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Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

Summary

"Fat Charlie" Nancy leads a comfortable, boring life in London, with a job he doesn't like, and a pleasant fiancée named Rosie. But when Charlie flies to Florida for his estranged father's funeral, he learns two facts that change his life completely: his father was Anansi, the African trickster god, and he has a brother named Spider, who is part god. Spider visits Charlie and gets him fired from his job, arrested for embezzlement and suspected of murder. Plus he steals Charlie's fiancée. When Charlie resorts to magic to get rid of Spider, things begin to go very badly for just about everyone.

Booktalk

Karaoke ruined Fat Charlie's life. More precisely, Fat Charlie's father singing karaoke ruined his life. Fat Charlie's not even fat – hasn't been except for a handful of years before the age of ten, and even then he was only a little soft-looking around the edges. But when Fat Charlie's father names something, it sticks. This is just one example – and far from the worst one – of how Fat Charlie's father embarrasses him. Karaoke just makes it worse. Halfway through singing “I Am What I Am,” Fat Charlie's father drops dead, in the most embarrassing way imaginable – and Fat Charlie's imagined plenty of embarrassing ways, all in excruciating detail. Later, as Charlie prepares to leave for his father's funeral, he sees blackbirds, sparrows and a thrush outside his window. (Reading from page 20) “Fat Charlie thought that a world in which birds sang in the morning was a normal world, a sensible world, a world he didn't mind being a part of. Later, when birds were something to be afraid of, Fat Charlie would still remember that morning as something good and something fine, but also as the place where it all started. Before the madness; before the fear.”

334 pages, 9th grade and up

Discussion questions

Warning! Some of the questions contain key elements of the plot. Do not read if you don't want to know what happens!

  1. What Anansi stories do you know? Do you have a favorite from your childhood?
  2. Many cultures have a trickster god in their mythology, such as Anansi, Loki, and Coyote. Why are stories about trickster gods so popular? Did you enjoy how the author blended a realistic story with mythology?
  3. Is Fat Charlie happy before his father's death? Why does he continue to work at the Grahame Coates Agency if he doesn't like his job?
  4. What makes a good villain? Is Grahame Coates a good villain? In the end, does he get what he deserves? Does Tiger deserve Grahame Coates?
  5. In what ways is Spider unlike Charlie? Are they similar in any way? Who would you rather be? Are there any reasons it would be better to be Charlie?
  6. Later in the book, Spider and Charlier become more alike. When does the change start? At the beginning of the book, could Charlie have sung in front of an audience?
  7. The book contains subtle clues about the characters' ethnicity – the reader is never told pointblank that most of the characters are of African and Caribbean decent. In fact, only white characters are described racially. How does this change the book from novels in every character is assumed to be white unless otherwise noted? Did you immediately realize that Fat Charlie is black?
  8. The book talks a lot about songs – both Charlie and Rosie's mothers are healed by song, Anansi loves to sing but Charlie is too scared. What roles do songs play in our lives?

If you liked this book, try

Snacks: Discuss this book over Caribbean food! Sweet potato pudding, stew peas and rice, jerk pork, curry chicken and fried plantains.

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