American Gods
Autor Neil Gaimanen Limba Engleză Hardback – 19 iun 2001
Observăm cum totul începe cu un moment de liniște înșelătoare: Shadow își ispășește ultimii trei ani de pedeapsă, numărând zilele până la reîntâlnirea cu soția sa, Laura. Însă libertatea vine cu un preț devastator sub forma unui accident de mașină care îi spulberă viitorul înainte de a începe. În acest vid existențial apare Mr. Wednesday, un străin carismatic care pare să cunoască secretele cele mai intime ale lui Shadow. Ceea ce urmează este o călătorie hipnotică prin inima Americii, unde realitatea se diluează pentru a lăsa loc unui panteon de zei uitați și creaturi mitologice care supraviețuiesc la marginea societății moderne. Atmosfera de „road novel” mistic te trimite cu gândul la American Gods: The Moment of the Storm, deși proza densă din această ediție aniversară marchează o voce proprie, mult mai introspectivă decât adaptările sale grafice. Ne-a atras atenția modul în care Neil Gaiman reușește să transforme banalul — benzinării uitate de lume, moteluri ieftine și drumuri prăfuite — în spații sacre unde se decide soarta divinului. Această lucrare reprezintă punctul culminant al preocupărilor autorului pentru mitologie, temă explorată mai târziu într-o manieră pur narativă în Norse Mythology, ediție specială. Dacă în Coraline sau The Graveyard Book fantasticul este filtrat prin perspectiva copilăriei, aici Neil Gaiman ne oferă o viziune matură, adesea violentă și profund satirică asupra modului în care credința modelează lumea. Este un periplu în care zeii vechi, aduși de imigranți în Lumea Nouă, se pregătesc de un ultim conflict cu noile obsesii ale umanității: tehnologia și media.
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Specificații
ISBN-10: 0380973650
Pagini: 480
Dimensiuni: 163 x 242 x 39 mm
Greutate: 0.66 kg
Ediția:Adnotată
Editura: Harpercollins
Locul publicării:New York, NY
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De ce să citești această carte
Recomandăm această carte cititorului care caută o explorare profundă a miturilor adaptate lumii moderne. Veți câștiga o perspectivă fascinantă asupra modului în care poveștile supraviețuiesc timpului, totul într-un ritm de roman polițist metafizic. Este ocazia ideală de a citi textul preferat al autorului, o variantă extinsă care oferă o experiență mult mai bogată decât edițiile standard.
Despre autor
Neil Gaiman este o figură centrală a literaturii postmoderniste, fiind inclus în Dictionary of Literary Biography drept unul dintre cei mai importanți zece scriitori ai genului. Născut în Anglia și stabilit în prezent în Statele Unite, Gaiman și-a început cariera ca jurnalist înainte de a deveni un creator de universuri complexe în benzi desenate, romane și scenarii. Opera sa, care include titluri legendare precum The Sandman sau Stardust, se caracterizează printr-o erudiție enciclopedică în domeniul mitologiei și o capacitate unică de a îmbina fantasticul cu realitatea cotidiană.
Descriere scurtă
Locked behind bars for three years, Shadow did his time, quietly waiting for the magic day when he could return to Eagle Point, Indiana. A man no longer scared of what tomorrow might bring, all he wanted was to be with Laura, the wife he deeply loved, and start a new life.
But just days before his release, Laura and Shadow’s best friend are killed in an accident. With his life in pieces and nothing to keep him tethered, Shadow accepts a job from a beguiling stranger he meets on the way home, an enigmatic man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. A trickster and a rogue, Wednesday seems to know more about Shadow than Shadow does himself.
Life as Wednesday’s bodyguard, driver, and errand boy is far more interesting and dangerous than Shadow ever imagined—it is a job that takes him on a dark and strange road trip and introduces him to a host of eccentric characters whose fates are mysteriously intertwined with his own.
Textul de pe ultima copertă
Shadow spent three years in prison, keeping his head down, doing his time. All he wanted was to get back to the loving arms of his wife and to stay out of trouble for the rest of his life. But days before his scheduled release, he learns that his wife has been killed in an accident, and his world becomes a colder place.
On the plane ride home to the funeral, Shadow meets a grizzled man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. A self-styled grifter and rogue, Wednesday offers Shadow a job. And Shadow, a man with nothing to lose, accepts.
But working for the enigmatic Wednesday is not without its price, and Shadow soon learns that his role in Wednesday's schemes will be far more dangerous than he ever could have imagined. Entangled in a world of secrets, he embarks on a wild road trip and encounters, among others, the murderous Czernobog, the impish Mr. Nancy, and the beautiful Easter -- all of whom seem to know more about Shadow than he himself does.
Shadow will learn that the past does not die, that everyone, including his late wife, had secrets, and that the stakes are higher than anyone could have imagined.
All around them a storm of epic proportions threatens to break. Soon Shadow and Wednesday will be swept up into a conflict as old as humanity itself. For beneath the placid surface of everyday life a war is being fought -- and the prize is the very soul of America.
As unsettling as it is exhilarating, American Gods is a dark and kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth and across an America at once eerily familiar and utterly alien. Magnificently told, this work of literary magic will haunt the reader far beyond the final page.
Recenzii
“Provocative yet fun . . . Gaiman has applied his vast breadth of knowledge about all things mythological to a truly high concept.” — Entertainment Weekly
“Gaiman returns to the fertile killing ground that nourished The Sandman: that peculiarly American crossroads where pop culture intersects with religion, violence and death.” — Village Voice Literary Supplement
“Immensely rewarding . . . . Suffused with . . . powerful imagery and deftly painted characters . . . . A finely crafted novel of weight and significance [with] poetic descriptions, sharp-eyed criticism, and first-rate storytelling. There is much to enjoy, to admire, and to ponder in this unforgettable tale.” — Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Pointed, occasionally comic, often scary, consistently moving and provocative . . . . American Gods is strewn with secrets and magical visions.” — USA Today
“Mystery, satire, sex, horror, poetic prose-American Gods uses all these to keep the reader turning the pages.” — Washington Post
“Original, engrossing, and endlessly inventive.” — George R. R. Martin
American Gods is sexy, thrilling, dark, funny and poetic." — Teller, of Penn & Teller
"American Gods is like a fast run downhill through a maze -- both exhilarating and twisted." — Jane Lindskold, author of Changer and
Descriere
After three years in prison, Shadow has done his time. But as the time until his release ticks away, he can feel a storm brewing. Two days before he gets out, his wife Laura dies in a car crash, in adulterous circumstances. Dazed, Shadow travels home, only to encounter the bizarre Mr Wednesday claiming to be a refugee from a distant war.
Notă biografică
Neil Gaiman has spent his adult life making things up and writing them down. He lives more in America than he does anywhere else. He has written books and films and children's books and television. He has a blog over at www.neilgaiman.com. He's won more than his fair share of literary awards, was voted twenty-first equal on a recent poll of Great British Authors, and has no idea where he put his keys.