Mr. Sandman

Anansi Boys
Neil Gaiman
Harper Torch

Okay, I've been staring at a blank screen for about an hour now, thinking about what to write for this entry. There isn't anything new that I can say about Gaiman or his work that hasn't already been expressed elsewhere. So, I'll just sum up all the reviews you could possibly find on the internet and give it to you straight ... the man is a brilliant storyteller.

Anansi Boys, in particular, is an inventive, funny and oft-times disturbing novel where the author combines the sheer absurdity of Pythonesque humour with traditional Caribbean folklore to create a tale that is, at once, laugh-out-loud funny and spookily uncanny. When Fat Charlie Nancy learns that his estranged father (who died while performing on a Florida karaoke stage) was a god, the world, as he knows it, stops making sense. It careens out of control when Spider, Charlie's long-lost brother (also a god) shows up, steals his girl, gets him fired from his job and lands him in a heap of trouble with the other old-world spirits. Fat Charlie can save the day, but only if he can figure out who he is meant to be.

Part comedy, part fantasy -- Anansi Boys is a fun read that operates on multiple levels. If I were to teach a course on post-modern literature, I'd probably make sure that this one was included on the syllabus. Three and half Joseph Campbells out of five.