Review
From the book jacket: When Fat Charlie's dad named something, it
stuck. Like calling Fat Charlie "Fat Charlie." Even now, twenty years later,
Charlie Nancy can't shake that name, one of the many embarrassing "gifts" his
father bestowed -- before he dropped dead on a karaoke stage and ruined Fat
Charlie's life.
Mr. Nancy left Fat Charlie things. Things like the tall, good-looking stranger
who appears on Charlie's doorstep, who appears to be the brother he never knew.
A brother as different from Charlie as night is from day, a brother who's going
to show Charlie how to lighten up and have a little fun ... just like Dear Old
Dad. And all of a sudden, life starts getting very interesting for Fat Charlie.
Because, you see, Charlie's dad wasn't just any dad. He was Anansi, a trickster
god, the spider-god. Anansi is the spirit of rebellion,...
Beyond the Book
Neil Gaiman grew up in England and, although Jewish, attended Church of England
schools, including Ardingly College, a boarding school in West Sussex (South of
England). During the early 1980s he worked as a journalist and book
reviewer. His first book was a biography of the band Duran Duran. He
moved from England to his wife's hometown in the American midwest several years
ago. He and his family now live in a renovated Victorian farmhouse where (he
says) his hobbies are writing things down, hiding, and talking about himself in
the third person.
In addition to
American Gods,
Anansi Boys and
Coraline (a fantastically creepy
book for children, particularly so in the audio version read by the author), Gaiman...
