Book: American Gods
Basic Information : Synopsis : Characters : Expectations : Thoughts : Evaluation : Book Group : New Words : Book References : Good Quotes : References
Basic Information:
Edition: epub on Libby from
Publisher: William Morrow
ISBN: B004YW4L5K
Start Date: August 13, 2021
Read Date: August 28, 2021
635 pages
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Book Group
Language Warning: Yes
Rated Overall: 3 out of 5
Fiction-Tells a good story: 5 out of 5
Fiction-Character development: 4 out of 5
Synopsis (Caution: Spoiler Alert-Jump to Thoughts):
A mortal gets out of prison to find that his wife has been killed while having an affair with his future employer who has also died. He gets hired on as Odin’s bodyguard and chauffeur. Unknown to him, he has more of a role than he is counting. The old gods who have migrated to America is now in competition with the newer gods. The newer gods kill off Odin which launches a war between the two side, The mortal dies, but comes back to stop the war.
Cast of Characters:
- Shadow Moon, aka Mike Ainsel,
- Mr. Wednesday (Odin), Also Grimnir and Gondlir. Also Emerson Borson.
- Mr Nancy, Spider, Anasai
- Laura Moon-Shadows dead wife
- Hinzelmann
- Easter
- Whiskey Jack
- Loki (Mr World. In prison, he was LowKey)
- Mr. Ibis
- Samantha Black Crow
- Bilquis-based upon the Bible’s Queen of Sheba
- Media
- Mad Sweeney
- Czernobog
- Mr. Jacquel
- Chad Mulligan
- Margaret Black Crow
- Mr. Town
- Technical Boy
- And more
- Recommendation: Book Group, both Peter and Laura
- When: Summer 2021
- Date Became Aware of Book: I had seen the title before Summer of 2021, but not paid attention
- How come do I want to read this book: Book Group book
- What do I think I will get out of it? Unknown, maybe a critique of some of the things Americans have as idols.
Thoughts:
An Introduction to the Tenth Anniversary Edition
Interesting intro in that he observes he has never read this book, American Gods, he has only written it. I think this is a true observation. The author can never see something as if he was a reader. He will only process it for what he thought as a writer.
Gene Wolf: You never learn how to write a novel,.... You only learn to write the novel you’re on.
A Note on the Text
This is the expanded version, closer to the unedited version.
Part One
Chapter One
Shadow has been in prison for three years on a six year sentence for being an accomplice to an armed robbery. He is being released. One of the things he has learned in prison is coin tricks.The three things he was going to do when he got out of prison was:
- First, he was going to take a bath. A real, long, serious soak, in a tub with bubbles in it.
- Second he was going to towel himself off, put on a robe.
- Third, after he and Laura had come out of the bedroom, maybe a couple of days later, he was going to keep his head down and stay out of trouble for the rest of his life.
He also learned to appreciate older writings, particularly Herodotus. Such as the quote from Histories: “Call no man happy,” said Shadow, “until he is dead.” Actually Herodotus is quoting Solon here. This quote gets used towards the end of the book.
Shadow became a materialist: Shadow was not superstitious. He did not believe in anything he could not see.
Shadow gets told in a few days he would be released. He knows to keep his head down and stay out of trouble. Too many people got this knews and then got in trouble before they were about to be released. Then he was going to be released sooner because his wife had been in an auto accident and died.
He tries to get back home for the funeral. But misses a connection. He meets Mr Wednesday who offers him a job.
In a second section of the chapter, a prostitute named Bilquis takes a John. As they have sex, she devours him.
Chapter Two
His job which he was looking forward to having when he came out also was no more-the owner died in the same crash as his wife.Wednesday takes him to a bar. They meet Mad Sweeny there, an acquaintance of Wednesday. They fight. Sweeney shows Shadow a coin trick and mistakenly leaves a gold coin which is one Sweeney did not want to give up.
Wednesday takes Shadow to his wife’s funeral. He finds out that Laura, his wife, was cheating on him with his future employer. He went to the burial. There was something he wanted to say to Laura, and he was prepared to wait until he knew what it was. He gives her the coin he won from Sweeney.
As he was walking to his motel, he was taken by a group in a limo. They are trying to take over whatever Wednesday has going on. They give him a warning to give to Wednesday. Tell him that language is a virus and that religion is an operating system and that prayers are just so much f__ spam.
