American Gods

In Neil Gaimans American gods Shadow is faced with many interesting characters and situations. Being torn from his instutionilized world of prision life, to a world of gods and magic by the mysterious Mr Wednesday. He has to learn to adjust to not only the shock of his wife dying, but also to the shock of her cheating on him with his best friend. Mr. Wendsday in a way is a path to get away from that. He is a stranger that shows up in a strange time. the idea of fate is very prevalent in this. He is a pathway away from the things that shadow docent want to admit to him self, nor wants to experience. He goes to her funeral and then thinks its over. Only when he sees her again, the mud and dirt from climbing  out of her grave does he understand that he cannot run away from what had happened. He begins on his long journey, and this is what is fascinating about the book. Neil Gainman is a fantastic author and the way that he interwinds different story lines and different religions and cultures is magnificent. We follow shadow through a number of lines, including norse, egyptian, african, middle eastern, indian and cultures which time has forgotten. The life that he gives to each of these gods really brings them together and makes the story, although it is quite fragmented, flow very nicely. The new gods are also dealt with in a very good way, the crude and blunt way that they speak and are described I believe really fits there character and what they are to represent. The old gods are bathed in this light, they are beautiful, and although flawed, are a higher stature than anything else. They are regal and at the same time, are forgotten by there foliowers. The new gods are crude, they talk with curses and threats, not like the old gods, who challenge to duels, formal events with honor and dignity. Through this he build a parallel, using shadow as a guide to show us where we were, and where were going.