Sasha’s Reviews > American Gods > Status Update

"'You learn anything from all this?'
Shadow shrugged.
'I don't know. Most of what I learned in the tree, I've already forgotten. I think I met some people, but I'm not certain of anything anymore.'"

Exactly how I feel about having already read this novel.

Two thirds of the way through. Yes, the narrative is meandering. This is, on a certain level, Gaiman's travel diary - and it seems that he wanted to include every interesting anecdote of his journey, which doesn't help make a streamlined story.

But I did quite enjoy the Lakeside chapters. Much more so than the first part with Wednesday and other deities.

'"So what do I want?" he asked himself.'

- The author's clearly reading my thoughts.

The fact that Shadow has no answer to that question makes sense, since he's been written as emotionally shut down throughout the book . But I wonder if this line was written when Neil was trying to discover the character's motivation for himself.

Finally, a hint of stakes. Thank you, Shadow's dead wife. Now we need to know what Shadow wants in order to make the stakes convincing.

Wednesday's "important places" monologue.
This is the only part I remember from reading this book ten years ago.