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Family
Ties ANANSI BOYS, fiction by Neil Gaiman. William Morrow, 2005. Hardcover, $26.95. It was a bad week for books. A week of literary Goldilocksing: This one trying too hard, that one too boring, another one clunky as all get out. Until along came Neil Gaiman — like the slipper that fits, the porridge that doesn't burn the tongue, and the bed with no pea under the mattress — with Anansi Boys, a sequel of sorts to his bestselling American Gods and a funny, sharp, heartfelt and wonderful tale about how you just can't escape your family (and you probably shouldn't try). Even if you suddenly find out that your family is not what you thought it was. Not at all what you thought it was.
Charles Nancy grew up embarrassed by his eccentric, talespinning father, whose nickname for the boy — Fat Charlie — has stuck with him much longer than his baby fat. Brought to London by his mother, Fat Charlie is happy to be across an ocean from his father, living what seems like a normal life — until the elder Nancy topples off a karaoke stage in Florida, victim of a massive heart attack. As if that wasn't surprise enough, the old women Fat Charlie knew growing up have a few other things to tell him: "You got to remember, Fat Charlie," says old Mrs. Higgler, "that your father was a god." And so he was: Anansi the Spider, trickster and keeper of the stories he took from Tiger, way back in the day. Gaiman, who covered a lot of mythological ground in his Sandman comic series as well as in American Gods, tucks a few of Anansi's tall tales into the book, but the sense and spirit of them infuses the whole story. Not only was his father a god, Fat Charlie learns, but Charlie's got a brother, Spider, who "got all that god stuff." Spider, who turns up on Fat Charlie's doorstep after Charlie takes Mrs. Higgler's advice and asks a spider to find him, is everything Charlie is not. He's suave, charming, magical and guiltless, and he takes over Fat Charlie's life with ease. In desperation, Charlie turns to the other old animal gods in search of help. "I just want him to go away," he says, but, unsurprisingly, nothing is quite that simple. Anansi Boys is a deliciously exquisite piece of comedic, fantastical writing, the result of the precise combination of three of Gaiman's usual strengths. He weaves together the story's threads with grace, drawing several strands tighter and tighter until the characters meet smack in the middle; he describes people and moments with such wit and accuracy that you know exactly what he means, and you laugh, or cringe, appropriately; and he takes such apparent joy in his long, winding, lovely sentences that the book fairly reads itself. All you have to do is run your eyes along the page and absorb. As Fat Charlie comes to terms with the part of him that's like Spider, and Spider realizes his own fallibility and heart, there are moments of insight, moments of wit, and moments where an unsuspecting reader might find herself welling up just a little bit, as Anansi's sons figure out just what it means to be Anansi's boys. Be warned, though. You may absorb something unexpected from Anansi Boys: Don't be surprised if you find yourself feeling, whatever your prior judgment, a little warmer toward spiders.
BOOK NOTES: Weapon of Choice: Voice! poetry open mic, 7 pm 12/15, Morning Glory Café … Senator Barbara Boxer reads from A Time to Run, 7 pm 12/15, Powell's on Burnside, Portland … Gert Boyle reads from One Tough Mother, 10 am 12/18, Powell's at the Portland Airport … "Zines 101," a winter break workshop for teens on making your own self-published magazine, 2 pm 12/28 and 2 pm 12/29, Eugene Public Library. Register at 682-8316.
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