Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

Anansi the Spider was one of the Old Gods, an African Legend, the creator of all stories. He’s a trickster, so anyone trying to tell a story about Anansi, even Anansi himself, will probably have trouble keeping track of everything. Anansi Boys is a story that is so simultaneously simple, complex, and winding, funny, sad, scary, and exciting, that even the author, when asked to describe his story, calls it "a magical-horror-thriller-ghost-romantic-comedy-family-epic". And he still isn’t quite hitting the mark with that description.

Anansi Boys is first and foremost an immensely enjoyable book. It is a story of fathers and sons, of loss, of courage, and love. The God Anansi the Spider (Mr. Nancy to us mere mortals) dies within the first three pages of the book under less-than-godly circumstances. His son (who is blissfully unaware of Anansi’s Deity) returns to Florida to bury his father. Charlie Nancy is a bit of a slouch. He’s engaged to be married, but only because it seems like the right thing to do. He has a job where he doesn’t have to work too hard; in short, Charlie Nancy is just getting by. Charlie is known to all as “Fat Charlie” because that’s the name his Dad called him, and since Anansi named all creatures, Fat Charlie is the name that sticks in everyone’s mind. This isn’t the first humiliation that Mr. Nancy saddled his son with, and certainly not the last (the President’s Day fiasco comes to mind). To put it bluntly, Fat Charlie has father issues. After the funeral (and Fat Charlie’s memorable speech), Fat Charlie learns a startling new fact: he has a brother. He’s told that if he wants to meet his brother, all he has to do is whisper to a spider. One night, in a drunken stupor, Fat Charlie does just that, and the next day, Spider is on the doorstep to greet Fat Charlie.

Spider, a carbon copy of Fat Charlie who got all of the cool in the family, is in touch with his divine roots. Spider is always on the lookout for a good time, and thus, Fat Charlie’s life begins to take a strange turn. Good things happen, bad things happen, but most importantly things happen. Spider shows Fat Charlie how to loosen up. Spider steals Fat Charlie’s fiancée. Spider takes some liberties with Fat Charlie’s life, blackmailing his boss, altering his apartment, and generally making a nuisance of himself. Now, all Fat Charlie wants is to get Spider out of his life. Unfortunately, the only way to do this is through magical intervention. Each new solution seems to burden Fat Charlie with more problems, ultimately bringing him closer to the awareness of who he really is and what he’s capable of.

Anansi Boys is a book that defies convention and defies description (unless you resort to clichés, in which case it’s a crackling, rollercoaster ride of thrills from start to finish). Neil Gaiman is a master storyteller who is only beginning to hit his stride. To the uninitiated: Get on board now and try to keep up.