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: Crazy and funny.
Summary: 5 Stars
As a long time resident of San Francisco this book really spoke to me. It helped me reconcile a lot strange things I've seen in the City over the years. I mean, I used to think I was imagining all the little demons, now it turns out they were part of the resurgence of the Underworld. Of course!..why didn't I think of that before?
Of course Moore does take off on a couple of pretty wild tangents that stretch his credibility. One huge plot hole occurs at a crucial juncture when his protagonist finds a parking place in the Haight: No San Franciscan is going to believe that he found a parking place in the Haight in the middle of the day, even if it was only 20 minute parking!
But if you're willing to suspend belief in some of the things you've learned about reality you'll love this book. Moore's hero is a nerdy paranoid who, while looking for love and single-parenting his daughter, tries to save the world from the forces of darkness. He's no John Wayne, more of a Charlie Chaplin/Buster Keaton type, and in a wild, crazy, and extremely funny way he gets the job done.
I have to recommend any book that made me scream out loud with laughter as often as this one did!
Book Review: Crazy weird but I loved it
Summary: 5 Stars
This was my first Christopher Moore book and I think I would like to read more from him. I usually pick the safe, little-bit-of-mystery, little-bit-of-love type book and this is nothing like my norm. But this book had lots of action, the characters were funny, and the story just kept getting more and more ridiculous but you wanted to know how it ended. It's a really good book and I would still recommend it to my friends but I'm just not sure how a person can think up this stuff!Book Review: Crazy,random fabulousness
Summary: 5 Stars
This book was hilarious, well written, and probably one of the best books I have read this year. The story follows Charlie Asher, a "beta male," in the years following the death of his wife and birth of his daughter. Although he is a seemingly unlikely candidate, he has been chosen as a Death Merchant, to collect individual's soul vessels after they die so their souls can travel to another body.Luckily, he has his sister Jane, employees Lily and Ray, fellow Death Merchant Minty Fresh, and the cop Alphonse Rivera helping him (and sometimes hindering him) in unlikely ways. To top it off, his young daughter Sophie seems to have found a couple of hellhounds with a taste for dish soap to keep her company. Pretty handy since Charlie and Sophie have been targeted for elimination by the Morrigans aka Sewer Harpies.
When I read the synopsis for this book, I thought that it sounded like an unlikely subject for humor. Well, within the first three pages I was laughing so loud that I was embarrassed that my neighbors might hear me through the walls. Charlie is one of those characters that you would love if he were a real person, but you would also want to smack him for being so irritating because he is paranoid about everything. It turns out he has a good reason for his paranoia.
This book was completely unpredictable, random, snarky, offensive, and off the wall - just the type of humor I like. The plot was well-paced and surprisingly credible - there were only a few things that really seemed unlikely, but considering everything in the book was extremely bizarre, I was able to suspend disbelief. I had mixed feelings about the ending, but all in all it was an excellent book that I highly recommend.
Book Review: Dark subject handled with humor and grace
Summary: 5 Stars
I am not going to go over plot points like the other review posted here. In a nutshell, this book is about a man who becomes Death with a capital D (death personified), sort of (read the book for further explanation). Christopher Moore is an outstanding writer who had me laughing out loud one moment and then moved by poignancy the next (amid all the comedy and wacky supernatural stuff there really are some messages about life, and death, and love here). Even if you don't subscribe to some of the Buddhist beliefs about death (which I think are really an underlying subtext to this book), there's a lot of meaning to be found here. I really loved this book and even though the last few chapters had to work really hard to tie up a lot of loose ends, it really was enjoyable from start to finish (even with the silly last line of the book). I have only read a few of Moore's books so now...I'm on to the next one on my list!!!Book Review: Darkly Comic
Summary: 5 Stars
A man loses his wife just after she gives birth to their daughter and he discovers he is a death merchant that needs to collect soul objects after people die.
I loved this book. I loved the way Christopher Moore constructs sentences. For example, instead of just saying that someone told someone else to hold on one second. Instead he writes, "Charlie was going to try to come up with some kind of answer when his cell phone rang and he held up his finger to pause time." I found the way he described completely normal, everyday situations in highly amusing and often comical ways.
The main character is very identifiable since he is just an average guy who gets sucked into being a grim reaper, but doesn't know all the rules and not sure if he is doing anything correctly. While he stumbles around trying to figure that out, he has his young daughter to contend with who is a little bit odd, but he still thinks she is an angel, even when she brings hellhounds home as pets. It only gets better from there.
Even with all the humor, the story was not just a light little story. There was thrilling aspects and a lot of suspense and tension in the major storyline and between characters. A lot of research was done about underworld aspects or a lot of imagination (if there was no research involved) about the entire underworld. It is a full-fledged story with humor to break through all the dark stuff. It really made me want to read other books by the author.