Anansi Boys

[nny]

Hmm.

I confess, I wasn't hugely convinced by this book.

Neil Gaiman writes in a way that's kind of comforting, I suppose. It's not particularly taxing as far as readability goes, and it's very... familiar. I think he writes the way that my mental voice sounds, a lot of the time, so reading his books is always pleasant. Where he really comes into his own is with the stories, and the layers he puts into them - which is why, I think, I was faintly disappointed with this.

Usually Neil Gaiman characters, even the most incidental, give the impression of having a story behind them. It was impossible for me to read Neverwhere without gleefully pondering the various life histories of the characters, and I somehow knew that Neil knew what all of them were, too. Neverwhere made me want to write fanfic, or create an RP, or do something with all the possibilities that had been made available. Likewise with American Gods - I found it completely enthralling, and inspiring, and I love re-reading on the off chance I'll discover something I missed before.

His books are like worlds. Or... they have been, before.

Because Anansi Boys, while an interesting story with decent main characters, didn't make me want to look any further. It felt less like a world than a picture of one - canvas backing, two dimensional. I didn't feel involved in the story, to any great extent. There seemed to be vaguely loose ends, and there were resolutions that seemed too contrived, and it felt like it needed to be longer. I didn't have the time to really care about the characters, and as a result the end was somewhat anticlimatic. It left me, to be short, with a feeling of 'meh'. And for a writer as usually reliable as Neil Gaiman, that's a serious shame.

I'll re-read it, of course. I just don't know if there's any more to see.