Seven Lessons from “American Gods” by Neil Gaiman

Reading time: 5 minutes

The aim of this short article is to encourage the reading of this book and not to replace it.

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The book oversimplified

American Gods tells the story of Shadow, brought into the war between new and old Gods while his dead girlfriend gets him out of trouble over and over again. The book’s more about America and immigration than it is about wars and Gods.

Quotes

“Freedom to believe means the freedom to believe the wrong thing, after all. Just as freedom of speech gives you the right to stay silent.”

“[being a god] means you give up your mortal existence to become a meme: something that lives forever in people's minds, like the tune of a nursery rhyme. It means that everyone gets to recreate you in their own minds. You barely have your own identity anymore. Instead, you're a thousand aspects of what people need you to be. And everyone wants something different from you. Nothing is fixed, nothing is stable.”

“Even nothing cannot last forever.”

A review through takeaways

American Gods is a book of such richness and complexity that it’s almost impossible pinning it down to just two or three takeaways. Don’t expect a beautiful story; expect a beautiful book.

1. A world of colours

Neil Gaiman is a real master of the writing craft, which means that just by imitating his style, your prose can only get better. As an example, one little detail that is tattooed forever in my brain is his use of colours. In this book, colours are never red, or yellow, or brown; they are: “the colour of melted vanilla ice-cream,” or “raw liver,” or “iron grey.” The message here is clear: attach your writing to strong images as often as you can, even when it seems superfluous.

2. Choose proactive characters

Another important lesson I got from the book is to have a proactive character in nearly every scene. If you’re not an established writer—and your first novel is unlikely to revolutionise contemporary literature—a good rule of thumb is to make sure your protagonist is as proactive as possible. In American Gods, even if Shadow’s attitude is as passive as the one of a jellyfish (paraphrasing his dead wife’s words) there’s always a big cast of decisive characters ready to push him around driving in this way the narrative. A book where things just happen is normally not very interesting.

3. Channel the power of simple emotions

From the very first page of the first chapter—which is my favourite, by the way—Neil Gaiman gives a marvellous overview of how simple emotions are the novel’s most powerful drive. Shadow is about to get out of prison, just a few days left, and he’s terrified that something will go wrong that close to the end of his sentence. Everybody has these moments in their life: reshape them into the mould of your story to create a solid connection with your readers.

4. Make good use of shared knowledge

Use symbolism in a way that is easy to understand—unless your book is of philosophical nature or there is a reason it should be deliberately incomprehensible—and don’t be afraid to use known concepts. Mythology is so embedded in our shared culture that it can be your 24/7 grocery shop when you’re trying to suck the reader into your world. The Bible, or even classic tv shows, work just as well.

5. Satisfaction is better than surprise

I was really surprised to discover that the end of a character arc can be satisfying and predictable, if built up well. Spoiler alert. I’m obviously talking about Czernobog, the violent and merciless Slavic Black God, who, by winning a game of checkers, earns the right to crack Shadow’s skull like a goat in a slaughterhouse. Although his murderous instincts are the very nature of his deity, in the end he just pokes Shadow gently on the head. He doesn’t break the promise, nor the bet; he just shuffles Shadow’s expectations while respecting the reader’s ones.

6. Explore interludes

If your story is part of a world rich in texture and density, or, to disturb Hemingway with his famous analogy, if the underwater part of your iceberg is a lot bigger than the one you put on page, interludes like the ones tagged “coming to America” might be a fantastic idea. It’s like tasting a delicious fruit for the first time. Your interludes are the difference between picking it up in your local supermarket and having it plucked from the tree during an exotic holiday. Will it taste the same? Probably yes, your experience of it will be completely different.

7. Never skip Research day

Research always pays off. If you wanted to read about every single god appearing in the book, you would notice that nothing is improvised. The way they speak, the way they move, what they wear, what they want; everything is filtered through hours and hours of research; which makes absolutely no difference to a distracted reader, but marks the border between good and great writers. Do your research. Do your homework.

Here you go: seven lessons I’ll try to implement in my writing.

Please let me know if I missed something or if you disagree with my list.

Alla prossima

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