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  • American Gods

  • I really enjoyed so much about this book, on many different levels - the references to the gods of many different beliefs (and the ways those gods were worshiped and in some cases how they came to be), having those same gods take on very appropriate human disguises, using nomenclature for the mode ... Continue

    I really enjoyed so much about this book, on many different levels - the references to the gods of many different beliefs (and the ways those gods were worshiped and in some cases how they came to be), having those same gods take on very appropriate human disguises, using nomenclature for the modern gods that brings Pilgrims Progress to mind. I think this is one of the only books I have read where the protagonist dies 2/3 of the way through the work. I enjoyed that the story took place in many locations I was extremely familiar with and was astonished when I found out that the author lives in Ireland - he has his middle America down so well (as well as his American voice). The book is well written and paced. Both the dialog and characters are memorable. This is my first Neil Gaiman book, but definitely not my last.

    

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• ― Readingrat said on Dec 23, 2007 about the Mass Market Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • Yay! I finally had some time to finish it! My reading time was so sporadic while I was at school, so I think I did myself a disservice with this book. I did quite like this book, but there was so much gap between reading sessions that I found myself not remembering details that I should have and the ... Continue

    Yay! I finally had some time to finish it! My reading time was so sporadic while I was at school, so I think I did myself a disservice with this book. I did quite like this book, but there was so much gap between reading sessions that I found myself not remembering details that I should have and then I had a sense of not connecting properly with the characters. I do highly recommend it to others, though, as well as it's wonderful follow-up, Anansi Boys.

    

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• ― dalai lala said on Jun 22, 2008 about the Mass Market Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • My favorite book from Neil Gaiman and one of my favorite books of all time.

    

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• ― Braydin said on Feb 26, 2008 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

Nota: En los titulos y nombres de autores, los marcos ortograficos han sido omitidos para facilitar las busquedas de Internet.

La vida en la cárcel es dura. Pero siempre queda un rayo de esperanza si sabes que, a la salida, te espera una mujer que te ama, un amigo que te quiere, un trabajo que adoras. . .Todo eso es lo que quiere Sombra, que está a punto de salir de la cárcel. . .Pero un día le comunican que su mujer y su mejor amigo han muerto en un accidente de coche. Entonces, contratado por un extraño anciano experto en timos y estafas que responde al nombre de Wednesday, Sombra empieza un interminable viaje a lo largo y ancho de América, perseguido por el espíritu de su esposa, en el que descubre el límite entre lo humano y los divino, y que las reglas que rigen el mundo de los hombres no son las mismas con las que lose dioses conducen el mundo.

Neil Gaiman vuelve con American Gods a dar lo major de sí mismo y crea una historia en la que dioses y héroes se dan la mano, en la que el destino de la misma alma de Norteamérica está en juego. Con American Gods, Neil Gaiman se ha consagrado como uno autores de terror más importantes del panorama internacional, se ha colocado en los primeros puestos de las listas de los más vendidos de todo el mundo y ha ganado el premio Hugo a Mejor Novela de Ciencia Ficción y el premio Stoker a Mejor Novela de Terror.

Amazon.com's Best of 2001 American Gods is Neil Gaiman's best and most ambitious novel yet, a scary, strange, and hallucinogenic road-trip story wrapped around a deep examination of the American spirit. Gaiman tackles everything from the onslaught of the information age to the meaning of death, but he doesn't sacrifice the razor-sharp plotting and narrative style he's been delivering since his Sandman days.

Shadow gets out of prison early when his wife is killed in a car crash. At a loss, he takes up with a mysterious character called Wednesday, who is much more than he appears. In fact, Wednesday is an old god, once known as Odin the All-father, who is roaming America rounding up his forgotten fellows in preparation for an epic battle against the upstart deities of the Internet, credit cards, television, and all that is wired. Shadow agrees to help Wednesday, and they whirl through a psycho-spiritual storm that becomes all too real in its manifestations. For instance, Shadow's dead wife Laura keeps showing up, and not just as a ghost--the difficulty of their continuing relationship is by turns grim and darkly funny, just like the rest of the book.

Armed only with some coin tricks and a sense of purpose, Shadow travels through, around, and underneath the visible surface of things, digging up all the powerful myths Americans brought with them in their journeys to this land as well as the ones that were already here. Shadow's road story is the heart of the novel, and it's here that Gaiman offers up the details that make this such a cinematic book--the distinctly American foods and diversions, the bizarre roadside attractions, the decrepit gods reduced to shell games and prostitution. "This is a bad land for Gods," says Shadow.

More than a tourist in America, but not a native, Neil Gaiman offers an outside-in and inside-out perspective on the soul and spirituality of the country--our obsessions with money and power, our jumbled religious heritage and its societal outcomes, and the millennial decisions we face about what's real and what's not. --Therese Littleton --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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• MysticalMysteryNeil GaimanUS literature 米國文學Literature & Fiction 文學小說ParanormalfantasyMythologyTheReadingLoungeAmerican Gods
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