First off before I delve into my thoughts what I read so far in this wonderful novel. I have to thank you, Mr. Craig for assigning this book. If you didn't make that choice I would have never read this and would have missed out on an amazing masterpiece of storytelling.
Anyway, now that the thanking is out of the way. Let's talk about American Gods. More specifically how this book bends it's genres as many times as a contestant on Ru Paul's Drag Race bends his gender. This book takes all different genres and forms throws them into a blender and instead of creating a disgusting mess that would make you retch just if you caught a whiff of it he makes a delicious strawberry smoothie with the ingredients instead.
This type of concoction especially one that tastes so good is not an easy recipe to follow. I think Gaiman though had a head start since he has been twisting genre conventions like a pretzel since he started on the comic Sandman. Ever seen his movie Mirrormask? I dunno if it's a fantasy movie or a sequel to Tarsem Singh's The Cell. His work here in American Gods is no different than what he has done before it is just more epic in it's storytelling that the majority of his previous works in comics and film.
How many genres are present in just the first 161 pages of this novel? Let's count em.
Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Romance, Comedy, Science Fiction
There is probably even more but that is all that I can come up with at the moment off the top of my head. It is defnitely a fantasy because of it's plot involving gods living in the USA. There are scenes with leprechauns in them. But not your Warwick Davis type. Nope. More like Shamus from WWE instead of Hornswaggle. Big burly Irish dudes. There is also fiction related moments in the story that seem so real. The beginning of the novel feels like a scene straight out of The Shawshank Redemption. As for the Horror elements? They are scattered throughout but one in particular really tingles my spine. More on that later. As for the others? Romance, Comedy, Science Fiction? They are all there too. Romance obviously for Shadow's relationship with his wife both alive and dead, Comedy for the numerous moments of black humor littered throughout the tale, and Science Fiction for the presence of the new gods in particular ones whose power emanates from technology. I am sure if I spent even more time with this book I could find almost every genre known to man in here, at least a semblance of them at least.
Now for the finale.
I thought of how to end this post and I thought why not talk about the most memorable moment of the book from what I have read so far? So here it goes.
On pages 25-28 There is the one scene with distinct horror elements. It comes out of left field and leaves you stunned and retching. It is only a few pages in length but it hits hard. The image of a virile man in the throes of a passion with a call girl who proceeds to literally absorb him while he is calling her a goddess and praising the heck out of her is burned in my mind. In particular this passage.
"He feels the lips of her vulva tight around his upper chest and back constricting and enveloping him. He wonders what this would look like to somebody watching them. He wonders why he is not scared. And then he knows.
"I worship you with my body", he whispers, as she pushes him inside her. Her labia pulls slickly across his face and his eyes slip into darkness.
I'm getting chills just reading that. Talk about a horrifying scene. That is near the top of the list for me. This is the type of sequence that would make David Cronenberg the master of body horror feel uncomfortable. The image of a man literally being dissolved into a woman's lady parts is sickening and disturbing as hell. I always thought a woman's genitals looked freaky but damn. Not like this. This is the type of scene that would make one want to forgo sex all together.
Anyway, that's American Gods so far. I have really enjoyed it. It has been a very interesting fun ride, and there is still a lot of twists and turns left to go.
Speaking of killer vaginas..there actually is a movie about Killer Vaginas..It's a movie with bite.
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