Shadow spent
three years in prison, and all he wants is to get back to his wife and stay out
of trouble for the rest of his life. But the week before he is scheduled to be released,
his wife is killed in an accident. He is
released early to attend the funeral. On
the plane ride home, he sits next to a Mr. Wednesday, who offers him a job. Shadow
accepts.It turns out that Wednesday is an old god who is roaming America rounding up other old gods, preparing for an epic battle against the "gods of credit card and freeway, of Internet and telephone, of radio and hospital and television, gods of plastic and of beeper and of neon." The old gods are trying to live peaceably in retirement, disguised as ordinary people.
Shadow agrees to help, and he travels through America, discovering all the myths Americans brought with them in their journeys to this land as well as the ones that were already here. He encounters dangerous characters, distinctly American foods and diversions, bizarre roadside attractions, and decrepit gods reduced to shell games and prostitution. "This is a bad land for Gods," says Shadow. At last Shadow must reevaluate his own deeply held beliefs in order to determine his crucial role in the final showdown.
This
is a typical Gaiman fantasy, but offers a profound perspective on the soul and
spirituality of this country-our obsessions with money and power, our jumbled
religious heritage and its societal outcomes, and the decisions we face about
what's real and what's not.
624 pages
