Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
Dec. 2nd, 2006 11:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Fat Charlie Nancy is not having a good week. His estranged father recently dropped dead on a karaoke stage and has left Fat Charlie with much more than embarrassment. Because, you see, Charlie has discovered that his dad wasn't just any dad. He was Anansi the trickster spider-god. Anansi is the spirit of rebellion, able to overturn the social order, create wealth out of thin air, and even baffle the devil. No wonder Fat Charlie's life is about to be turned upside down.
Written by one of fiction's most audaciously original talents, ANANSI BOYS is a kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth that is at once startling, terrifying, exhilarating, and fiercely funny.
As with all Neil Gaiman's fiction, this is incredibly easy to read, well paced and it's got this peculiar ability to make you instantly believe in the set-up. I'm a huge Gaiman fangirl (Sandman - natch, Neverwhere, Stardust, Smoke and Mirrors and American Gods, which I absolutely loved) but for some reason, I just didn't love this and one reason why I've left writing this review for a week is because I've been trying to figure out why.
The book has all the sly touches of Gaiman humour that we've come to expect. I particularly enjoyed the retailing of Anansi's final moments on earth (just before he collapsed on an American tourist), the tricks he used to play on poor Fat Charlie, and some of the scenes with the villainous Grahame Coats were v. amusing, albeit in a black humour way. However, there is a peculiar lack of ... soul to the piece.
I don't empathise with Fat Charlie's worsening week (starting with his dad's death, moving onto the discovery that he has a twin brother with God like powers who takes a shine to his fiancee, Rose, his being framed for fraud by Grahame Coats and ending with a battle against the resentful and malevolent Tiger) because you know that it's going to turn out alright. As it becomes obvious that Gaiman's setting up Fat Charlie with policewoman, Daisy, you know that it's okay for Rose to have never really loved him but you would have still liked something more than the pat resolution he comes up with. Similarly, Fat Charlie's twin, Spider, is going to have some form of chastisement for trying to screw over his brother, but Gaiman set-up telegraphs the fact that he too will have a happy ending with Rose.
There's also a certain patness to some of the characters - Grahame Coats in particular, whilst amusing, is very two-dimensional on the page. I'd have liked to see more of his motivation or just something more than low level cunning and homicidal tendencies on the page - the closest we get is his pact with Tiger at the end, and whilst beautifully written, it didn't satisfy me.
Where Gaiman does succeed very well is in conveying a certain Caribbean rhythm to the writing. He credits Nalo Hopkinson with helping him with the dialogue, and the result is excellent and very compelling - I can believein his large, elderly, bustling Caribbeanwomen chattering with each other and chiding Fat Charlie. There's also a real Caribbean vibe to the narrative voice and the sections where Gaiman recounts some of Anansi's adventures feel very authentic.
The Verdict:
Even though Gaiman writes with his usual fluidity and wit, I wasn't grabbed by this book as there was something just a little too by-the-numbers about it. In essence, I don't think that his characters are quite as well-rounded as we would come to expect and I found the ending too well telegraphed, too early on. Even so, Gaiman's 'by-the-numbers' is head and shoulders above over writers' in the genre and I would recommend it to fantasy fans.
Fat Charlie Nancy is not having a good week. His estranged father recently dropped dead on a karaoke stage and has left Fat Charlie with much more than embarrassment. Because, you see, Charlie has discovered that his dad wasn't just any dad. He was Anansi the trickster spider-god. Anansi is the spirit of rebellion, able to overturn the social order, create wealth out of thin air, and even baffle the devil. No wonder Fat Charlie's life is about to be turned upside down.
Written by one of fiction's most audaciously original talents, ANANSI BOYS is a kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth that is at once startling, terrifying, exhilarating, and fiercely funny.
As with all Neil Gaiman's fiction, this is incredibly easy to read, well paced and it's got this peculiar ability to make you instantly believe in the set-up. I'm a huge Gaiman fangirl (Sandman - natch, Neverwhere, Stardust, Smoke and Mirrors and American Gods, which I absolutely loved) but for some reason, I just didn't love this and one reason why I've left writing this review for a week is because I've been trying to figure out why.
The book has all the sly touches of Gaiman humour that we've come to expect. I particularly enjoyed the retailing of Anansi's final moments on earth (just before he collapsed on an American tourist), the tricks he used to play on poor Fat Charlie, and some of the scenes with the villainous Grahame Coats were v. amusing, albeit in a black humour way. However, there is a peculiar lack of ... soul to the piece.
I don't empathise with Fat Charlie's worsening week (starting with his dad's death, moving onto the discovery that he has a twin brother with God like powers who takes a shine to his fiancee, Rose, his being framed for fraud by Grahame Coats and ending with a battle against the resentful and malevolent Tiger) because you know that it's going to turn out alright. As it becomes obvious that Gaiman's setting up Fat Charlie with policewoman, Daisy, you know that it's okay for Rose to have never really loved him but you would have still liked something more than the pat resolution he comes up with. Similarly, Fat Charlie's twin, Spider, is going to have some form of chastisement for trying to screw over his brother, but Gaiman set-up telegraphs the fact that he too will have a happy ending with Rose.
There's also a certain patness to some of the characters - Grahame Coats in particular, whilst amusing, is very two-dimensional on the page. I'd have liked to see more of his motivation or just something more than low level cunning and homicidal tendencies on the page - the closest we get is his pact with Tiger at the end, and whilst beautifully written, it didn't satisfy me.
Where Gaiman does succeed very well is in conveying a certain Caribbean rhythm to the writing. He credits Nalo Hopkinson with helping him with the dialogue, and the result is excellent and very compelling - I can believein his large, elderly, bustling Caribbeanwomen chattering with each other and chiding Fat Charlie. There's also a real Caribbean vibe to the narrative voice and the sections where Gaiman recounts some of Anansi's adventures feel very authentic.
The Verdict:
Even though Gaiman writes with his usual fluidity and wit, I wasn't grabbed by this book as there was something just a little too by-the-numbers about it. In essence, I don't think that his characters are quite as well-rounded as we would come to expect and I found the ending too well telegraphed, too early on. Even so, Gaiman's 'by-the-numbers' is head and shoulders above over writers' in the genre and I would recommend it to fantasy fans.