Chapter Three
He is in a hotel room. He thinks: Every hour wounds. The last one kills. (A Latin proverb).
Dreams about:
- Leucotios- a Gallic god known from the Rhine-Moselle region, where he was invariably identified with the Roman Mars.
- Hubur-a Sumerian term meaning "river", "watercourse" or "netherworld"
- Hershef-an ancient ram deity whose cult was centered in ancient Heracleopolis Magna.
He then sees his dead wife Laura.
Chapter Four
Shadow and Wednesday leave town. They go to Chicago and meet three old sisters as well as their brother, Czernobog. Czernobog and Shadow play checkers. Shadow loses and forfeits his life. Shadow wins the second game and Czernobog needs to go to the meeting Wednesday wants him to go to..
the truth is not what people want to hear.
Shadow realizes he is in a world with its own sense of logic. Its own rules. In other words, he is no longer in Kansas (or anyplace he is familiar with).
- Grimnir-One of Odin's names, specifically the one he uses in Grímnismál (Sayings of Grímnir),
- Czernobog-Slavic deity, whose name means black god, about whom much has been speculated but little can be said definitively
- Bielebog-White God", reconstructed as *Bělobogъ or *Bělъ Bogъ, from *bělъ ("white") + *bogъ ("god")) is the assumed name of the alleged god of auspicious fate worshiped by the Polabian Slavs
Chapter Five
Wednesday robs a bank, more accurately he con’s people into giving him the money they would deposit into the night deposit by tricking people into thinking it is out of order. This may have been the best “story” in this book.
Gaiman is infatuated with “places of power”. I do not think he quite knows what he means by that. But he talks about the quality of a place, not necessarily where there are powerful places. The House on the Rock is one of those places according to Gaiman. He meets Mr Nancy. This was to be a meeting of the old gods. They ride a carousel, like a prayer wheel, it gains power as it goes around.
The quickest way is sometimes the longest
Chapter Six
On the carousel he sees both the person who he has met in the flesh and the image of the god. Calling of the gods in America to defend themselves against the new gods.
They go to a restaurant. He chauviers them back and forth. Then he is kidnapped after he has them all inside.
In his captivity, he occupies himself with coin tricks. It looks like some federal agents have kidnapped him. Shadow found himself suspecting that, on some level, possibly cellular, the two men were identical. This sounds very much like the Matrix. The agents beat him up trying to get information. But they do not reveal where they are from.
Laura comes. She has killed everybody. He finds he has been in a boxcar. He starts walking. Laura reveals all she wants is to be alive again.
- Huginn and Muninn - a pair of ravens (hawks??? thunderbirds???)that fly all over the world, Midgard, and bring information to the god Odin.
- Valaskjalf - one of Odin's Halls, a great dwelling built and roofed with pure silver
- Compé Anansi - an Akan folktale character. He often takes the shape of a spider and is sometimes considered to be a god of all knowledge of stories.
Chapter Seven
He starts walking away into the forests of Wisconsin. He is given instructions by a couple of ravens-Huginn and Muninn(?). Find Jackal in Cairo. He buys a car. Dreams. He picks up Samantha Black Crow who knows where Cairo is and is going in that general direction. He drops her off. He stops in a motel further on. In his dream the TV shows are old reruns. Lucy Ball starts coming on to him. One of the few redeeming lines is about TV being an idol which people sacrifice their time to. The reason why Shadow likes the old gods more than the new ones is because the new ones speak in cliches.
Then there is sort of a meaningless story of a guy coming to America to sell trinkets. Seems like it is thrown in as a way for Gaiman to get a short story which he liked, but could not publish separately.
Chapter Eight
Mr Ibis and Jackal run a funeral palor. Thoughts on death, dying, and the funeral business. Gaiman thinks that there were more cross-oceanic wanderings than a few Slavic people before Columbus: Columbus did what people had been doing for thousands of years. There’s nothing special about coming to America. Wonder how much of this is true: ... here’s a skull that shows the Ainu, the Japanese aboriginal race, were in America nine thousand years ago. Here’s another that shows there were Polynesians in California nearly two thousand years later. There is some thoughts that this might be true.
While Shadow stays, he works for the mortuary.
On a morning walk, he meets up with Mad Sweeney. Sweeney wants his gold coin back. Cannot give it to him since Laura has it. Sweeney dies. During the wake Shadow gives Sweeney, he showed Shadow how to do the thing. This time Shadow got it. Wednesday shows up and they are gone.
