Generally speaking, I love Neil Gaiman. The Sandman (or the parts I've read of it) were amazing. I loved Fragile Things. A Study in Emerald is my favourite short story ever. I really liked The Graveyard Book. Neil Gaiman's brain is crazy and confusing and I kind oflove it.
But I don't "get" American Gods. I don't really understand the point of it, or its major themes, or anything like that. I know it's there, but I don't know what it is. It feels like its just hiding under the surface waiting to be found but I don't know what it is, and that's frustrating.
One of the main problems, I think, is that American Gods is a very "American" kind of book. It involves travelling across America, finding the old gods and the new ones and the war that the old and new gods fight over peoples' worship. I'm not American, so I really can't identify with a lot of the experience, particularly the roadside attractions. I DO live in a country that's large enough to road-trip through and feel wonder over, so I do understand the appeal of that, but a lot of the details seem to escape me. Moreover, the Canadian immigration experience isn't very much like the American one - people bring their own beliefs and culture here and plant them here instead of abandoning them. America is much bigger on melting-pot assimilation.
I do really like how Gaiman weaves in several different story-lines and tells short stories all throughout the longer novel, my favourites being about the Irish woman and the slaves. I like the ideas that fueled it, particularly the idea Americans come from everywhere, and that they did bring their culture and gods with them, even if they later forgot them. These asides were also very well written and I found them more captivating than the main storyline.
Overall, I don't think this is Gaiman's best work. On the whole, however, it's still a good read.
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