Discussion of The Anansi Boys

We met on the 27th of August to discuss The Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. In attendance were: Darryl and Barbara Jack and (Virtual) Shelia Alice Mary and Dave There was some discussion of suspension of disbelieve required to accept the range of odd things that happen in the book. We also talked about the relationship between Fat Charlie and his fiance, compared to the characters at the beginning of Neverworld, where a similar relationship dynamic appears to be going on between the main character and his fiance. There was no consensus on whether Spider and Charlie were "brothers", were actually the same person, or in exactly what way they were related to one another. A point was made about the uni-dimensionality of many of the characters, and what that does to the story. There was some discussion of what race folks assumed Fat Charlie and other characters in the novel were. Gaiman is not explicit about the race of the characters. Some of our readers assumed they were white, while others assumed they were black, with various points made on either side of the discussion. Our next selection, Master and Margarita, fails on one key point of the bookclub: it is not available on Kindle. The group chose to keep the selection as most of us already had in hand, or on order, print copies of it anyway. Some who read mostly on Kindle agreed they would simply order the print book from amazon or pick it up in a used book store.' We will meet on the 24th of September to discuss The Master and Margarita Several members who moved out of town this year have indicated interest in still participating in the club, perhaps via Skype or teleconference. I'm working on a solution that will allow those who cant be physically present, to still be able to participate, so more on that shortly. Our choice for October is The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. Mary suggests a movie night following this read, to watch the movie.

The Anansi Boys

Hello Readers,

Hopefully everyone is finding this selection entertaining.

Our meeting is set for Thursday, 27 August, at 7PM.

From those who have finished the work, I hear positive things.  Looking forward to the discussion.

For discussion, this list of questions may be useful to consider.