One
describes a tale best by telling the tale. You see? The way one describes a
story, to oneself or to the world, is by telling the story. It is a balancing
act and it is a dream. The more accurate the map, the more it resembles the
territory. The most accurate map possible would be the territory, and thus
would be perfectly accurate and perfectly useless.
The tale is the map that is the territory.
You must remember this.
~from the Notebooks of Mr. Ibis
In ‘American Gods’ Gaiman (2001) set himself the task of exploring American
cultural heritage and how religion and culture are expressed in modern times.
This is a lofty goal, but Gaiman tackles it in a very accessible manner. It is
a novel which draws on a long history of storytelling to reinforce the
narrative. Woven throughout are references to myths about Gods from all over
the world; from Norse god Odin to ancient Egyptian Ibis and the Irish
Leprechauns of folktales. It is ultimately an urban fantasy, though in a very
different way to Gaiman's earlier novel 'Neverwhere' (1996), which was set
solely in central London, while 'American Gods' is a journey across North
America.
'American Gods' follows the
strange travels of a young man known only as ‘Shadow’ and the characters he
meets upon being released from prison. The plot focuses on the coming of a
literal and metaphorical ‘storm’, a clash between the old and the new. The
'America' that Shadow lives in is the America of the present day, but also a place
where things people believe in, worship and sacrifice to become real, physical
beings. Gods are men and women who live amongst the population, relying on
belief to sustain their existence. This is an idea that has been explored by
many authors in a variety of different ways. Orson Scott-Card explored belief
and modern-day social detachment from organised religion through a very similar
narrative device in his novel ‘Enchantment’ (1999). Scott-Card focused on ‘old’
Gods while Gaiman differentiates himself in the genre by including 'new' Gods,
those of credit card, media, celebrity and Internet, worshipped in the consumer
culture of modern-day America.
The novel is filled with overarching metaphors, particularly around what it
means to be 'American' and the implications of a culture worshipping material
things. Gaiman briefly breaks from the narrative to emphasise that none of what
is occurring in the book is ‘real’, and to explain that it is all a metaphor
for the American condition. His view that "religions are places to stand
and look and act, vantage points from which to view the world" (2001, p.
508) is pervasive throughout the whole novel.
The question that the novel poses to readers is: If religion is essentially
self-serving does the worship of material things necessarily equate
to a lack of morality? The novel itself does not give
a clear-cut answer to this question, leaving many aspects open to
interpretation. As part of a broader socio-cultural context Gaiman succeeds in
raising a pertinent question, especially in a social climate that is seeing an
increase in both consumerism and a return to organised religion in many areas.
In the context of the novel
Gaiman also succeeds in his intention to dissect American cultural heritage and
religious attitudes. However, although the exploration of American culture
through metaphors was interesting, Gaiman has been a bit
too heavy-handed in its application for my tastes.
The literal spelling out that 'this story is a metaphor', which happens when
Gaiman breaks from the narrative towards the end of the novel, ensures that
even the most inattentive readers do not miss the metaphor signs. The
novel has the feeling of a writer finding his feet in terms of writing style,
but also in a physical way, as it was written when Gaiman moved away from his
native England. 'American Gods' was a precursor to Gaiman's novel 'Anansi Boys'
(2005) and although it does not directly link up there is a crossover with the
character ‘Mr. Nancy’, and it explores many similar themes. ‘Anansi Boys’ was,
in my view, a much more subtle and thought-provoking novel. It was filled with
humour and fascinating, detailed characters, two things that 'American Gods'
lost in focusing too hard on emphasizing the metaphors. Great comparison.
Overall ‘American Gods’
is an ambitious novel which sets out to explore the hugely complex question of
cultural identity in modern-day America. While it may have benefited from a
more even-handed, subtle approach, Gaiman’s novel is ultimately successful in
drawing readers into a dialogue about religion, consumerism and the American
way of life. ‘American Gods’ is a very adult novel, best suited readers in
their final years of high school or older, and would be of particular interest
to those undertaking, or with interest in, cultural studies.
