"American Gods", by Neil Gaiman Quiz

Answer: Odin

Wednesday = Woden's Day = Odin's Day. Get it?

Answer: to attend his wife's funeral.

At the start of the book, Shadow knows he is up for parole soon. But he has a feeling of foreboding, and is afraid he won't get out of jail. Just a few days before his release date, the warden calls Shadow into his office and tells him he is getting out a few days early because his wife is dead.

Answer: all of these

In Chapter Two, Shadow attends Laura's funeral. Audrey Burton, Robbie's wife, approaches Laura's coffin. She places a sprig of violets on Laura's chest, spits on her face, and walks out of the room. Shadow catches up with her and asks her why she did it.

Audrey explains that violets were Laura's favorite flower. As for the spitting, she says, "I would have thought that was obvious." When she realizes Shadow doesn't know what she is talking about, she tells Shadow that Robbie and Laura died while engaging in a sexual act in the car. She then propositions him and drives off in a huff after Shadow turns her down.

Answer: The gold coin Shadow threw in her grave has magical powers.

In Chapter Two, Shadow goes to a bar with Wednesday, whom he has just met on the plane. They are soon joined by Mad Sweeney. Wednesday and Mad Sweeney compare coin tricks, and Mad Sweeney pulls a large gold coin out of the air for one of his tricks.

Shortly thereafter, Sweeney challenges Shadow to a fight and says he can have the gold coin if he wins. Shadow does win. He doesn't remember much after the fight, but the next day, he finds the gold coin in his pocket.

The next day at Laura's funeral, Shadow throws the coin into the grave as they are shoveling the dirt. That night, the dead Laura visits him in his motel room and thanks him for the coin.

Later on in the book, he runs into Mad Sweeney, who is in a sorry state. Sweeney asks Shadow to return the coin to him because he isn't supposed to have it. Shadow explains that he no longer has the coin and doesn't think he can get it back. That night, Sweeney dies.

Shadow now understands that the coin is somehow keeping Laura from being truly dead.

Answer: They are actually places of power.

In Chapter Five, Wednesday and Shadow travel to House on the Rock, near Madison, Wisconsin. Wednesday says: "This is a roadside attraction. One of the finest. Which means it is a place of power."

He goes on to explain that in other countries, people would recognize the places of power by building churches, temples, or stone circles on them. In America, however, people build roadside attractions on the places of power.

Answer: Mike Ainsel

When things are getting too dangerous for Shadow, Wednesday takes him to the town of Lakeside and gives him the new identity of Mike Ainsel. It is never explained why he is given this name.

Answer: funeral directors/undertakers

In Chapter Seven, Shadow goes to Cairo, Mississippi (pronounced "Kay-ro".) and meets Mr. Jacquel and Mr. Ibis, who run Ibis and Jacquel's Funeral Parlor, which is fitting. Mr. Jaquel is Anubis (god of the dead), and he can also take the form of a black dog. Mr. Ibis is Thoth (Egyptian god of the moon, magic and writing). Bastet is also there, in the form of a small brown cat.

Answer: coin tricks

Shadow loves to do coin tricks. It's one of his skills.

Answer: Iceland

Shadow has been traveling because there is nothing left for him back in the U.S.: Laura and Wednesday are dead, and Lakeside has changed.

While in Iceland, he meets Odin, and they talk about Wednesday. Odin says of Wednesday: "He is me, but I am not him."

Answer: Mr. Hinzlemann

When Shadow is doing his 9-day vigil for Wednesday (i.e., hanging on a tree and dying), Ganesh comes to him and tells him to look in the "trunk". Later, while talking to Mr. Nancy, he suddenly realizes that Ganesh was not talking about his elephant trunk, but the trunk of the old clunker car on the frozen lake that Hinzelmann put out there for the annual contest.

It turns out Mr. Hinzelmann is a kobol and thrives on the deaths of children. This is how he has been surviving for so many years, and also why the town has stayed so idyllic and trapped in the past.