My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Anansi Boys is a near perfect novel. It’s not truly a sequel to Gaiman’s previous and spectacular American Gods, but it is a novel set in the same mythology. But where Gods goes for the epic, Boys sticks with the personal, and does it brilliantly.
The basic plot of estranged son loses dad to find post-mortem that he barely new the man is nothing special. However, finding out that father is a god, and all that implies about the son–who has had a most hapless and buffoonish life–gives it a wonderful spin. And Gaiman’s wordplay is an easy read and completely engrossing; I don’t read novels quickly, but this one I finished in a day, I couldn’t put it down.
I would recommend this novel as highly as I’d recommend American Gods, another favorite of mine.
