American Gods - Neil Gaiman

Yes, I like it so much I got three.
 
We’re back out on the highways of the USA looking for freedom and redemption.
 
Liking a variety of fiction is as natural as liking different kinds of people. One close to my heart is that subtly exciting world that’s as real as the street that you live on, the difference being that the magical can slip through the interstices and you might just meet a local god in the laundrette. In other words: a more interesting world and a consciousness enriched by archetypes from the equally real, yet hidden unconscious.
 
American Gods does this wonderfully well. Neil Gaiman, Shadow and Mr Wednesday take us on a joyride through the squalid landscapes of the American soul. A place where old gods can take a foothold and, yes: that means trouble. I was so taken with the possibilities that I gave Odin another outing in my John Eyre. Neil’s agent assured me that the Norse god was in the public domain and that it was just fine.
 
I really hoped to enjoy the TV adaptation of American Gods, but it was just trashy. Gaiman’s world is best left to come alive in each reader’s imagination.
 
I’m told that such fiction, which I took to myself in Hoodwink and John Eyre, has a sub-genre all to itself: “urban fantasy.” Well, why not? Way I see it, if you get the broad intent behind genres, it's simply a question of making them work for you.