- Mithras-worship in the Roman Empire was characterized by images of the god slaughtering a bull.
- Bast-Her name also is rendered as B'sst, Baast, Ubaste, and Baset. In ancient Greek religion, she was known as Ailuros (Koinē Greek: αἴλουρος "cat").
- Bean Sidhe, the banshee-the bean sídhe is a fairy woman who fortells the death of a family member. To hear her keening is a sign that a member of your family will die that night. According to folklore, she is usually dressed in a gray cloak and green dress, and her eyes are red from weeping.
Part Two
Chapter Nine
Discussion on who is the “right” side. Wednesday notes: There’s never been a true war that wasn’t fought between two sets of people who were certain they were in the right. Description of some grifts. Wednesday notes, in connection to a barely legal aged waitress, that he has never been too concerned with legalities.
Wednesday and Shadow depart. Shadow goes to a fictional town called Lakeside as Mike Ainsel on a bus. Two girls get in and talk between themselves. He is met by Hinzelmann. Hinzelmann points out that a town isn’t a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it’s got a bookstore, it knows it’s not foolin’ a soul. Wednesday has gotten Shadow an apartment in Lakeside for the next several months.
The police or agents question Samantha Black Crow about Shadow. She does not tell them anything.
This is not a land for gods-said to Shadow in a dream.
Chapter Ten
Like in Lakeside. He meets the town sheriff, Chad Mulligan. He has his first pasty for breakfast. He goes into the town lottery about when a klunker falls into the ice pond during the Spring melt. Wednesday comes by for a visit and to pick up Shadow for a task. They go to Vegas to meet some of Wednesday’s people.
Chapter Eleven
More of life in Lakeside. He had dreamed about thunderbirds and now visited the library to find out about them. Wednesday comes and takes him to San Francisco. He meets Easter-not the Christian one, but the predecessor-and yet there is a lot of the renewal qualities in Easter. Wednesday tries to recruit her. He shows her that people do not know who she is. Wednesday and Shadow get into a discussion that Wednesday is just recounting everybody’s wrong doing. Wednesday says: They all do the same things. They may think their sins are original, but for the most part they are petty and repetitive.
Wednesday is so used to taking from people, he will do this without thinking. Shadow sees this and calls him on it and tries to correct the situations which he says. Wednesday say May your choices always be so clear,” he said, and once again, he sounded totally sincere. It’s true what they say, thought Shadow. If you can fake sincerity, you’ve got it made.
One of the girls in the bus Shadow came on vanished. The other girl recounts to Shadow a series of girls who have disappeared.
does not have the faith and will not have the fun.’ Chesterton from the poem The Song of the Strange Ascetic I am impressed that he could reference a poem by GK.
We need individual stories. Without individuals we see only numbers
This sentence encapsulates a lot of the storyline-it is about an apprentice who is being shown the ropes by a true believer. She had no real interest in the gods, though. Not really. Her interests were in the practicalities
Chapter Twelve
Wednesday and Shadow are traveling again, this time in a WInnebago, going west to the Dakota’s. When they come to a roadblock, Wednesday does some sort of magic and they take off to who knows where. Wednesday says they are now behind the scenes (Is this Matrix again?) They encounter mechanical spider things. (more Matrix)
They come out from backstage and meet Whisky Jack. He will not join the battle. They trade the Winnebago for a Buick. Then back to Lakeside. Another Laura episode on a walk.
Bilquis is killed, along with several others.
Chapter 13
Shadow is invited to his next door neighbor for dinner. Samantha Black Crow is the neighbor’s sister and is there as well. This is what Wednesday is battling against-Shadow is explaining to Samantha: “And that there are new gods out there, gods of computers and telephones and whatever, and that they all seem to think there isn’t room for them both in the world.
Coincidences abound-but look at the last chapter as Gaiman tries to patch up the need for these coincidences. First Smantha being the sister of his neighbor. He takes her to a bar. At the bar is the wife of the guy who Shadow’s wife was cheating with. She exposes him and announces that he killed two agents. The sheriff arrests him, even though he does not think Shadow did anything.
Wednesday goes to a neutral site for negotiations. He is assassinated. it’s still God’s Own Country,” said the announcer, a news reporter pronouncing the final tag line. “The only question is, which gods.
Mr Nancy and Czernoberg impersonate officers and collect Shadow out of jail.
