A Dirty Job: A Novel by Christopher Moore Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of A Dirty Job: A Novel
Book Review: "Most of us don't live our lives with one, integrated self that meets the world, we're a whole bunch of selves."
Summary: 4 Stars
Noted for his irreverent and sometimes off-color humor, Christopher Moore has always ignored the constraints of the real world, creating new worlds and exploring new realities--the world of vampires in Bloodsucking Fiends, the spirit world of Native America in Coyote Blue, and the world of singing whales and the researchers who study them in Fluke. In this novel, he explores his most serious themes ever, examining the subject of death itself, creating wild and wacky situations while making many thoughtful observations about real life--and death.
Here Moore creates an imagined world in which Charlie Archer, an always timid Beta male, comes face to face with death when, just moments after giving birth to their daughter, his wife suddenly expires. The devastated Charlie soon believes that he is Death personified, a "Death Merchant." Along with others like him, the "Santa's Helpers of Death," Charlie discovers that his mission is to retrieve "soul vessels"--those personal objects which contain the souls of the dead who owned them, objects which Death Merchants see as red and glowing.
In the five years that pass after his wife's death, Charlie meets a typically Moore-like assemblage of unique people--a mailman who collects vintage,1970s pimpwear; the homeless "Emperor of San Francisco" and his dog; and a tall, green-clad black man named Minty Fresh, who sells used CDs. Gradually, Charlie discovers the mysterious other-world of Death--its ferocious "sewer harpies," giant ravens from the sewers; the Morrigan, three "women" who work with Orcus the Ancient One, who lives in the storm drain; the Luminatus, or Great Death, who keeps the balance between light and darkness; and the Hellhounds, Alvin and Mohammed, who serve the Ruler of the Underworld but are also his daughter Sophie's gigantic pets. Eventually, Charlie and his Death Merchant friends fight the evil forces of the Underworld in a final climactic battle, filled with the non-stop action and crazy twists that Moore has made his trademark, including a terrific surprise ending, guaranteed to leave a smile on your face.
As Moore examines the subject of death in some surprisingly imaginative scenes, he highlights death's outrageous ironies, using clever wordplay, puns, and throwaway humor about life. Though there are no "sequined love nuns," no sunglass-clad fruit bats, no porn stars like Kendra, Warrior Babe of the Outland, and no profanity, vulgar hilarity, or off-the-wall absurdities, Moore maintains his iconoclastic spirit and his humor by giving us some new ways to look at death, the ultimate challenge for us all. n Mary Whipple
Book Review: A dead giveaway
Summary: 4 Stars
There's a distinction between comedy writing and using humour in fiction. In the first, the comedy is the foundation. Anything that can be inserted to confirm the framework will find a place - somehow. Using humour to enhance an idea or lighten an approach is often welcome. Using humour as an additional aspect of developing a story requires more finesse and care than having comedy as a starting point. Moore, who possess a delightful wit, and a fine sense of story-telling, has created a comedy novel. While its topic, the existence and handling of souls, might seem to be a serious matter, in Moore's hands it becomes merely a foundation upon which to exercise his skills at jollity.
Charlie Asher has inherited a second-hand clothing store in San Francisco, The City of Two Bridges. He's also suffered the devastating loss of his wife in childbirth. The sight of a black man clad in a bizarre green outfit in his wife's room initiates a further turn in Charlie's life. Alone, almost, with his new daughter, Charlie tries to rebuild his shattered life. Other deaths, some right in the streets of The City, have a certain intimate relation to him. Particularly when some of the departed appear to have been sent on their way by his daughter.
Charlie manages to track down the man in the green suit. He is also a dealer in second-hand goods - music CDs. It turns out these items and certain of those in Charlie's establishment have special properties. They carry the souls of certain of the dead. The items are in these stores in order to be conveyed to new owners. The man in green, "Minty Fresh", tells Charlie he's one of San Francisco's half-dozen "Death Merchants". They are located there [and elsewhere as it turns out], because The City of the Two Bridges will be invaded by the Forces of Darkness if they fail in their task. They are but temporary stand-ins for the Real Death - the one with a capital "D" who is due along at some future time. Since Moore has depicted Charlie as a " Beta male" [thus displaying his ability to keep up to date with the latest theories of evolutionary psychology], we are given a West Coast version of Woody Allen without the scandals. Charlie would like a more elevated status. What more logical promotion than to rise above being merely a Death Merchant. He decides he's Luminatus, the real Death, and struggles to assume the role.
