Baserat på en snabb jämförelse verkar de flesta förändringarna vara kosmetiska, lägger till en intern dialog och klargör personligheten och känslan av olika karaktärer. De längsta tilläggen är knappt mer än en stycke i längden och verkar ha liten betydelse för den övergripande plotlinjen.
Till exempel i det första kapitlet har vi tillägg av
“Damn right. Gallows humor. Best kind there is—bang, the worst has happened. You get a few days for it to sink in, then you’re riding the cart on your way to do the dance on nothing.”
borttagning av
even when you’ve been taken off the board...
Skugga lämnades ursprungligen med
two quarters, a penny, and a nickel
Tillägg av
She [Laura] got kind of mad at me when I was arrested.
Tillägg av
“You’ll be back. I can see it in your eyes. You’re a fuckup, Shadow. Now, if I had my way, none of you assholes would ever get out. We’d drop you in the hole and forget you.”
Oubliettes, thought Shadow, and he said nothing. It was a survival thing: he didn’t answer back, didn’t say anything about job security for prison guards, debate the nature of repentance, rehabilitation, or rates of recidivism. He didn’t say anything funny or clever, and, to be on the safe side, when he was talking to a prison official, whenever possible, he didn’t say anything at all. Speak when you’re spoken to. Do your own time. Get out. Get home. Have a long hot bath. Tell Laura you love her. Rebuild a life.
tillägg av
The warden said this with no joy, as if he were intoning a death sentence..
tillägg av
Shadow showed her his driver’s license. Then he assured her that no one had given him a bomb to take onto the plane, and she, in return, gave him a printed boarding pass. Then he passed through the metal detector while his bag went through the X-ray machine.
tillägg av
The people had the glazed, beaten look you only see in airports and prisons. If Hell is other people, thought Shadow, then Purgatory is airports.
tillägg av
Then he explained his problem to the gate attendant (calmly, quietly, politely) and she sent him to a passenger assistance desk, where Shadow explained that he was on his way home after a long absence and his wife had just been killed in a road accident, and that it was vitally important that he went home now. He said nothing about prison.
tillägg av
to the Budget car rental desk, the only one open,
Etc.
Vad beträffar större förändringar är det enda som förefaller vara ett 800-tal bilag där en fiktiv skugga (en mer fiktiv än den i resten av boken, uppenbarligen ) möter Jesus och diskuterar dyrkanens natur.
Utöver det finns det lite mer än en 1000-talsintervju med författaren där han kortfattat svarar på frågor som " Vad är ditt favoritmyntrick? " och " Gillade du att göra upp tricks i amerikanska gudar? ".