Neil Gaiman takes the African god of mischief and mayhem, Anansi the
spider, and takes him and his family into modern day. Neil Gaiman has an
obsession with all things mythological, I think. This book is no
exception. Fat Charlie (who's not fat) has always been down on his luck
and embarrassed by his father all his life. When his father dies, he
soon learns that his father was a trickster god and that his unknown
brother got all the awesome god powers. His brother Spider comes into
life and starts to mess it up even more. Spider moves in and begins to
steal his fiancee, his job, etc. Fat Charlie decides to get revenge
which ends up messing up things even more.
It's pretty
light-hearted, for the most part. But I have a hard time with characters
that get oppressed and oppressed for too long. Charlie didn't get
redeemed til toward the end. And overall, I just didn't care a lot about
the characters.
I love what Neil Gaiman's trying to do
with his books. They make for some interesting stories, for sure. But I
haven't been able to really get into his books, yet. I'm working on
American Gods right now....
I read this for one of my book clubs and used a library copy.
I give you props for finishing the book! Nothing about this one drew me in.
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