Anansi Boys (2005)

I know I just recently put up a new Sandman review and did another Good Omens post, but here’s another Neil Gaiman-related write-up. I got this book as a Christmas gift and really enjoyed it (spoilers.)

When “Fat” Charlie Nancy’s father dies and he flies from London to his childhood Florida home for the funeral, he gets a lot more than he bargained for. His old neighbor reveals that 1) Fat Charlie’s father was actually Anansi, the spider trickster god of legend, and 2) Fat Charlie has a brother he doesn’t know about. Although Fat Charlie is curious to meet Spider, his brother, the reunion quickly goes south, as Spider takes more after their father in both godlike- and trickster-qualities. Fat Charlie just wants his life to go back to normal, but it might take some magic to make it happen.

I’ve now consumed a few different Neil Gaiman works/adaptations in an urban fantasy vein, and each draws from different sources for its fantastical elements. While I remember Anansi from stories I read as a kid (and a Wishbone episode that of course featured Wishbone dressed up as a spider!) and I know Orlando Jones’s superb take on Gaiman’s version of the character from watching the first season of American Gods, this book uses those stories as a jumping-off point to go somewhere new. Anansi Boys does a great job of mixing magic and lore with the mundanity of everyday life, while simultaneously showing that everyday life can still have plenty of the absurd behind it. In among the spiritual journeys to the beginning of the world and Spider’s magic that ranges from subtle nudges to audacious displays of power, I like the little touches like Fat Charlie’s cliché-spouting boss or his pinched, distrusting soon-to-be mother-in-law.

Even though it’s really Fat Charlie and Spider’s story, not Anansi’s, the guys’ absent father maintains a premise throughout the book: in Fat Charlie’s memories of him, in how his legacy does or doesn’t live on through his sons, and in the interludes in the narration. Several classic Anansi stories are shared, including the Tar Baby story popularized in the U.S. as a Br’er Rabbit tale. I also really like the periodic emphasis in the book on stories themselves and the oral tradition. It digs into the idea of stories as life, as creation, of stories having power to make the world move. These passages are definitely the most beautifully written in the book and are probably among my favorites.

At times, I do think the story gets a little overstuffed. While it takes some fun twists and turns and the characters and their foibles are interestingly-written, there are places where, for me, everything spirals out a bit too far and could’ve stood to be a little tighter. Still, it uses some really neat ideas to spin a good yarn (Anansi would be proud,) and I’m glad to have read it.

Warnings

Language, sexual references, a few scenes of strong violence, some drinking/smoking, and thematic elements.