Anansi Boys (Hardcover)

Charlie Nancy is one of life's more passive characters. He is perpetually embarrassed by those around him. He grew up in Florida embarrassed by his father who had an eye for the ladies, never seemed to have a job, and who bestowed upon Charlie the nickname "Fat Charlie". It is a name that stuck to Charlie like glue and has followed him everywhere he goes, even to England where he now lives and works. More than anything else, Fat Charlie is embarrassed by himself. His life is an endless stream of self-conscious needless apologies for his life. As one would expect from a character like Charlie he is timid in front of his boss and can't seem to convince his fiancé that there is nothing wrong with consummating their relationship prior to their marriage. The word perpetually frustrated comes to mind here.

As the story opens, Fat Charlie is back in Florida for the funeral of his father. Charlie no doubt hopes his dad's death, which occurred while singing a song in a Karaoke bar much to Charlie's embarrassment, will put an end to his own state of perpetual embarrassment. That is the closure Charlie seeks. But the old ladies who made up his Dad's circle of friends tell Fat Charlie that their father was something of a god, in fact a spider god. They also tell Fat Charlie he has a brother. Fat Charlie, of course, will have none of this nonsense and returns to England.

Of course, life is never so simple for any character drawn by Neil Gaiman. It turns out Fat Charlie does have a brother, Spider, who is everything Charlie is not. Spider is personable, charming, glib, and has the ability to charm the pants off just about anyone he desires. As the name Spider implies, Charlie is soon drawn into the parallel world inhabited by Spider a world of small gods and vengeful animals. Fat Charlie is introduced to a whole new universe of characters and his ability to distinguish between fact and fantasy grows increasingly thin.

Anansi Boys worked on two levels for me. First, I actually grew attached to the character of Fat Charlie. I was surprised that I developed such empathy for Fat Charlie. Generally, I do not find 'passive' characters all that attractive, but, as the book wore on I felt myself rooting for him. Second, Anansi Boy is, at its heart a story about a dysfunctional (but very funny) family and explores how its members try to reach some accommodation with their past and their present relationships. This is not meant to imply that the book is weighed down with ponderous statements on the meaning of life or families; far from it. The great success of Gaiman's writing in my opinion is that he can handle a topic with both humor and sensitivity. The story does not bog down in 'deep thoughts'. Gaiman spins his yarn and leaves it up to the reader to read between the laughs. I found the conclusion to be particularly well done.

I very much liked Anansi Boys. It should certainly satisfy fans of Gaiman's body of work. It is also accessible to anyone who has not read Gaiman.

Anansi Boys, like the spiders that form its conceptual heart, draws you inexorably into its web until you cannot get out. Fortunately, Gaiman has spun such a fine yarn that you don't mind being ensnared at all. This was a book worth reading.

Fat Charlie (not his real name, but it's a name his father gave him, and names his father gives always seem to stick) was taken to England by his mother when he was younger, mainly to get away from his father. Fat Charlie has had a good life, and is now engaged to a wonderful woman, but things start to spiral downward when his fiancée, Rosie, insists on inviting his father to their wedding. Fat Charlie finds out that his father has just died, and goes to Florida for the funeral. Thus begins a sequence of events that will introduce Fat Charlie to his charming brother, Spider, a man with the powers of a god. The powers of his father, truth be told. Spider is impulsive and always looking out for his own pleasure, which just makes things worse. But things just get out of control when the other gods get involved. Their father, who is known as Anansi, wasn't exactly well-liked by the other gods, and their revenge may just affect the boys too. Fat Charlie is in way over his head and, for once, so is Spider. Even the old ladies who seem to know what is going on may not be able to help them before it's too late.

Turning any of the pages in Anansi Boys was a pure treat for me, as Gaiman's prose just leaps off the page. Gaiman seems fascinated with stories, as most of his other works indicate as well, and here is no different. Anansi stole the stories of the world from Tiger way back when the world was new, and Tiger has forever resented it. Gaiman's love for stories shines through, the words sounding almost lyrical.

"Stories are like spiders, with all the long legs, and stories are like spiderwebs, which man gets himself all tangled up in but which look so pretty when you see them under a leaf in the morning dew, and in the elegant way that they connect to one another: each to each." Pg 39

The narration of the story is interesting. The book is told in third person, but occasionally the narrator will turn and talk to the reader. Just an aside or two, and then back to the story. It's a wonderful technique, which just adds to the mythological aspects of the book. There isn't a clunky word in this book anywhere.

Gaiman also gives us a variety of interesting characters, whose stories intertwine gracefully, though a couple of the coincidences grate just a little. This isn't as annoying as it could have been, perhaps because of the mythological nature of the book which seems to require these sorts of things. Fat Charlie ends up meeting Daisy, a financial cop who just happens to be called in on a case involving him? Whatever the case, these were only minor annoyances, and were lessened by the type of story Gaiman is telling.

Fat Charlie and Spider make an interesting pair, and while their secret did surprise me, it fits wonderfully in hindsight, given the personality that we see in Fat Charlie. He's not a go-getter, reluctant to put himself out in the middle where he might get hurt. He's a great singer, but he gets complete stage-fright when he's supposed to do it in front of people. He seems to have settled for Rosie and he doesn't have a lot of drive. Spider, meanwhile, is almost the exact opposite, living everything in the moment and moving on when he feels like it.

Another good character is Grahame Coats, Fat Charlie's evil boss, who moves from scam to scam whenever things start to get a little hot for him. He always has a contingency plan, but this time, things seem to be going very wrong, and he starts acting crazier and crazier. One thing I didn't like about Coats is how unclear it was how much of Coats personality comes from another source, or whether it's just at the end where this happens. Ambiguity can be good, and I'm sure that's what Gaiman was aiming for, but I think it was a little too ambiguous where Coats was concerned.

The main female characters, Daisy and Rosie, aren't as strong as I might have liked, but they do have wonderful moments within the narrative. Where the relationships between these four characters end up is a bit obvious, but I enjoyed watching how they got there. Daisy is an impulsive cop who is willing to walk away from her job to get the bad guy and Rosie, while she seems fairly weak at the beginning of the book, shows an inner fire later that belies that image of her. The old women are background characters (both Rosie's mom and the old women who help Fat Charlie), but are all entertaining in their own way.

The plot of the book is very straightforward, despite its supernatural origin. There aren't any inexplicable flights of fancy in Anansi Boys; instead, every trip to another reality is grounded solidly in the story. I enjoyed the mythology that Gaiman uses, and I loved how the revenge motif traveled throughout the old gods for what Anansi did to them for all those years. And I found the relationship between the two brothers fascinating.

All in all, Anansi Boys is yet another winner from Gaiman.

David Roy