PositiveJanuary MagazineOne of the things Gaiman does in American Gods – and it is a book which does many things and does them well – is fantasticate the Midwest … America, in other words, is not just a melting pot of races: it is a melting pot of gods. While working for Odin, Shadow meets, among others, a leprechaun named Mad Sweeney, an Eastern European god called Czernobog and Egyptian deities like Bast and Horus. But the power of these old gods is waning … Gaiman includes a number of short tangential tales within the framework of his main narrative. And, as in The Sandman, these tales are not mere filler: they support and elaborate the themes of the novel and are exemplary models of concise storytelling.
