Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman

 That is one big f'ing web.

So this was my first experience reading Neil Gaiman, if you don't count the introduction to Jonathan Strange  and Mr. Norrell or Amanda Palmer's tweets, which I don't.

I really loved this book, which combined West African/Caribbean folklore with modern day England and the American South. It's about this sad sack guy named Fat Charlie, who works at a boring job pushing papers and who has a father, Mr. Nancy (get it? GET IT?) who was always showing up and embarrassing him. His personality is kind of like the Narrator in Fight Club pre-Tyler Durden, when all he cares about is IKEA furniture. Fat Charlie is engaged to a woman who won't sleep with him and whose mother hates him. His life is pretty bleak. Then his dad dies (while trying to seduce women with a sexy karaoke song!) and when Fat Charlie goes to collect his possessions, an elderly neighbor tells him that he actually has a brother. Fat Charlie thinks she's nuts, but humors her when she says that he just needs to tell a spider that he wants his twin to show up. And show up he does! And his name is Spider. Obviously.

Spider shows up and methodically ruins Fat Charlie's life with his "trickster" ways--he steals his girlfriend, moves into his apartment, and goes to work as Fat Charlie, all of which he accomplishes by actually magically convincing others that he is Fat Charlie. All of this creates a huge mess of trouble for Fat Charlie, whose quest to get his old life back takes him from England to Florida to the Caribbean to a completely different dimension. Basically, Anansi Boys posits not only that the ancient gods exist, but that they still walk among us as humans, affecting our individual lives. It's a neat concept, and Gaiman executed it very well.

I mentioned up top that Gaiman wrote the introduction to Susanne Collins' Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, and in some ways Anansi Boys reminded me of that book. In JS&MN only some people could see the gentleman with the thistledown hair, but he could easily interact with humans and shift between places without them noticing. In Anansi Boys, similar forces are at work--Fat Charlie can see Bird Woman and her attacks (a semi villain from the god world) when no one else can.

HOWEVER, I actually guessed the twist to this book, which I hate, since I like to be surprised by things. Obviously, skip this paragraph if you don't want to hear about it. The thing is, Fat Charlie is hopeless and pathetic, and Spider is super cool and charming. And they are twins. So naturally, because I am a geek, I thought of the episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer when Xander splits into good parts and bad parts. This is basically what happens. Since that episode of BtVS came out in 2000 and this book was published in 2005, I think Gaiman might owe Jane Espenson an apology. Oh, well.


[Note: I wrote this in like, 10 minutes, so excuse bad grammar and sloppiness, this sentence included).