I think it's from page 350 that the book starts going somewhere. Or was it 400?
Shouldn't be a recommended read. But then Gaiman spins a good yarn and the languid pace of the book doesn't bug you as much.
You adjust to the pace of the book. Almost. You start enjoying the long(aimless?)walks by the protagonist, Shadow and you enjoy the strange tales of the Gods, which keep cropping up time and again.
And the book is littered with gems such as:
"Still, there was a tale he had read once, long ago, as a small boy: the story of a traveler who had slipped down a cliff, with man-eating tigers above him and a lethal fall below him, who managed to stop his fall halfway down the side of the cliff, holding on for dear life.
There was a clump of strawberries beside him, and certain death above him and below.
What should he do? went the question.
And the reply was, Eat the strawberries.
The story had never made any sense to him as a boy.
It did now. So he closed his eyes, threw himself into the kiss and experienced nothing but Sam’s lips and the softness of her skin against his, sweet as a wild strawberry."
Made sense to me. 'Eat the strawberries'. My personal (dys)functional philosophy.
And:
"A voice from behind him, in the shadows, said, very quietly, ‘You have never disappointed me.’
Shadow did not turn. ‘That’s weird,’ he said. ‘I disappointed myself all the way. Every time.’"
All said and done the storyline itself is nothing much. And that can be counted as a negative. Hence the three stars.
