American Gods

by Neil Gaiman

Yeah...

I don't know.

The writing in American Gods was good enough, I guess. I did read until the end. Not that I was so intrigued that I could not put it down, but still.

For the first two parts of the book it feels like we are stuck with someone from the supporting cast (Shadow aka Mike Ainsel) while the real action is happening elsewhere (wherever Mr. Wednesday aka the All-Father aka Odin) is.

Shadow re-enters the story in part three - after 450 pages (!) of driving across the country and lying low in a lethargic small town in the middle of nowhere.

There is a constant threat of war. After Shadow is back in the real action and after he held vigil over the presumably dead Mr. Wednesday, he dies himself, chooses to go into nothingness rather than into either heaven or hell and is brought back to life and the battlefield, where the war is finally supposed to go down.

But then it doesn't.

Shadow talks everyone (good and bad, although it is never quite clear who belongs on which side and what the hell they want to kill each other over, anyway) out of it. He doesn't even have to sacrifice his life that he lost in a game of checkers.

You know that carousel they walk through in that museum in Wisconsin? I've been there. Other than that, a bit of a let-down.

4/10