Finishing a lot of books lately. This one was finished late at night in bed when I should’ve been sleeping. When I realized how close to the end I was though, I had to just keep going through the last 10% of the book.
The whole thing reads like a dream. Not the “it was all a dream” end of a television serial, like an actual dream where you’re simultaneously exploring something new and comfortably thinking about something familiar.
Going too far into the plot gets spoilerific too fast. So let’s just say that a man named Shadow goes on a really crazy road trip. If you’re planning on going on a road trip in America anytime soon, I think this would make an amazing audiobook for your travels.
It feels like an important read. Literature, not fluff. My Kindle edition included discussion questions and I could see a high schooler writing a really great report on it. I’m not into that kind of write-up here on the blog, but you may be glad to know you could.
But I still had a lot of fun reading it. There’s a motif of Shadow mishearing others’ names and it’s fun to catch the real name in spite of his error. The scenes are all great encounters on their own; as much as it is a page-turner it’s also a great pick-up-again. No matter which section you read it will be beautiful to read and another layer of the story.
For a big book that you’ll be proud to have read, this is a good one. I could see myself reading it again and recommend it to you without hesitation.
American Gods by Neil Gaiman, part of my 2017 Reading
Alex Gustafson 