Anansi Boys

This book is not what I was expecting it to be at all. What exactly was I expecting it to be? I have no idea. But I will say I didn’t think Neil Gaiman would capture me like he did. In this book, Fat Charlie is overcome with a million different unlucky instances, even though in the beginning he seemed to have a pretty good life. The myths in this selection were of a greater power- the creators of the universe. HOw did they create the universe? Through stories and songs created by gods of animals. The dedication to the West Indian culture in this book is very interesting, especially since I have no previous knowledge of anything remotely close to the myths Gaiman alludes to. Charlie’s father was the spider god Anansi, who is the ruler of mischief. This explains how sad Charlie’s life has become due to his father playing jokes on him all the time, but Anansi has passed away. Little does Charlie know that he has a brother named Spider (who is actually his other half) that has been given their father’s gift of mischief. It is up to Charlie to stop Spider’s devilish actions against him that spirals his life into chaos. Fate is a joke in this story, seeing as no one seems to be taking it seriously since everyone kind of does what they want (except Fat Charlie who is just trying to live his life). Like I had previously mentioned, a lot of characters break out into song about their lives and how their aspirations came to be. I have never read anything that portrayed gods with song, although I don’t read a ton of fantasy novels in general. It was fun to get to understand the characters but trying not to think of it being played out like a Disney movie was a little hard. Although the theme of fate was prevalent, like we talked about in the lecture, I believe in “Everything happens for a reason”. I feel like that applies whole heartedly to this novel due to the fact that Charlie does seem to find out his true purpose in the end. He was destined to be a singer and to marry the cop Daisy instead of his ex-fiancee Rosie. Which I have just realized as I was writing this that they both had flower names…. Which brings me to the point: women are used as a driving force in this novel. Without Spider coming in and snatching up Rosie, Charlie could’ve been met with the same fate later on after their marriage to some other guy. Similarly, if it weren’t for Daisy, Charlie may not have ever realized his talent for singing and preserving the stories from the “Beginning Of the World”. I appreciate Charlie’s respect for women, I think there are a lot of Spiders running around our society today still thinking women are prizes to be won. I appreciate that Gaiman made sure the protagonist outgrew Spider and learned how to become a nice young man.