(no subject)

[learnedax]

Finished Anansi Boys this morning. Fun book. Its sort-of-a-sequel relationship with American Gods is underscored by a large amount of structural parallelism between the two. Interestingly, though it 's not so noticable in either book alone, the two together have some notable similarities with the two Drik Gently books. Of course, some of that is inherent in a modern comedy novel involving gods, but I think the shared elements are deeper than that.

I thought the core points of the book were laid out quite early on, but the telling of the story is the important part, and that is very well done.

Comments

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

Please, speak on about the parallel with Dirk Gently? I'm afraid I don't see it quite so much. (Slightly more possible with Anansi Boys as it does have more of a comedic structure.)

I'd love to know what you mean.

[new-man.livejournal.com]

It's been a long time since I've read Dirk Gently, but I do remember it being about a missing god -- as is Anansi Boys.

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

True. But he said the parallels went deeper than that. (Is the Electric Monk really a God?)

[new-man.livejournal.com]

I may be mixing up Dirk Gently with something else. In one of the books doesn't someone hire him to find God?

[learnedax.livejournal.com]

Well, not immensely deep. Deeper than "these are both comedies about gods", but not "these have the same plot" or even "these both express the same things."

[learnedax.livejournal.com]

Well, there are some immediate American Gods <-> Long Dark Teatime parallels, in the form of Wednesday's character and the twilight of the norse gods aspect, with some more subtle elements like the emergence of a new god at the end. The stepping sideways into the world of the gods happens in both Gaiman books, and each has a wandering dead character not unlike the one in the first Adams book. The dynamic between Spider and Fat Charlie is also similar, from my perspective, to the dynamic between Dirk (who can talk his way into and out of any situation) and Richard. The ancient spirit plotting his vengeance motif is also a common thread.

I'm not saying the one is drawn from the other, but they have a lot of similar elements kicking around, and I think the narrative style in Anansi Boys (both the way the comedy is presented and the way the threads are woven) is reminiscent of Adams, and especially of Holistic.

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

Ah. Excellent. Thanks!