Anansi Boys
by Neil Gaiman

Reviewed by Byron Merritt

With a serious tip of the hat to the Trickster God, Neil Gaiman taps into mythology once again with his excellent take on African lore in Anansi Boys.

For those who read and enjoyed the Hugo Award winning American Gods (also by Gaiman), you’ll no doubt love the themes covered here.

Fat Charlie is the son of Mr. Charles Nancy, a true embarrassment to his only son. He hardly works, runs around singing lame songs, and mostly ignores Fat Charlie (he also gave “Fat” Charlie his embarrassing nickname). But then Fat Charlie’s father has the “big one” on a karaoke stage and passes away. Fat Charlie, who lives and works (an embarrassing job, too) in London, must fly to Florida for the funeral. It is here that he learns much more about his father than he could ever have imagined. Mr. Nancy was a God, not just a man. He was the spider God of old known as Anansi, a God who stole all the old stories from Tiger and made them his own (done, of course, through trickery). Fat Charlie doesn’t believe this at first, but as an old friend continues to discuss Charlie’s father’s Godhood, she also drops a bomb in his lap: Charlie isn’t an only child. He has a brother named (strangely enough) Spider. She tells Fat Charlie that all he has to do to meet him is to talk to a spider and ask him to send Spider to him. And one stuporously drunk night, Charlie does just that. And much to his surprise, guess who shows up on his doorstep the next day?

As we work through Anansi Boys, we get to see all of the old African Gods come to life (from the Monkey God to ones that have gone extinct). We also get to see an awakening of Fat Charlie’s spirit with the help of Spider and a few unusual plot twists. Most of these are hilarious takes on sibling rivalry and learning about your own inner God.

Fat Charlie winds his way through this world and the next, meeting up with all manner of strange beings and gaining a bit more understanding of who his father truly was and how “tricky” he could really be.

From Gods to ghosts, this is a riotously fun book to read. And something all Neil Gaiman fans will be happy to have in their collection.

Read an interview with Neil Gaiman.