Neil Gaiman: God of Literature

I just finished "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman, and am truly just amazed. The story was fantastic, the characters interesting and deep and some of the imagery was simply breathtaking.
The story revolves around the idea that gods exist as long as there are any that believe in them, and that as soon as people stop believing the gods wither and die. I really like this concept because it turns the whole idea of a deity on its head. Generally, a deity creates its subjects, but in this book the subjects create the deity. The major conflict that first becomes apparent to you is that the old gods, the ones from traditional cultures, are getting shoved out of the way by some of the newer gods, gods like technology, the internet, TV, etc.
Gaiman's ability to create tension so palpable you can practically feel it really drives this book. Up until the climax in the last 50 pages, the whole book is basically a long, slow build. It feels like the calm before the storm, dragged out over almost 500 pages. In truth, I did find this build to be fairly arduous at times. Indeed, it actually took me about 6 months to get through this book, because I occasionally put it down for long periods of time due to feeling like there was nothing happening. After finishing though, I recognize the necessity of every word Gaiman wrote. A comparison to "A Tale of Two Cities" seems kind of apt. When I read that, I found the first third to be incredibly difficult and somewhat dry to get through. But after finishing it, I realized that the entire first third was world and character building designed to attach us to the setting and characters, which added to the climax of the story. After all that we had been through with Shadow (the protagonist) I felt a very deep connection to him.
Actually, there was this one specific moment from the interview with Neil Gaiman that stuck out to me. He was discussing how he had created and become attached the character of Shadow and said this:
"As for what attracted me to Shadow- well, as protagonists go, he's an immensely frustrating one to write. I kept hoping for someone who kept less on the inside, who would run around and ask questions and do all those things authors like, to help the plot along. Shadow didn't. He was astonishingly frustrating to write. But I wouldn't have swapped him for anyone else." This quote really struck me. Gaiman literally thought of Shadow as alive, breathing and totally autonomous. It seems kinda silly, but I had never really thought of characters that way.