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Anansi Boys

By Neil Gaiman

(310)

| Mass Market Paperback | 9780060515195

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Book Description

Anansi Boys
God is dead. Meet the kids.

When Fat Charlie's dad named something, it stuck. Like calling Fat Charlie "Fat Charlie." Even now, twenty years later, Charlie Nancy can't shake that name, one of the many embarrassing "gifts" his father bestowed -- before Continue

Anansi Boys
God is dead. Meet the kids.

When Fat Charlie's dad named something, it stuck. Like calling Fat Charlie "Fat Charlie." Even now, twenty years later, Charlie Nancy can't shake that name, one of the many embarrassing "gifts" his father bestowed -- before he dropped dead on a karaoke stage and ruined Fat Charlie's life.

Mr. Nancy left Fat Charlie things. Things like the tall, good-looking stranger who appears on Charlie's doorstep, who appears to be the brother he never knew. A brother as different from Charlie as night is from day, a brother who's going to show Charlie how to lighten up and have a little fun ... just like Dear Old Dad. And all of a sudden, life starts getting very interesting for Fat Charlie.

Because, you see, Charlie's dad wasn't just any dad. He was Anansi, a trickster god, the spider-god. Anansi is the spirit of rebellion, able to overturn the social order, create wealth out of thin air, and baffle the devil. Some said he could cheat even Death himself.

Returning to the territory he so brilliantly explored in his masterful New York Times bestseller, American Gods, the incomparable Neil Gaiman offers up a work of dazzling ingenuity, a kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth that is at once startling, terrifying, exhilarating, and fiercely funny -- a true wonder of a novel that confirms Stephen King's glowing assessment of the author as "a treasure-house of story, and we are lucky to have him."

Critics

  • "Anansi Boys"

    (Reviewed by Judi Clark OCT 30, 2005) "Stories are like spiders, with all they long legs, and stories are like spiderwebs, which man gets himself all tangled up in but which look so pretty when you see them under a leaf in the morning dew, and in the ... (read full critics)

    mostlyfiction published on Wed, 29 Sep 2010

  • The Best Reviews: Neil Gaiman, Anansi Boys

    "Mr. Gaiman's fans will take immense delight in his latest wild thriller." The West African spider-trickster god Anansi in an incarnation as Mr. Nancy has died and was buried in Florida. He left behind an adult son Fat Charlie in England. Ironically ... (read full critics)

    thebestreviews published on Thu, 16 Sep 2010

20 Reviews

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  • 1 person find this helpful

    A new twist on African Folklore

    I thought Gaiman's American Gods was a better story within the same vein. However, if you know a bit about African folklore or are interesting in it, this book has an "inventive" take on them and was entertaining.

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    CurlGirl said on Jul 29, 2007 | Add your feedback

  • The important thing about songs is that they're just like stories. They don't mean a damn unless there's people listenin' to them.

    A fantasy book by Neil Gaiman is always a new experience. You forget it's a fantasy story after a couple of pages and you find yourself sucked into a new world. Charlie Nancy, Fat Nancy, is a fairly normal man living in South London, engaged to be married to Rosie. So far nothing strikes us as pecul ... (continue)

    A fantasy book by Neil Gaiman is always a new experience. You forget it's a fantasy story after a couple of pages and you find yourself sucked into a new world. Charlie Nancy, Fat Nancy, is a fairly normal man living in South London, engaged to be married to Rosie. So far nothing strikes us as peculiar, does it? We are introduced to his childhood and the continuous embarrassments caused him by his father when living in Florida. His father used to be a quite charming man. No one could resist him and the day he died, Fat Charlie not only had to fly back to a place that wasn't home anymore, but he also had to deal with a weird inheritance he didn't quite expect. A brother, Spider, who apparently inherited all their father's magic. Fat Charlie will discover his father's true nature, that of a god, Anansi: The spider god. He will learn how his father managed to bother quite a lot of other gods through the ages. But the biggest problem will be his brother, who will gradually steal his fiancee, get him in trouble with the law and make his whole existence miserable. With the help of three old ladies, some kind of witches, Fat Charlie will try to get rid of Spider, but he will somehow just mess things up for both of them. So if you want to know whether the Anansi's bloodline is going to survive all this mess, you will have to read this brilliant story.

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    Katia Guido said on Apr 22, 2012 | Add your feedback

  • Gods and mortals, mortals and Gods. How much longer can he write about the same things over and over?

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    Howtired said on May 23, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • Is a pleasant and amusing read. I may have rated it higher if I hadn’t previously read Gaiman’s American Gods, in which I was delighted by Gaiman’s blend of myth, magic and reality. I was somehow hoping for more of the same, but Anansi Boys fell short of his earlier work.

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    mlbleichwehl said on Mar 11, 2011 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

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9780060515195 Mass Market Paperback $7.99 $7.19 bn.com
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