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, able to overturn the social order, create wealth out of
thin air, and baffle the devil. Some said he could cheat even
Death himself.
Returning to the territory he so brilliantly explored in his
masterful New York Times bestseller, American Gods, the
incomparable Neil Gaiman offers up a work of dazzling
ingenuity, a kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth that is at once
startling, terrifying, exhilarating, and fiercely funny -- a true
wonder of a novel that confirms Stephen King's glowing assessment
of the author as "a treasure-house of story, and we are lucky to
have him."
With a smaller cast of central characters than American Gods, Gaiman is in his element with Anansi Boys. Stories that retell myths are two-a-penny but stories that flow with the gleeful confidence of Anansi Boys are much rarer. (Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).
The New York Times Book Review - Charles Taylor Anansi Boys promises to have all the makings of first-rate farce...the problem...is the type of fantasy Gaiman has chosen. The tales of Anansi outwitting his foes leave you feeling you've eaten something heavy and sugary. There's an Uncle Remus folksiness to the stories that sends the airy blitheness of the farce plummeting down to earth.
The Washington Post Book World - Elizabeth Hand
With Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman's delightful, funny and affecting new novel, the bestselling author has scored the literary equivalent of a hole in one, employing the kind of self-assured storytelling that makes it all look so easy. One can imagine Gaiman's legion of fans putting down the book and rushing en masse to pen their own riffs on traditional folklore and contemporary pop culture. But it's hard to imagine anyone topping Anansi Boys.
Library Journal
Another lovely story as only Gaiman can tell it; necessary and recommended.
Kirkus Reviews
....The result, though less dazzling than American Gods, is even more moving. Intermittently lumpy and self-indulgent, but enormously entertaining throughout.
Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. It's Gaiman's focus on Charlie and Charlie's attempts to return to normalcy that make the story so winning - along with gleeful, hurtling prose.
Booklist - Ray Olson
Starred Review. ...Gaiman, he's the folksy, witty, foolishly wise narrator to perfection, drawing us into the web he weaves as skillfully as any . . . spider.
Time Out - London
The most accomplished of Gaiman's novels . . . Urbane and sophisticated.
Recent Reader Reviews
Rated of 5
by Chris Schoolkids Point of View I thought it was very dry and didn't really like the plot..
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
has published an enormous variety of short stories, graphic novels and comics -
far too many to list here, but you'll find a very comprehensive list at the
ever-reliable
fantasticfiction.co.uk and more biographical information at
BookBrowse.
A multiple-award winner for his short fiction, author Joe Hill immediately vaults into the top echelon of dark fantasists with a blood-chilling roller-coaster ride of a novel, a masterwork brimming with relentless thrills and acid terror.
A tour de force of metaphysical reality, powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy who runs away from home to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy, and an aging simpleton.
These are 2 of the 6 readalike suggestions for Anansi Boys. Members have full access to all readalikes. If you are a member, please login. To find out more about membership, click here.
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