14 days ago I shared with you that I decided to start a year long reading challenge, today I am here to tell you about book 2 of 26.
My first book, Selling Water by the River by Shane Hipps, was a non-fiction book dealing with Jesus, religion, and the church. I liked it a lot. For awhile I was tempted to once again choose a non-fiction book, more than likely dealing with Jesus, religion, and the church, but instead I decided to do a 180 of sorts. I say of sorts because instead of non-fiction I decided to read a novel, and while it doesn't deal with Jesus, except in the after story extras, and doesn't speak to the church, at least not directly, it has a lot to do with religion and gods and how we believe and what we believe in and why it matters.
So I chose a novel, but I did not pick a short one (it clocked in at around 500 pages) nor did I chose a light one (it is a novel with discussion questions for crying out loud). Below you will find the particulars of the challenge I have taken on and this book could have filled the requirements for 6,16,18,and 25, but I have decided to use it for #4 A book your friend loves [shout out to my former RCA buddy and current reading challenge buddy Jessy Rocco].
So, what did I read? American Gods by Neil Gaiman.
[if you are merely interested in my basic review of the book skip down to the end,
or continue for a little deeper look at my thoughts]
For lack of a better way of going about this particular look at American Gods I will be roughly using the discussion questions included in my copy [10th anniversary edition, bought digitally on the Amazon Kindle Fire].
1) American Gods is an epic novel dealing with many big themes, including sacrifice, loyalty, betrayal, love and faith. Which theme affected you the most strongly, and why?
As a pastor my first thought would be faith, but each one made the ride more enjoyable as well as intellectual. One of the things I liked most about the book was that I could finish reading for the day and would still ponder various aspects of the story. Shadow, the main character, goes on a journey through life and death and back again encountering gods, both of myth and of reality. Through his journey we see the way our beliefs create that which we believe in, imbue them with power or steal it away. It reminds me of the story in Mark 6 where Jesus is unable to perform miracles in his hometown because of the lack of belief. In some way, what Gaiman writes about, is Biblical, in some way our belief, or lack there of is intrinsically tied to what God can accomplish in our midst.
2) Shadow begins the novel as a convict, and ends it a different man. How does the novel exploit the idea of America as a place where immigrants and exiles, both physical and emotional, can reinvent themselves? What makes Shadow himself so compelling and complex.?
I am going to skip the part about Shadow in particular partly because I don't want to ruin anything for those of you who have not read this book. What is of greater importance to me is the idea of reinvention. I believe that in some ways America is the ideal place for reinvention because America has reinvented itself time and again. When we began we were the wayward children of England, then we were the rebellious children of England, and then we were our own people. We were fractured and came back together in relative peace. We were people of promise and then people of fear. We welcomed the stranger and then kicked him out. We were all things to all people yet often lacked any sort of real identity. Gaiman was/is somewhat of an outsider, born and raised in the UK, yet to some degree understands America's potential and pitfalls better than most of us do.
I'm skipping question 3 because it focuses on an aspect of the book that is a lot more important to the book than you realize until much later.
4) The old gods expect sacrifice, violence, and worship. How have they adapted to the modern world? How and why have Americans transferred their devotion to the new technological and material gods for the old spiritual gods? What comment is being made about modern cultural values?
I don't feel that it is giving much away to say that the book's main thrust is the struggle that the old gods of the spiritual realm have with the new gods of technology and modernity. In reality it is all a popularity contest to some degree, who do we believe in the most. This is a very real struggle for the church today, convincing the people in the pews that it makes more sense to believe in Jesus than it does to believe in Apple, or more appropriately the newest generation of the iPhone, or the internet, or money. I had a conversation the other day with a friend about the ever growing use of the internet. My friend's hope was that with the growing access to information people will become more informed and less entrenched in their ideologies. I told him how I doubt that would be the case because while it is now much easier to access information in our world it is equally easier to access and disseminate misinformation. In the end it still comes down to a matter of what you want to, or don't want to believe in.
The book contains 6 questions in total but I am going to skip 5 and 6 partly because of the length of this post and partly because they don't interest me near as much as the ones I have already answered.
At base how I feel about the book:
American Gods was a complex novel, jumping between its "modern day" setting and various other times when people of various backgrounds first came to American shores, bringing their beliefs and gods with them. Ultimately it is a book about belief, incorporating fantastical elements, a little bit of sci-fi, a little bit of horror, a little bit detective story, a little bit travelogue, and its fair share of non-kid appropriate content. I enjoyed the journey and would recommend it to those who find such aspects interesting.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
p.s. Next Book Up: It's God's Church: the Life and Legacy of Daniel Sidney Warner by Barry L. Callen
p.s.s. the reading challenge list
1. a book you own but haven't read
2. a book that was made into a movie
3. a book you pick solely because of the cover
4. a book your friend loves
5. a book published this year
6. a book by an author you've never read
7. a book by an author you love
8. a book at the bottom of your 'to be read' pile
9. a book with a color in its title
10. a book set somewhere you've always anted to visit
11. a book you started but never finished
12. a book with a lion, a witch, or a wardrobe
13. a book with a female heroine
14. a book set in summer
15. a book of poems
16. a book you learned about because of this challenge
17. a book that will make you smarter
18. a book with a blue cover
19. a book you were supposed to read in school, but didn't
20. a book 'everyone' but you have read
21. a book with a great first line
22. a book with pictures
23. a book from the library
24. a book you loved...read it again
25. a book that is more than 10 years old
26. a book based on a true story
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