Anansi Boys

Anansi Boys (2005) Neil Gaiman

All summer I went back and forth over whether I was going to get Neil Gaiman’s new book Anansi Boys in hardback, or wait until it came out in paperback. On one hand, I greatly prefer paperback books–they’re smaller and lighter. On the other hand, I really didn’t want to wait another year to read a new Neil Gaiman book.

Needless to say, I broke down and bought the book. And apparently lots of other felt the same way, as Anansi Boys hit the New York Times best seller list at #1. (Yay Neil Gaiman!)

Those who read American Gods will remember Aunt Nancy, or Anansi. Anansi Boys is about Anansi’s sons, Fat Charlie and Spider. Fat Charlie lives in England and has always been mortified by his father, who has embarrassed Charlie in as many was possible, including sticking him with the nickname “Fat Charlie.” Just as the children of hippies grow up to be accountants, the son of trickster Anansi grew up refusing to be amused.

Anansi Boys is shorter than I had expected–American Gods was a huge book, and for some reason I was expecting the same here. But that was fine–I like long books, but I like it a little better when an author can tell a story in a shorter format.

The tone was much lighter than American Gods, sort of if it had been crossed with Good Omens It was also more amused with itself–fitting for a book about Anansi I think.

As with American Gods I found it interesting that the characters described in great detail, and again I quite liked it. Knowing Aunt Nancy, I knew that Fat Charlie and Spider were black, but Neil Gaiman wastes little discussing the race of the characters in this book, and I quite like it, because in this type of fantasy it doesn’t and shouldn’t–matter what race someone is. At least that’s my feeling. Neil Gaiman tells us that Fat Charlie isn’t actually fat–just a little soft around the middle, and that Spider is lean and hard in comparison. Do we need much more information than that?

The style of the story is different from his previous books. It’s not written like a fairy tale like Stardust, but it’s much lighter in tone than American Gods. For me, the tone in each book is different, yet I can always catch glimpses of his voice that tells me this is a Neil Gaiman book.

And as always his storytelling is excellent. I’m not going to say that no one else spins a tale like Neil Gaiman, because that wouldn’t be true. However, there are not a lot of authors who write that well, and it is always wonderful when one of them writes another book.

I also really liked the cover. Important bits are there, although you don’t know it until you’ve read the book, so it doesn’t give anything before you read the story. And I loved the chapter titles.

I really liked Anansi Boys. I like everything that Neil Gaiman has written. My only wish is that I not have to wait four more years for another novel.
Rating: 8/10

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