American Gods by Neil GaimanMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Neil Gaiman's fiction is really hit or miss for me. I always like it, but I don't always love it. This is one of the better novels in my experience.
Gaiman takes an old idea, that the ancient gods dwindle as they lose worshippers, and turns it into a novel. Previously I've only read short stories on this theme (see the story “Daemon" in The Best of C.L. Moore, 1946). I think Lester del Ray also wrote a short story along these lines.
The author also uses the idea that money, television, the internet, phones, fame, etc., are becoming gods, replacing the older pantheons. It reminds me of H. Beam Piper’s Little Fuzzy books, where alien species considered the human “cocktail hour" to be a religious observance. This is an idea which has been around since Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount, during which he declared, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Mammon, or the accumulation of worldly goods, has a long history of being perceived as a competitor with organized religion.
The human condition seems to require belief in something. I loved that Shadow was ultimately guided by the land, the heart of America. That he was linked with Thunderbird and the buffalo, symbols of the indigenous cultures of this continent. Natural environments have always been the places that inspire awe in me, so that makes perfect sense to my mind.
Everybody wants to believe in something. I believe I'll go for a walk and choose another book.
Book number 406 of my Science Fiction & Fantasy Reading Project.
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