With
the fantasy novel The Anansi Boys, British
writer Neil Gaiman again summons up mythological figures from
diverse cultures and periods, as he did in the hugely successful American Gods
(2001). “Fat Charlie” Nancy is a bourgeois guy
living a boring life in London until he attends his American
father’s funeral. There he learns that his father was the
trickster god Anansi and that he has a brother who inherited some of
their father’s magical powers.
Charlie also learns how to summon his brother — which he does
back in London and soon regrets, for “Spider” is
not only the confident, well-liked hunk Charlie would like to be but
also a one-man wrecking crew. Spider takes over Charlie’s guest
room, puts moves on Charlie’s fiancee, and gets Charlie
fired from his job and in trouble with the law.
Charlie asks for the help of witches to make Spider go away, but things
go awry, leading the brothers into adventures that are both scary and
amusing. Charlie learns that Anansi genes have given him some powers,
too.
The
Anansi Boys is a crime novel
as well as a fantasy, and the real bad guy isn’t Spider but
Charlie’s boss, who gets his comeuppance. Most of all
it’s a touching buddy story. Charlie learns that the differences
between him and Spider needn’t be
barriers. It might be said, in fact, that he and Spider are two sides
of the same coin.
Entertaining,
funny, and heartwarming, The
Anansi Boys won the 2006 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult
Literature
and British and Locus Fantasy Awards for Best Novel.
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