Anansi Boys

I'm pretty familiar with Neil Gaiman. I've read most of his novels, several of his short story collections, a lot of his comics, and I follow his blog. So I guess I could be considered to be a fan. Though I've always seen it as a sort of casual deal, I wouldn't consider myself a super-fan or anything. But there's something about Gaiman that attracts that sort of loyalty from readers. He permeates through so many different media that most people have seen something or at least know of something in which he had a hand, even if they aren't aware of it. So who better to write a novel about a little known spider god in Africa?

And so we come to Anansi Boys. Technically considered to be a sequel to the considerably more dense American Gods, Anansi Boys is a romp with the sons of a trickster god. But the especially fun bit is, the presumed race of everyone in the novel is African. Now, I am white, as my last name would likely clue you in to knowing, so I never really noticed as a child how in every novel I read the only characters whose skin was actually described were those of other ethnicities. The assumed race in nearly every fantasy novel is caucasian. So Gaiman's friend, Paterson Joseph, who is black, was talking to him about this one day, and Gaiman thought that perhaps he should change that up a bit. Cut to several years later and Anansi Boys is released. And the best bit is that he doesn't make any sort of a big deal about it, that's just how the story is written. I didn't even think about it the first time I read it, I only noticed it when I was listening to the NPR interview and Gaiman mentioned it outright. He wrote the concept so well that it passed completely under my radar of consciousness.

And implanting concepts like that under the radar of conscious thought is a thing at which Gaiman is particularly good. The best qualities of his work aren't necessarily to plots, but the characters and the morals he sneaks in under your nose.