American Gods by Neil Gaiman

"It doesn't matter that you didn't believe in us, we believed in you." -Mr. Ibis (American Gods)

American Gods by Neil Gaiman was a very interesting read.  Taking the old myths of the past worlds and mixing it with contemporary "gods" was executed in such a way that left the reader wondering who exactly was going to win in the end (or as the gods say there is no end). All of this brought questions into my mind.  I was left with this idea that the gods had created us yet we had created them.  After some time struggling with this age old chicken or the egg dilemma, I had to accept that this was an interesting work that could make people think a lot more about their beliefs and actions, but in the end in real life it all has to come down to faith, that old gut feeling.

Shadow was such an interesting main character because, when it all came down to it, he wasn't really relevant to the story.  Sure if you took him out the story would change a bit, but in the end the same things would happen: gods would go to war over the love and worship of man kind.  It was like reading about a man who was watching an event.  This is probably why the book is so long and takes so many tangents to get to the important stuff; I mean for a book about waring gods, we really only faces that near the end.  Most protagonists are "the chosen one" and we can find endless examples of people being needed to fulfill tasks, rescue others, and solve problems.  And while Shadow does play a big role for Wednesday, I truly believe that he could have figured it out without him.  This is one of the biggest differences between this book and others like it.  Instead of the gods coming to shadow and asking him to do these tasks that would be easy for them to accomplish but they need him to learn, grow, and be a better person, they bring him along as a taxi driver who also helps clean up the messes.  Odin talks about how he needed a son, and yes Shadow convinces the gods at the end to not fight, but I just feel like it could have been anyone who was paying close enough attention.

Amanda