The basic premise of the book is that all of the ancient gods of Europe, Asia and Africa have migrated to America to follow the path of the mundane emigrants to this country, and yet they find that even here they have been forgotten and abandoned by the peoples who had once worshipped them and sacrificed to them. In their place have come the new American gods, those who hold sway over the more popular aspects of our culture; television, the internet, credit cards and shopping malls. A storm is brewing which threatens to culminate in a war between these two groups of gods. A recently released ex-con known as Shadow (I can't recall right now if we ever learned his real name) is recruited by one of the leaders of the ancient gods to help them in their cause. The reason he is selected is left unanswered for a long time, even though that secret was revealed sooner than I expected (about 100 pages from the end).

One problem with reviews is treading that fine line between relating what you like about a book and at the same time not revealing too many plot elements which might spoil it for others. While I was reading I got the impression that the story might have started out as a much shorter and simpler tale, and then later Gaiman thought of some ways to stretch it out with various subplots. But after I finished I looked back at it and decided all those subplots and sidetrips played an intricate and integral part in building up the main character of Shadow, as well as revealing how each of those elements related to each other. I also think it will take at least another read through (if not more) to fully understand all the nuances and what they might mean symbolically. I am convinced that it must be read with the understanding that everything is there for a purpose, each character and each setting has a deeper meaning than just what is on the surface.

It is also written in a very visual style, and even from the first few chapters I knew that this was a story I would love to see adapted to the screen. While I have not decided who might be best to portray Shadow, my pick to play his wife Laura would be Linda Fiorentino, and Barry Corbin would make an ideal Wednesday, who is the god who recruits Shadow, and who happens to be the Norse god Odin. [EDIT: The last bit was written way back in 2004, long before anyone talked about adapting this for the screen. Please see the update below.]

[UPDATE] - Originally announced for HBO, a TV miniseries adaptation of American Gods is now being produced for the STARZ cable channel. One of the executive producers, and co-showrunner, is Bryan Fuller, and supposedly Gaiman will be writing a few episodes himself. The premiere is Sunday, April 30, 2017. Shadow will be played by Rick Whittle (The 100), Ian McShane (Deadwood) is Mr. Wednesday, and Emily Browning (Sucker Punch) is Laura. I don't get STARZ at this time, but might sign up for it for this, since everything I've been reading about it is very positive. The other option is waiting to see if a season pass will be available through Amazon Video. Stay tuned.

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