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What’s it all about?

The Gospel of Loki is the re-telling of the rise and fall of the Norse Gods entirely from the perspective of the Trickster, Loki, using (as far as I can tell and goodness knows I’m no expert) the structure of the sagas but also very much in the style of the self-serving memoir. Which makes it sound a bit dull and worthy when in fact (jumping ahead a little here) it is witty and funny and quite moving. I’m going to say right up front that I loved it.

Why did I want to read it?

I’ve come a bit late to the work of Joanne Harris. I was obviously aware of Chocolat because of the film (which I still haven’t seen and I’ve only recently bought the book) and I’ve read a couple of her other novels (Gentlemen and Players a particular favourite) and enjoyed her view of the world which is a lot darker than you might expect. I also have an enormous (and I will be clearly, entirely pre-Tom Hiddleston) love for Loki as a character; I even had a lilac-point Siamese cat of that name back in the 1980s. So I like to think I’m the ideal audience for this.

What did I think of it?

Like I said at the beginning of the post, I loved this. It’s so entirely its own thing and introduces (or hopefully re-introduces) us to the world of Norse mythology untainted by the Marvel thing which is the main reference these days for so many young people (and again I will say that I really enjoyed the Thor and Avengers films as you will see if you visit my other blog, but I am very clear that it is not the same thing at all). So we have Odin and his ravens and his single eye binding Loki to him in a form of brotherhood that of course is not going to end well, and you have Loki and his too-clever-for-his-own-good-ness trying to fit in but not really, the permanent outsider who can never win and who will inevitably trigger the disaster that is Ragnarok. I still liked him though. And it made me want to go and find out more about the original tales, which is always a good thing. Recommended.