count no man happy until he is dead

[metonomia]

Just finished reading American Gods. I....am not sure what I think?  It will require a rereading.  Gorgeous, freaky stuff.  I love it, of course - all the tripping across lines of pantheon and culture and dreams and life is fabulous.  But somehow I'm left just feeling blank at the end of it.  I figured out about 100 or so pages ago that Wednesday and Loki were pulling a double cross, so while the conclusion was still wonderful, I wonder if I was supposed to be more surprised by it than I was?  Only, the violin trick was so obviously going to come back into the story that I started looking for it, and then once Low Key became Loki...

So I don't really know.  I loved reading it, and I'll love rereading it, and I'll love discussing it, but I'm somehow not as blown away by it as I expected.  I didn't even find myself as shocked by it as I expected to be.  I guess I already knew about the whole Bilquis thing, so that wasn't a shock, and, hmm...the Laura thing was rather disturbing and thought provoking, but it was such a continuous, developed thing that I wasn't really bothered by it.  Honestly, I think I was most shaken by the yearly sacrifice of children than any of the rest of it - and I think that's because that was the most realistic part.  Of course it was ultimately revealed to be connected to the old divinity, but it was kids. Being taken. Which I've been thinking about anyway because of the recent conclusion to the highly publicized trial in my area for the woman who kidnapped, sexually assaulted, killed, and stuffed a little girl into a suitcase.  This shit actually happens, and so the salesman could be having sex with the jinn and Bast could be pulling Shadow's heart out etc, but that stuff just didn't bother me half as much as the little girl who would have grown up to be beautiful but who instead got frozen in a car trunk all winter.

All in all, an amazing book.  I kind of can't wait to read it again, even though I have a whole pile of other stuff to read.  And, Herodotus. <333
In other news, my parents spent a good portion of this evening talking at me about how I'm lazy and need to exercise, else I'll get diabetes. So, I guess I need to figure that out. Bleh.

Comments

[ilysia-039.livejournal.com]

That's one of the really uncomfortable things about Neil Gaiman- and I don't even mean all of the things that should be uncomfortable in what he writes. It's not the crazy, twisted other stuff that gets to me. It's the way he takes some truth, like you said about that crazy shit actually happening, and weaves it in.

So I know what you mean about the girl who would have grown up to be beautiful, and the crazy, kind old man who is a wonderful gentleman, except for the fact that he sacrifices a child every year. (Which is what made The Lovely Bones so difficult for me to watch.)

[be-themoon.livejournal.com]

yeah, it's a bit of an odd ball book. not one of my favorites, and I'm not even sure if I could put a finger on what I disliked about it. then again, the writing's quality was great and some parts of it were incredible. It's definitely something to try at least once, I guess. :P

as for exercise, you should try to get some in - it's good for you physically and mentally. maybe there's a way for you to go swimming often? I think it's supposed to be 20 minutes of exercise every day unless you want to start getting hurt. Sorry your parents kept bugging you about it, though. :(

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

In other news, my parents spent a good portion of this evening talking at me about how I'm lazy and need to exercise, else I'll get diabetes. So, I guess I need to figure that out. Bleh.
We are evil that way. I paid my son to wash the car and we were at a water park for 11 hours on Saturday, so heh, some allowances, I suppsoe. In my experience the nagging, criticism thing doesn't work so well on children or spouses. Or riding the bike to the Dairy Queen for a Blizzard.. just sayin.

And in that vein, I find that anything with dead children is nearly impossible to manage, whether RL or fiction. I just cannot do it. Hang in there! You've only been home, what, a week? It seems some unwind time is called for?

[animus-wyrmis.livejournal.com]

Lol, my parents have been offering to pay me for exercising. Which is actually all sorts of problems, but whatever.

Is there something you can do on a regular basis? Walk somewhere, go for a swim...?

American Gods isn't really one of my favorites of his, tbh. I don't really remember why--it's been a while--but I wasn't totally blown away.