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Anansi Boys: A Novel by Neil Gaiman

William Morrow, 2005 $26.95

Neil Gaiman’s latest novel, Anansi Boys, was originally conceived as a screenplay. This may explain the derivative feel of the work: the plot is uninspired, the twists are visible from a mile away, and the appealing performances of a few characters fail to salvage what is easily his most disappointing work to date.

Anansi Boys’ shortcomings are surprising because the work is loosely related to American Gods, Gaiman’s premiere novel to date. Any similarities between the two—whether in the author’s witty prose or his skillful humanizing of the divine and fantasizing of the mundane—asphyxiate under the formulaic bulk of the text. Anansi Boys is the story of Fat Charlie Nancy, an unfortunate man who discovers that his recently deceased father, Mr. Nancy, was actually a god. He learns this only after attending the funeral, which itself occurs after Fat Charlie eulogizes Mr. Nancy at the wrong funeral service (Fat Charlie is nothing if not unfortunate). The rest of the work details the excruciating but humorous efforts of Fat Charlie to adjust to a deity father whose eccentricities and charm manage to torture his son from beyond the grave, a newfound brother who is as suave and confident as Fat Charlie is not and who steals his fiancée from him, and a bit about embezzlement, murder, ghosts, limes, karaoke, and Caribbean vacations.

Gaiman’s writing is charming as ever here, and ironically that may be the source of his failing: he’s so clever and established it’s as if the sheer strength of his reputation is expected to shoulder the dead weight of the work, as if the sound of the sizzle can mask the stringiness of the steak. If Anansi Boys was a two hour film, this may have been palatable. As novels go, it’s more Big Mac then filet mignon.