Each month Abington Library will feature a favorite book from a faculty, staff member, or student. They will give a brief synopsis of their chosen book.
James Winter is the ITS Director for Infrastructure at ASU-Beebe.
American Gods
Reviewed by James Winter
Neil Gaiman is among my favorite authors. He has an incredibly diverse and deep knowledge of mythology and as his characters develop in the storyline the reader develops as well as this wealth of knowledge is poured out on the pages.
In American Gods there is a war brewing between the old gods of our forefathers and the new gods of the American Dream. We follow Shadow as he walks along a path of discovery. He is, and has been, unknowingly, part of this war. At a particularly troubling point in his life he is contacted by Wednesday, who begins to reveal to Shadow the coming war and Shadow’s place in it. Wednesday is an old country god that is being forgotten in the new world (you know who he is by his name when you understand whose day of the week it is) and is not going down without a fight.
I highly recommend American Gods to anyone with an appreciation for mythology. Reading the book is like taking a course in mythology without having to memorize for a quiz. It can be a bit dark at times but you don’t want to skim over anything. Every character matters. Every name has meaning. Even the silliest things can reveal much about ourselves.
American Gods: the Tenth Anniversary Edition by