zilver

2.5 just don???t think i really vibed with this

???What I say is, a town isn???t a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it???s got a bookstore, it knows it???s not foolin??? a soul.???

key words: funeral homes, twin peaks-esque small towns & the humour of ancient gods

I really enjoy mythology in general (that's what six years of classics study will do to you, I guess) and this book was such a cool way of... handling that? I suppose?

The book is called American Gods but none of the Gods are really American (or they are, or become that at the very least at some point). They're brought to life by the people that believe in them, and in the 21st century many of the “smaller” ones seem to be dying, slowly. Which means war (obviously. Gods always mean war). Anway, enter Shadow, who just got released from prison to find out his wife died (until she didn't) and he doesn't have a job anymore (until he does). Shadow gets to join us in our exploration of a wide range of gods from all over, now settled in America, as he finds himself in the midst of their war for no reason known to him.

I like Neil Gaiman. I like his sense of humour, and though this wasn't my favourite book of his, I really enjoyed it. It was sort of educational in a not too obtrusive way and carefully crafted which is exactly the way I appreciate my stories. Couldn't always relate too much to the characters but that was alright. They were a relatively easy 750 pages to go through anyway.

the original enemies-to-friends-to-lovers

???Tell me how all this, and love too, will ruin us. These, our bodies, possessed by light. Tell me we'll never get used to it.???

i know this book took me a long time for how few pages it has but that was mainly because was cherishing every line and i didn't want to rush any moment of it.

i'd read short bits of richard siken before but honestly this was such an experience. this book tells a story and i'll probably read it again all in one sitting to feel what that's like. but this, this is the kind of poetry that really gets to me. siken's poetry tells me a story and it hits me with its metaphors and sensations in every line. i'm not sure how weird this is to say but his poetry is very sensory? i can feel and taste and smell it while reading it, every poem like a small (or large) multidimensional film experience. it makes me want to try to catch it in images even though i know i won't be able to.

i'm sure i did not understand parts of this and i'm sure i can go back a hundred times and find new things and change my interpretations and just knowing that that's what's ahead? amazing.

some of my favourite lines (emphasis on some because i can't possibly name all of them):
??? ???I want more seats reserved for heroes.?????? ???The light is no mystery, the mystery is that there is something to keep the light from passing through.?????? ???In these dreams it's always you: the boy in the sweatshirt, the boy on the bridge, the boy who always keeps me from jumping off the bridge. Oh, the things we invent when we are scared and want to be rescued.?????? ???Here is my hand, my heart, my throat, my wrist. Here are the illuminated cities at the center of me, and here is the center of me, which is a lake, which is a well that we can drink from, but I can't go through with it. I just don't want to die anymore.???

3.5!