Neil Gaiman’s new book is out. It is set in the same universe as American Gods, in which the American ‘melting pot’ is also the melting pot for all the deprecated deities of our immigrant ancestors, living in exile and ‘retirement’ among us. Reading the blurbs about Anansi Boys, I am prepared to be disappointed and it will not leap to the head of the queue of books waiting to be read here, unlike what happens with the release of the latest book by many of my favorite authors. But then again, I was prepared to be disappointed by American Gods and didn’t buy it for a long time after its release, yet I ended up finding it an engrossing read some of whose images and conceits have stuck with me since. I am a follower of the trickster mythos (and related themes like the holy fool); perhaps Anansi Boys will please after all. Alas, I worry that Gaiman peaked with Neverwhere.