The Book List

Anansi Boys

Author:: Neil Gaiman, Genius.
Pages: 334 (American hardback edition)
Pointless description that leaves out all the best bits and utterly fails to do the book justice: Fat Charlie, an utterly boring person (he's a bookkeeper) finds out that--whoops!--his dad (now deceased) is (was?) a god. Furthermore, he finds out that he has a brother, who is also pretty much godtastic. Lots of things happen from there. (Charlie isn't actually boring. He just--until the book begins--leads a rather dull life. Of course, the book is about what happens after his life stops being boring. =])
Means of Aquiration: From Mom, for Christmas. And in hardcover! Exciting.
Trivia: I followed Neil Gaiman's blog for a while while he was writing this, which was fun. (I have since stopped having any sense of regularity with the sites I visit, so blog-following got a bit tricky.) I was pleased to hear from Mr. Nancy again after American Gods.

Now, I won't say that "this book is the reason Neil Gaiman is my favorite author," because that would be lying. Firstly, Neil Gaiman was my favorite author well before I read this book. Secondly, it isn't even my favorite book from him. But it might as well be, because a "good" book from Gaiman outshines even a "great" book or even an "excellent" book from almost anyone else.

I liked this book. It took a little while for me to get into it, but very soon I was into the swing of things. Fat Charlie's sense of humor made me laugh--he's one of those people who thinks darkly funny, blunt, bitter comments in his head, and he can't resist saying them out loud. (Actually, in that respect, he reminds me a bit of Richard from Neverwhere. Although I can't properly remember any of Neverwhere, they kind of give off the same vibe.) His matter-of-factness was delicious (see the first quote below for an example of this).

Neil Gaiman defies genre. Was the book a crime novel, a mystery, a fantasy, a horror story, a ghost story, a folktale, a comedy? Yes, all of those things. Is it utterly pointless to list every genre that it belongs to? Yes! (What's even more funny is when you have a book like Coraline, and you have to throw "Children's Book" in the mix of categories as well.) I love the fact that Gaiman's stories are about the story, and not about what the story is supposed to be, or where it belongs.

You should read this book.

Also, both times that I tried to type the word "utterly" above, I ended up typing "utterfly" and didn't notice until a couple days later.

Click below for quotes.

"So," she said. "You met your brother."

"You know," said Fat Charlie, "you could have warned me."

"I did warn you that he is a god."

"You didn't mention that he was a complete and utter pain in the arse, though."
-Page 134

Daisy made a noise. It was not a yes-noise and it was not a no-noise. It was an I-know-somebody-just-said-something-to-me-and-if-I-make-a-noise-maybe-they'll-go-away sort of noise.

Carol had heard that noise before.

"Oy," she said. "Big bum. Are you going to be much longer? I want to do my blog."

Daisy processed the words. Two of them sank in. "You you saying I've got a big bum?"

"No," said Carol. "I'm saying that it's getting lae, and I want to do me blog. I'm going to have him shagging a supermodel in the loo of an unidentified London nightspot."

Daisy sighed. "Alright. It's just fishy, that's all."

"What's fishy?"

"Embezzlement. I think. Right, I've logged out. It's all yours. You know you can get into trouble for impersonating a member of the royal family?"

"Bog off."

Carol blogged as a member of the British Royal Family, young, male, and out-of-control. There had been arguments in the press about whether or not she was the real thing, many of them pointing to things she wrote that could only have been known to an actual member of the British Royal Family, or to someone who read the glossy gossip magazines.
-Page 138