Part Three
Chapter Fourteen
They switch cars with a dwarf who says: And if the vigil falls to you, my admiration, and my sympathy. The next chapter or two is setting up to this. Arrangements are made to transfer Wednesday’s body. They are going to the center of the continental USA.
People only fight over imaginary things.
All things have rules
Then Shadow is tempted-Gaiman seems to be making Shadow into a Christ figure: We can make you famous, Shadow. We can give you power over what people believe and say and wear and dream…..“I offered you the world,” she said. “When you’re dying in a gutter, you remember that
he was willing to die, if that was what it took to be alive.
Shadow realizes that his cellmate in prison (LowKey Lyesmith) is the chauffeur and his real name is Loki.
They hold a short service for Wednesday. The commission Wednesday gave him to hold a vigil in case of his death. They are taking the body to Virginia, to the world tree. The vigil has a person tied to a tree for nine days with no food or water. Why would Shadow do it? It is the kind of thing a living person would do. he was willing to die, if that was what it took to be alive
Three women make the arrangements, including tying Shadow to a tree, five feet off the ground.
Chapter Fifteen
Describes what it is like hanging on the tree. Another Christ like representation. He was alive. He had never felt like this.
Chapter Sixteen
Shadow has died or it could be another dream. He goes down from the tree. Shadow’s questions can be answered, but he cannot unlearn the answer. He was being led down the path of hard truths. What good were books, if they couldn’t protect you from something like that? The “that” is seeing his mother die from lymphoma. He realizes that he is Wednesday’s son. All revelations are personal,” she said. “That’s why all revelations are suspect. Mr Ibis escorts him through the underworld. Shadow’s life is examined. But the examination did not stop. Every lie he had ever told, every object he had stolen, every hurt he had inflicted on another person, all the little crimes and the tiny murders that make up the day, each of these things and more were extracted and held up to the light by the jackal-headed judge of the dead.
Gaiman goes into life and death being two sides of the same coin. Also in his thinking there are no happy endings or even an ending. Mr Jacquel opened the last door for Shadow and behind that door there was nothing. Not darkness. Not even oblivion. Only nothing. Shadow has chosen the way of nothingness. He wants to rest after the turmoil and trauma he has been through since being released from prison.
Chapter Seventeen
The war is going to be held on Lookout Mountain, Georgia. Rock City. Described the convergence of the gods.
Scene changes to Laura going into a farmhouse to get the water Shadow had said was there. Death hurt Laura, although the hurt consisted mostly of absences, of things that were not there. When she drinks, it is not the water of life, but pretty strong water as it feeds the world tree. water of time, which comes from the spring of fate.
Mr Town was sent to get a small branch from the world tree. He sees Shadow hanging, dead. He imagined that he was holding a spear and twisting it into Shadow’s guts. Another Christ figure.
In talking about Shadow, the outcome of the war depends on him. Easter goes to rescue him.
Loki and Odin are into chaos and killing, not into the war.
Chapter Eighteen
Gaiman’s thoughts on religion: Religions are, by definition, metaphors, after all: God is a dream, a hope, a woman, an ironist, a father, a city, a house of many rooms, a watchmaker who left his prize chronometer in the desert, someone who loves you—even, perhaps, against all evidence, a celestial being whose only interest is to make sure your football team, army, business, or marriage thrives, prospers and triumphs over all opposition … Religions are places to stand and look and act, vantage points from which to view the world. This last sentence is interesting. I think in terms of that religion is a description of the world we live in, like a scientific description is also. It brings things into focus. The question is does the description match reality/
Whisky Jack finds Shadow and they discuss that the gods both old and new will revive him, to make him something different. Shadow asks what is real-no answer given. Shadow sees what the real objective was-it is a con to get chaos and blood. Shadow thinks being with Whisky Jack is a good place-Whiskey Jack says there are many good places. I think so. we never built churches. We didn’t need to. The land was the church. The land was the religion
Easter and the thunderbird revive Shadow. Easter says that bringing back things is what she does. In a lot of ways, Christianity looks at the old traditions and understands them better than those who practice them. If only we understood our own tradition. The thunderbird carries him to Lookout Mountain.
Laura travels with Mr Town. She kills him.
It was Mr World who set up Shadow to die. Mr World says: It’s never a matter of old and new. It’s only about patterns. The reason why he wanted the stick, is it is a symbol of what he is doing. It would become a spear of chaos. Sort of like Mars in Greek mythology. World wants his stick. In Laura’s hands, it turns into a spear which she plunges through her and through Mr World, process of killing him-she is already dead.