In depicting Charlie's coming to understand who and what the Luminatus is and what is expected of Death as a force, Moore is at his best. Charlie's awareness grows through various events, including the death of his own mother. Charlie encounters the Forces of Darkness - in fact, one tries to seduce him in an alley. As the Luminatus, he knows it's his job to defeat them, if he can only learn how. He even gains support of a sort from an SFPD Inspector, who seems mildly interested in "weird" events. Charlie's major vulnerability is his daughter, Sophie. She matures wondrously as the book skips over several years. Charlie tries to help along her development through a series of unfortunate episodes dealing with animal pets. The problem is finally solved by the unexpected acquisition of a pair of huge dogs - hellhounds.
To anybody even slightly versed in the fantasy genre, these monstrous canines give away the game. Why are they so defensive of Sophie? They are omnipresent, except when lured away by somebody [something?] aware of their predelictions. And they are an endless source of amusing anecdotes by Moore's depiction of Charlie attempting to explain them. In stories of "magical realism", the fantasy world hovers close to the real world, just out of sight. In San Francisco, the Forces use the sewer system, which, in Moore's hands, make the Paris system seem simplistic. Charlie must meet them on their own ground, and it's clear he's poorly equipped to deal with the challenge. He needs better support than a mildly sceptical copper, and sure enough, someone arrives to save the day. Who that is must be left for the reader to learn. A quick glance at the book's dust jacket or any chapter heading suggests the answer. That's a bit of a surprise on the publisher's part. And gives the ending a rather formulaic aroma. Getting to this point, however, is part of Moore's genius. In most ways, the book is a fine cliffhanger. It excels much of his other work in some ways, falling short in others. It's a must for Moore fans and a great read for anybody who likes inventive writing. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
Book Review: Laugh out loud funny, wil make you take death lesss seriously.
Summary: 5 Stars
How often do you think about death, or even more so about your soul? Well what if soul's were passed from one person to another like hand-me-down jeans? Where would that leave us the teaming masses of earth? Well Christopher Moore tries to tackle the big questions in his latest book A Dirty Job.
Our not so gifted hero is Charlie Asher, who is a normal guy, or we should say a normal Beta Male. He has a very active imagination but has lived by flight rather then the fight instinct. He has a pretty good life, a loving sister, and adoring wife and a little baby on the way; then his world comes crashing down around him. First his wife dies, and a mysterious man who only Charlie saw was in her hospital room when she died. He doesn't appear on the security tapes, and no one recalls seeing him. Then things really start getting weird.
Charlie has become a `Death Merchant' sort of an assistant to Death, or the equivalent of the Salivation Army's Santa's to Santa. He is a little death, and as such his job is to collect soul objects and pass them on to people without souls. Which as an owner of a second hand store he is in a good position to do. However he does not get receive `The Great Big Book of Death' one of his employee's borrows it for her own amusement. So Charlie does not know what to do, or how to do it but weird things keep happening to him. He keeps showing up when people are dying and there are items that are glowing a bright red. These were the soul vessels.
But all is not well in the great city of San Francisco, darkness it trying to rise for the cosmic battle will soon take place between the powers of darkness and the little deaths, before the rising of the Great Death once again.
We have a cast of Characters that would put a Shakespeare comedy to proud our Falstaff is the Emperor of San Francisco, a man of the street who knows and care for his city deeply, Charlie's Daughter who is protected by two hellhounds - 400lb dog that eat toasters and small engines named Mohamed & Alvin these two also love eating soap and shampoo, Minty Fresh a used music dealer who is over 6 foot tall and always dressed in green. And many many more.
If you have read any of Moore before this one will be even more funny. You go on a walkabout both above and below the city of San Francisco.