Neil Gaiman, Anansi Boys

I've never read Neil Gaiman, but I sure will now! I really enjoyed his writing style, very different them what I'm used to. I've never read American Gods, but I figured that I should look at it after reading it's companion.

This was most definitely modern day fantasy at ti's best. A dysfunctional family, strange important things (a lime) and non-typical fantasy storytelling (African Gods are not Elves.)
At first I didn't know if I'd like a book revolving around African mythology, I like to revolve around the more western fantasy takes. But I was pleasantly surprised. In fact after the book I found myself looking up the Spider and his friends, er, enemies...

One thing that I was very surprised by, was the fact that, well, the characters were African American, but, you don't get told that right away, you figure it out, and boy, does it make you really think about yourself, do we assign a race to characters without even thinking? And let's face it, most fantasy books revolve around Caucasian characters, it's interesting that I would start off reading the book with this perception without even thinking about it. I'll think twice from now on. But again a clever thing you are Neil.

I found the relationships interesting, Neil focuses on the brother/son father relationships, yet, in this book, they are so alike yet so different. Charlie doesn't even know about his fathers death until he tries to invite him to his wedding (one he's not even crazy about) and thus finds out he's just died. This already shows us how the family is disconnected. Then, he finds out about an estranged "brother", this family has all readily got some interesting problems. The twists in this book made it very funny and witty at times. Spider pretty much tries to ruin Charlies life, the opposite of what we would expect from a brother, from "family". Neil really gets the reader to question relationships. The whole book in fact is like a family story, told in a humours way and mixed with a dash of fantasy to make it even more interesting. Neil does a great job playing with themes and makes this novel hard to classify. His tone is very simplistic, but somehow he gets you into the story.

Gaiman makes it easy for us to feel for Charlie. His whole life is "spun" out of control after his father's death. There's a lot of family themes here, for one, much like our ourselves, Charlie is always embarrassed by his father. We can relate because who hasn't been embarrassed by their parents before? Even when his father dies, Charlie is embarrassed by the way his father passed on. Flirting with girls in a bar. What a way to go. His father call thin Charlie, "Fat Charlie" and it sticks his whole life, a reminder of his father's embarrassing ways. We learn later of course why it stuck since his father was gifted with naming things (something he stole from Tiger) but regardless it reminds us of the pet names our parents use for us, Gaiman does a great job sneaking in things his readers can relate to and appreciate.

I really liked Anansi Boys, the writing style was so different, so "fresh" in my opinion. I'll track down some more Neil after this.

Golden Compass

It started with a wardrobe. Sound family? It should. Was it not a wardrobe that Lucy stepped into before finding herself in the land of Narnia? But instead we don't find a fantasy land, only old scholar robes, the sight of a poisoning, all by a girl named not Lucy, but Lyra. This is the beginning of a long fantasy tale with a not-so-normal fantasy feel.

Ok, I'll admit it, I really didn't like this book from the start. I love old school fantasy , kings, queens, dragons, elves, unicorns, you name it, I love to read it. Not something a lot of people like to admit to, but regardless, that's the stuff I enjoy reading. There were parts of the book that I did find refreshing, like the part with the Nun who decided she would rather enjoy sex then continue to lead a life of chastity for God, then goes on to enlighten Lyra about felling good about sex, and that "Sex is ok". Not something a lot of parents would agree with when letting 12 year olds read this. But I found it refreshing after growing up in a christen house hold, after going to church for so long and being told over and over that I'll burn in hell if I even think about letting a boy touch me before he puts a ring on my finger, so yes, this was refreshing. There was a good bit of anti-christen (more like anti-catholic) themes in this book, in fact, well, the church WAS the bad guy. This made things very interesting, so I kept reading. But the style of writing, felt, cold to me. After reading the Narnia series this was like being told everything I thought I knew about fantasy writing was dead wrong.

Aside from not really liking the writing style, I did kinda enjoy the story. It was well told and I did end up wanting to read the next of the series almost just to see what all the fuss was about. I also thought the idea of having the soul as a visible thing that one could touch and talk to was, well, really cool! The author did an awesome job with the demons, er, I mean, "deamons". With them he was able to enlighten the audience of the inner feelings, and true nature of a character, without having to actually explain what the character was thinking internally.

Another rather interesting thing that I did find in "typical fantasy" was the weak but powerful characters. The characters you would figure as powerful were weak in it's presence, or, the power was ulatmatly thier downfall, where as characters we would figure as weak, were very powerful, like Lyra. I thought this was interesting for such a backwards fantasy as the Golden Compass, that Phillip Pullman would take the Tolken route, Bilbo was no knight when we met him after all, nor was Frodo.

A Hobbits Tale

I've never read J. RR Tolken. Why? Because everyone I've ever met, who has read Tolken has told me his books were crock and extremely boring. I should have never listened. I couldn't stop once I started! The way Tolken tells a story is like he's telling it to me personally, like an old friend has stopped by and decided to have tea and talk about his adventures. I simply loved the omniscient narrator, he was funny when e needed to be, but serious when the time called for it. It made it all the more enjoyable simply for that reason!