Shadow finds Wednesday. Wednesday says that there is power in sacrificing a son. Is Gaiman talking about Shadow or Christ?
Loki and Odin were in it together to bring blood and chaos among the gods. Shadow has figured this out. He calls Wednesday the Judas Goat.
Shadow goes backstage. He sees the fighting. He makes a speech laying out how they all have been manipulated into fighting so that Odin and Loki would have their blood and chaos. Shadow says: I would rather be a man than a god. We don’t need anyone to believe in us. We just keep going anyhow. It’s what we do.
Shadow takes Laura’s gold coin and returns it. Laura is now at rest.
Part Four
Chapter Nineteen
Driving in Florida. Mr Nancy asks Shadow if he is happy? Answer: Not dead yet. It means that you can’t judge the shape of someone’s life until it’s over and done. Mr Nancy has Shadow stay at his place. He dreams and is told he did well. Shadow realizes that he needs to go to Chicago to see Czernoberg.
Chapter Twenty
Shadow returns to Lakeside. He goes straight to the klunker which had not yet sunk. He opened the trunk and the missing person was there. At that moment the ice cracked and the car, the body and Shadow sank into the water.
In his time unconscious he dreamt that he was being refused death. He was saved by Hinzelmann. It was Hinzelmann who killed all the town’s kids which disappeared. The town sheriff kills Hinzelmann and burns down the house. Shadow relieves the sheriff’s guilt. (Jedi mind trick)
Shadow goes to see Samantha Black Crow. She is with a girlfriend.
Shadow now goes to his final meeting with Czernoberg. Shadow says the only thing he learned by being around the gods is that once you make a deal with the gods, you keep it. Czernoberg carries out his end of the deal.
… there is blood. But there is also gratitude. And it has been a long, long winter
Postscript
Scene is now Iceland on the 4th of July. He liked the idea of independence.
He wondered whether home was a thing that happened to a place after a while, or if it was something that you found in the end, if you simply walked and waited and willed it long enough.
He meets an old man. Shadow declares he is Wednesday/Odin. He was me, yes. But I am not him
Appendix
This is a chapter which Gaiman wanted to put in there, but upon consideration, it did not fit. It is a chapter about meeting Jesus. I can see why Gaiman did not put this in. I think it would need a lot more development.
what’s a stranger but a friend you haven’t met yet?”
Suffering is sometimes cleansing
Evaluation:
One thing we learn from reading mythology is that when humans get involved with the affairs of the gods, usually the human does not come out for the better. But what happens when the old and impotent gods have been dormant for centuries want to wake up in a land which does not worship them? That is the theme of Gaiman’s American Gods.
Gaiman’s story takes us through Shadow’s dealings with the old gods, mostly Norse, in particular Odin-in the story he is known as Mr Wednesday. The story has the “new” gods such as technology, money, sex, guns, bombs and the like are pitted with removing the older, retired gods. Shadow is mixed up in this as Wednesday’s bodyguard and chauffeur.
I think Gaiman writes a good story. Particularly after I went through it a second time to get my notes down. But then Gaiman soils it with stuff which does not need to be there. The gods are portrayed as lust happy-they were also portrayed this in Greek myths as well-devouring their partners. Much of the story seems like Gaiman did not know when to stop or edit his work. So I got the sense that many of the stories in this book could have been edited out without losing any of the overall story. But then what would make it 600 pages?
As I was reading this story, I got to thinking of John Irving. Not so much in substance, but in my reaction to how Gaiman develops the story. There is a dependence on sex and violence which I think tends to weaken where he wants to go. Also the oddballness of many of the side stories left me thinking “get on” with the main plot.
American Gods is meant to be an epic story like those told in the old Norse tales. This is not a tale on the level of Lord of the Rings rather a read which is a decent adventure tale. The man has talent as a writer but not my style.
Notes from my book group:
Shadow thinks he is a materialist. He thinks: Shadow was not superstitious. He did not believe in anything he could not see. What fallacy is there in this line of thinking? What strengths?
There are many thoughts and wise words which come through in Gaiman’s story. Is this a book which you would look to find wisdom? Or do you see the wisdom as more truisms?
What is the significance of the coin tricks which Shadow engages in?
It seems like Gaiman makes use of several stories. Which ones were you able to identify?
