Anansi Boys

Fat Charlie Nancy hasn't seen his dad in years, and that's just how he likes it. It was his dad who named him 'Fat' Charlie, a nickname that has never gone away. When his fiancee insists on a family reunion for the wedding, however, he learns that his father is dead, that he has a brother, and that his father was Anansi, the Spider God. Soon, his brother Spider is in his life and living it better than he ever has, and Fat Charlie discovers what lengths he will - and will not - go to to get shot of embarrassing family.

A sort-of-not-a sequel to the vast epic of American Gods, and possibly taking place in the same fictional universe (or not) Anansi Boys is a lighter and more intimate affair, focusing on the West African trickster Anansi; or more accurately, on his two sons, Charles and Spider. It begins as an Anglo-American comedy of manners, before evolving into a white collar crime thriller, then a manhunt, and finally a cosmic struggle for the lives of the brothers and, in all probability, the soul and essential narrative of all humanity. The fact that this progression isn't utterly ludicrous should be praise enough.

Where Gods focused on the interface between Americana, technology and religion, the mythology of Anansi Boys is more straightforward. Anansi is a god, as are his sons, and all in all they just are what they are, even at the start of the book when Fat Charlie solely embodies the aspect of Anansi who suffers the karmic backlash of his many tricks. Whereas American Gods is about what humanity does for its gods, Anansi Boys is very much about what gods do for humanity, and what humans can do for each other, as the non-divine characters are far from unimportant.

The audiobook is read by Lenny Henry, which is both a good thing - because he is very good - and perhaps a bad, since he already defines Afro-Caribbean culture for so many Britons. Regardless of the socio-cultural ramifications, the reading is excellent, with clear voices for all of the characters, from the nasal and obsequious Graham Coats to the George Sanders purr of his murderous counterpart Tiger.