American Gods Review – Courier Mail

Clark, Graham, “AMERICAN GODS”, Courier Mail, 18 August 2001.
AMERICAN GODS, by Neil Gaiman (Hodder, $29.95)

EX-CON Shadow has done his time, his wife’s dead, and he’s on the road with Mr Wednesday, who might well be a god or at least king of the United States and righter of society’s wrongs. Deep in the American soul there’s always a need for a Mr Wednesday and his brutal mission; or a Shadow, all muscle and little regret, for on Neil Gaiman’s unsettling odyssey, a road novel tapping the darkest dysfunctional remnants of American civilisation, Shadow watches over murder, impending Armageddon, shrill distant war and deadly roadside bars. An enforcer performing for his weekly stipend, a puppet in the hands of gods yet unmet. When you wonder about modern American madness, look no further than this.