Peachy Reads

The traditional Gods of America (Anansi, Wisakedjak, et al) are gearing up for an epic battle against the new Gods—Media, Superhighways, Television, etc.  Shadow, recently released from prison, somehow finds himself the protégé of Wednesday, the New World incarnation of Odin.  This is sort of an adult-version of The Chronicles of Narnia or Percy Jackson & the Olympians.  Gaiman’s creativity and gift for storytelling make this unique novel entertaining, and his travelling of the “blue highways” of America will make the reader want to take a road trip (not the least to the incomparable Rock City, just up the road from Atlanta!).

An elegy is a “poem or song composed especially as a lament for a deceased person”.     Things have clearly been tough for Appalachia’s white population during recent decades.   The author describes his difficult upbringing by a single mom and his grandparents split between an impoverished mountainous area of Kentucky and a southern Ohio town with manufacturing jobs.   Gradually, through the guidance of his grandparents, the discipline of the military, higher education, and a drive to pull himself up, the author defies the odds and leaves his hardknocks life behind. [This book seemed to take off after the election of 2016 with people trying to understand the context of the Trump voter.]