomenon. He's not just a writer of novels, but of comics, a screenplay or two, songs, and non-fiction. So his latest, Anansi Boys, had been filling me with anticipation for all of 2005, ever since he casually mentioned he was working on the novel.

Oddly enough, I didn't read it for a few weeks, but I made my way through the 334-page novel in two evenings, fast enough for me to be notable. The good news is that it's a great read, an easy read. The story of Fat Charlie finding out his father is a god (well, was; he just passed away in Florida), meeting and re-meeting his family, is in some ways typical Neil Gaiman. And Fat Charlie learning to accept the situation -- people learning to deal with the fantastic -- is a motif that the author has much experience with. And if the elder Mr. Nancy was a god, what does that make the son?

With all these trappings in mind, Anansi Boys is a stylistic jump backwards for Mr. Gaiman. All the trademarks of a good Neil Gaiman book are there; the mysticism, the very cleverly disguised exposition, and the mood pieces that seem to do nothing yet further the plot in some indefinable way. Yet they've been streamlined, somehow turned into a sleek, skeleton of a story. Even the scenes of complex, shifting characters and crazily cluttered sitting rooms are somehow easier to follow. Reading it after American Gods or The Kindly Ones evokes shades of Madeline L'Engle or Heinlein juveniles.

However, saying that a book isn't quite as good as American Gods is quite the compliment. I enjoyed it thoroughly, as a fun, thoughtful story.

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