At first I was rather annoyed by the number of characters, at first it was a pretty simple read, but I quickly figured out this was no kids book. Maybe I'm wrong, but a kid might no be able to keep up with his book. There are loads of characters, I lost track after awhile. But, regardless, I was still able to follow some how. I still can't figure it out. With so many characters, thirteen dwarves I believe? I was still able to semi figure them out and follow without getting too confused about who is where and when and what they are doing and how they are important to the story. I think this was achieved by Tolken's amazing ability to give every character a distinct attitude and personality. I was simply able to recognize characters at times by the tone of voice or how the narrator described their actions.

One thing that Tolken does that made the book a little boring to me was that the race of each creature ultamatly determined if they were "good" or "bad". This left little room for interesting character development in my opinion. There are not going to be any surprises if everyone is "good" no matter what, or "bad" regardless, no change of heart. The main characters do have a mind of their own, but Dwarfs love gold, Elves are good, trolls are bad, no matter what, that's just the way things are. Bilbo is really the only character that tests his race. The simple fact that he goes on an adventure for one thing, when all other hobbits would want nothing to do with an adventure. He also fools Gollum in a game of riddles by actually cheating, giving him a "riddle" that is not a riddle at all. Not very nice.

Bilbo's evoltuion throughout the book is evident in a number of clever ways. When we first begin, he is simply running away from "nasty adventures" but as the book progresses he becomes the Bilbo that Gandolf tells him he will find. His first encounter with trolls is clumsy and he is still in his early stages. He untimatly fails and his whole party is taken, (except him), and of course they are saved by Gandolf. They do find some weapons out of it, some of them named already (they find out in Rivendell) except Bilbo's whom he names after he kills the spider, "Sting". This was interesting to me since in a lot of heroic tales, the swords have names, like in King Arther; Excalibur. But they have names becuase they are linked with heroic deeds or epic quests, thus Bilbo does not name his sword until he feels he has done something worthy enough to name the sword.

I need to read the ring series now, but a hobbit's tale was great! Tolken was able to write something that anyone could enjoy without making it too childish or too adult. In fact, the idea of an adult in a child form is such a brilliant idea. It doesn't exclude anyone and allows a reader of any age to enjoy this story.

Wild Sheep Chase

The main character was a loser of sorts, but his dry humor and interesting internal thoughts made the read not only surreal, but interesting and unpredictable. The ending was, very, uneventful. I'll have to read "dance dance dance" after this.

I really enjoyed how clear everything was written. Descriptions were so stark, and forward, it made it easily to see what the main character saw, and to actually better understand his own feelings. I loved some of the descriptions, the the bit about fallen gingko leaves making the road golden for example. These simple descriptions were imaginative and the book was filled with them. Most of the characters are so average it made the story somewhat humorous and uneventful a times, as if the author wanted us to focus more on the little things. The main character's plain girlfriend with the "ears" that made sex amazing.

What i really loved, was the part about his ex wife. For some reason, I'm not sure why, I just really loved that chapter. The main character talks about when she leaves. Something this simple, was made into an iconic moment with just the way the words are put together. We aren't told what to think, ever. Murakami lets us think about the situation. He simply describes everything in plain simple language. The main character is retelling the day it happened, every little detail. The details, are what amazed me. Think about it, can you look back, at a time in your life when something amazing happened, or when something devastating happened, and recall that strangest details, things that, on an average day, you might never notice, but on those days, when something happens that is life changing, you remember so much. The main character just sits there, recalling all of this without even a second thought, building up to the final point, he talks about her things. he things, not her body, not her hair, not her eyes, but her things. The things in the bathroom, the things in the kitchen, those things. Her things. The main point of it all is that she takes everything. She takes even the pictures in every photo album they have. Leaving the author nothing for him to remember her by, giving him no reason to remember her, erasing herself from his life not in the way one would normally consider, she doesn't pack her things and go, no, she takes every memory the main character might have of her, every detail of her life from him. We never learn the main characters name, because Murakami doesn't really want us too, it's the details he wants us to look at. Just like the main character remembers the details on the day his wife left him, we remember the little details the author leaves for us to see using the words he writes. Amazing.

Murakami's writing style was very refreshing and simplistic. He focus us on things that really don't move the story forward. In fact, the plot moves simply because the author wanted it to, but it's not really an action story, nor a mystery, nor anything really. Just a collection of thoughts, or details, of memories, from the main character. Even the end really doesn't do much. It's not a huge deal, not really anything to get excited about. At first I was disappointed with the ending, but after thinking about it, it made sense, the whole book was like that.

I really enjoyed it for that reason alone. Those thoughts traveling in the mind of the main character makes the book what it is in my opinion. After reading, it makes me think twice about the little things. Like leaves or sunlight, or just the idea that we are simple things moving in a simple liner life line, doing human things, and not paying mind to where we stand at every moment of the day, or even paying much notice to the months that pass, the years that pass, when we are just working day to day and waiting for the next reason to move on to something new.

Ok, so the book was depressing, read it with that warning. Still a great book, but not one that will make you think about friendships and happy wonderful things. It's...Monotone.