DNF: American Gods

[thistlechaser]

56: American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

I'm free! I'm free! I'm finally free! This is a long book (about 13 hours to read), I made it to the 75% point, skimming muchly after the 50% point. But I pushed on and on, certain the problem was me. Everyone loves this book! I never heard any comments about it other than "It's my most favorite book ever!" So I knew the issue with me not enjoying it had to be me.

Finally I went to Goodreads to check the other reviews. The very first review, with 1169 likes (tenfold more likes than I've ever seen on a review) was a one star review. In the first ten reviews, there are 3 one-star ones, most around two to three stars.

Thank god it's not just me. I really thought there was something wrong with me that I didn't enjoy this.

I watched the show based on this book when it aired and LOVED it to death. I just started rewatching the show and realized I hadn't read the book, so I paused my rewatch to read.

For such an interesting subject (America has its own version of all the gods of the world, and they walk among us) the story was so dull. If I hadn't seen the TV show, I'd have zero interest in any of the characters. The writing was just so meandering and so much of it was just so pointless.

Plus Gaiman's writing just has so many issues. He uses a single dash in the place of commas or just randomly. I highlighted more than a dozen places the writing or editing annoyed me, when at most I usually highlight one or two things in a book. Some examples of the dash issues:

The children-were packed in tightly and ignored.

Shadow's meal consisted of an all-day full breakfast-it came with hush puppies-while Mr. Ibis picked and pecked at a slice of coffee cake.

No-they aren't even fruit sellers.

Plus tons of editing and grammar issues (missing punctuation, incorrect word choices, and in one case a random word just on its own after a sentence).

If you're interested in this story, check out the American Gods TV series. I wish I could recommend the book version of it, I stuck with it many many hours more than I should have (almost ten hours of reading! When I didn't enjoy it from page one!), but I just can't. The show is great though!

Comments

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

The first time I tried to read this, I haaaaaaaated it. The main character in particular was just stultifying.

(I later went and tried again and liked it slightly better, and did finish, I think because I was able to moderate my expectations of it.)

But anyway: as you already knew, you are not alone.)

Still haven't seen the show, but it's on my List.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think if I hadn't been expecting The Best Book Ever, I might have at least finished it (though I had been spoiled on the whole plot, so maybe even then not). Apparently there are two different versions of the book too, one with 12,000 more words (all fluff) — I suspect I got that one. There were whole chapters that were just so pointless to the plot. I think the book would have been better if he had shortened it to a quarter of the length and tightened the whole thing up.

In the show, Shadow isn't so bad (though his wife is nearly a main character, and I didn't like her at all). In the book though, he was just so flat and uninteresting.

[manue7a.livejournal.com]

I had trouble reading this as well (many many years ago) and I thought it was me as well, perhaps my English wasn't good enough to get it or something.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

It's interesting how many of us think it was us instead of the book. Such a relief to know it's not!

[jeane nevarez (from livejournal.com)]

After trying quite a few Neil Gaiman books, I have realized this author is just not for me. The titles and blurbs always look so interesting, though!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the blurbs always sound good, and I really like the shows based on them, too. Good Omens was great. I guess I'm in that camp too, his writing is just not for me.

[loup_noir]

I really enjoyed the book many years ago. When the show showed up, I'd just finished listening to the book while slogging through the annual pear canning fun. The show really confused me. It was only when I grumped about it that I was inundated by The Neil fanfolk who took exception to any not-love. I did not like the show much. I did not get to the second season, because of my dislike. As with everything, YMMV.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

The funny thing is, at least now the Neil fanfolk HATE the show. I don't think I was paying much attention to the fandom when the show was on, so I'm not sure if that was a new opinion.

When I watched the show and then read the book, the two seemed really close. But now that I have both watched it and (mostly) read the book and am watching again, I can spot all the differences that must have been part of your dislike and confusion.