Anansi Boys (Neil Gaiman)

I'm a big fan of Neil Gaiman. The first things I read of his were his very dark, very twisted Sandman graphic novels, which I loved. Then I went on to read all his novels (of which there aren't that many, alas). I have his signature on a frame on my desk at home. A friend got it for me, with a little inscription - "Dream dangerously" - and my name. So, all in all, it was very unlikely that I was not going to love this book.

Anansi Boys is the story of Fat Charlie Nancy, who learns, after attending his estranged father's funeral, that his father was Anansi, an African trickster god, and that he has a brother, Spider, who inherited their father's god-like attributes. Fat Charlie gets in touch with Spider, and then tries to get rid of him, both actions having fairly disasterous results. I'd classify it more as magic-realism or urban fantasy than straight-out fantasy, which you'll realise if you've read Gaiman, but my short synopsis gives it a bit of a fantasy feel. Read Amazon reviews for a more detailed description of the plot. I'm not good at that.

It's a novel beautifully thick with detail and rich characterisation - Spider was such an endearingly terrible character, I named a pot plant after him. I love the way Gaiman plays around with myths, and he does it well here - I particularly enjoyed seeing him use stories that I wasn't familiar with.

Gaiman gets into the guts of life and of stories, and he's funny all at the same time. He's one of the few authors that can take me from laughing out loud to feeling horribly depressed in a few pages. Brilliant.