In chapter 11, Wednesday says that They may think their sins are original, but for the most part they are petty and repetitive. What does Wednesday mean by this?
Gaiman quotes Chesterton: does not have the faith and will not have the fun. What does Chesterton mean? Why does Gaiman use this quote?
How do you want your life to change because you read this book?
Many of these questions are either from or adapted from LitLovers.
Why the title of American Gods? Which gods are the American ones?
Does this story work as a fantasy?
Did the ending seem fitting? Satisfying? Predictable?
Which character was the most convincing? Least?
Which character did you identify with?
Which one did you dislike?
Every story has a world view. Were you able to identify this story’s world view? What was it? How did it affect the story?
In what context was religion talked about in this book?
Was there anybody you would consider religious?
Why do you think the author wrote this book?
What would you ask the author if you had a chance?
What “takeaways” did you have from this book?
What central ideas does the author present?
Describe the culture talked about in the book.
How is the culture described in this book different than where we live?
What economic or political situations are described?
Does the author examine economics and politics, family traditions, the arts, religious beliefs, language or food?
How did this book affect your view of the world?
Of how God is viewed?
What questions did you ask yourself after reading this book?
Talk about specific passages that struck you as significant—or interesting, profound, amusing, illuminating, disturbing, sad...?
What was memorable?
Reading Groups General Fiction Guide
New Words:
- Oubliettes (1): a secret dungeon with access only through a trapdoor in its ceiling.
- Bufotenin (2): a tryptamine derivative related to the neurotransmitter serotonin. It is an alkaloid found in some species of toads
- Maudlin (3): self-pityingly or tearfully sentimental, often through drunkenness
- Scraeling (3): the name the Norse Greenlanders used for the peoples they encountered in North America
- Patois (5): the dialect of the common people of a region, differing in various respects from the standard language of the rest of the country.
- Masticating (8): to grind, crush, and chew (food) with or as if with the teeth in preparation for swallowing
- Grifts (9): engage in petty or small-scale swindling.
- Prestidigitation (11): magic tricks performed as entertainment.
- Quadroon (11): a person who is one-quarter black by descent.
- Voudon (11): also known as Voodoo, or Voudou, is the national folk religion of Haiti. Voudon is practiced in Haiti and the Haitian diaspora and is
- Anchorites (12): a religious recluse
- Baraka (12): n Judaism, a blessing usually recited during a ceremony; in Islam, the beneficent force from God that flows
- Patchouli (14): a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae, commonly called the mint or deadnettle family
- Psychopomp (16): the spiritual guide of a living person's soul
- frisson
- Modalities (17): a particular mode in which something exists or is experienced or expressed
- Gyre (18): a spiral or vortex
- Miasma (20): a highly unpleasant or unhealthy smell or vapor
- Kobold (20): a sprite stemming from Germanic mythology and surviving into modern times in German folklore
- Geas (20): an obligation or prohibition magically imposed on a person
Book References:
- Histories by Herodotus
- he Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
- Perplexing Parlour Illusions my not be a real book
- Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
- War of the Worlds by HG Wells
- What My Heart Meant by Jenny Kerton probably not a real book
- Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
- Bleak House by Charles Dickens
- Modern Coin Magic by J.B. Bobo
Good Quotes:
- First Line: I don’t know what it’s like to read this book
- Last Line: He walked away and kept walking on.
- There’s never been a true war that wasn’t fought between two sets of people who were certain they were in the right. Chp Nine
- a town isn’t a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it’s got a bookstore, it knows it’s not foolin’ a soul. Chp Nine
- They all do the same things. They may think their sins are original, but for the most part they are petty and repetitive. Chp Eleven
- We need individual stories. Without individuals we see only numbers… Chp Eleven
- People only fight over imaginary things. Chp Fourteen
- Religions are places to stand and look and act, vantage points from which to view the world. Chp Eighteen
- It means that you can’t judge the shape of someone’s life until it’s over and done. Chapter Nineteen
References:
- Author's Web Site
- Wikipedia-Book
- Wikipedia-Author
- Amazon-Book
- Amazon-Author
- GoodReads-Book
- GoodReads-Author
- NPR Review - graphic novel
- New Yorker review
- David Fish’s book review
- Kirkus Review
- Publisher’s Weekly
- Time Magazine’s 100 best fantasy books
- Book Browse-summarizes the book
- Fantasy Book Review
- Fandom for American Gods - the TV program
