Week Eight: Anansi Boys

"In the beginning, after all, were the words, and they came with a tune. That was how the world was made, how the void was divided, how the lands and the stars and the dreams and the little gods and the animals, how all of them came into the world.
They were sung.
The great beasts were sung into existence, after the Singer had done with the planets and the hills and the trees and the oceans and the lesser beasts. The cliffs that bound existence were sung, and the hunting grounds, and the dark."

Anansi Boys was a very interesting read that had a twist I did not see coming.

Right from the beginning, the story gives the idea to have some sort of mythology happening, describing the creation of the world as a song sung by a Singer, bringing life to the universe, gods and beasts.

It is interesting to note how Gaiman takes the concept of a pre-existing myth and gives his own interpretation to the story. The novel introduces us to Fat Charlie and his adventure into discovering the truth of his family drama, in specific his father, who he discover is the trickster god Anansi.

In the story, Gaiman makes use of music and storytelling as one of the most prominent magical elements, giving an interesting interpretation to the original myth of this — now dead — trickster god and his under-confident son.

With that said, Gaiman also presents us with quite a conflict of personalities, having our protagonist, Fat Charlie, being the complete opposite of what we would expect the son of a god to be by making him so boring and mundane. Charlie is the complete opposite of the way his father is portrayed throughout the story, a contrast that helps us visualize the changes as his arc progresses, as well as understanding his fears and anxieties better. In fact, although our character is past his teenage years when we meet him, the story itself gives a similar feeling of coming-of-age, with Charlie being forced to learn about himself, his past, his priorities and the inheritance left from his father, while meeting various people (and beasts) along the way, some kinder than others.

While Charlie's ordinary plane of existence starts to shift alongside his entire life in quite a crazy ride, Gaiman seems to be having a lot of fun implementing myth into situations that we, in our reality, might relate to. In fact, Gaiman truly felt like quite the cook with this work. He took the pre-existing ingredients from a West African folklore, added his own home-made sauce to it, but still tried to make it appetizing to a large variety of people by tying it down to something they relate to, inviting them to try it, and eventually guiding them into something much deeper than they might have expected.

Throughout the work, we are met with various contemporary and mundane situations with just a hint of extraordinary in them, and others that are not quite so small. It goes from simple conflicts such as a teenager being embarrassed of their extroverted parents, to the deep roots of emotional catharsis, acceptance, forgiveness and the understanding of your own feelings.

It is interesting to note, also, how we only learn about Anansi through the narrations and tales told of him by other characters, and never by a description from Gaiman in the book himself. We, alongside Fat Charlie, are met with a dead god in the beginning of the novel, who never gets to introduce himself to us (and his own son) properly, and it is only through the tales told from generation to generation, character to character and ear to ear that we get to discover a little bit more about him. By using such tactics, Gaiman not only created a fun mix of myth into the contemporary, but also manage to enhance the importance of communication, storytelling and the legacies they carry, and specially acceptance. Although Charlie may never completely forgive his father, he slowly appears to come to terms with his feelings, understanding how certain events shaped him into the person that he is, and allowing himself to feel in order to grow and maintain his own sanity.