A Dirty Job: A Novel
by Christopher Moore
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Book Summary Information
Author: Christopher MooreEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-03-27
ISBN: 0060590289
Number of pages: 405
Publisher: HarperCollins
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780060590284
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of A Dirty Job: A Novel
Book Review: Funny ...but uneven
Summary: 3 Stars
I enjoyed this book tremendously. I mean, what could be more entertaining than death? (I think Ingmar Bergman will back me on that one.) In A Dirty Job, Christopher Moore not only provides a nice, healthy dose of death, he also gives you Death Merchants, Forces of Darkness, the Illuminatus, a bunch of 14-inch-high cobbled-together zombie animals dressed to the nines, and a toddler who can kill people by saying the word "kitty."
Sound silly? Well, it is. And that is the saving grace of this book. The plot is (roughly) as follows: Charlie Asher, a shy retiring junk store owner, unwittingly becomes a Merchant of Death, a job for which he is roundly ill suited. Odd things soon start to happen (as if becoming a Merchant of Death weren't strange enough). Foreboding black shapes start to ooze over the California landscape, hideous voices threaten him from sewer gratings, and two hellhounds (who enjoy bubble baths but are otherwise thoroughly demonic) show up in his apartment. Various hilarious adventures ensue, as you can well imagine with that set-up.
Although the book had some great laugh-out-loud moments, and lots of snappy repartee, it seemed as if Moore was undecided about what he was trying to do with this story. One the one hand, he intended it to be funny and light-hearted, which it was. But on the other, it was clear that he was also trying to make a serious point about hospice, about the process of dying, and about spirituality. Unfortunately, those two purposes clashed. In many places the characters suddenly broke out into long-winded sermons about Eastern spiritual practices, which served only to slow the pace. (And knocked the plot off course.) And towards the end of the book, Moore seemed to entirely lose track of his story, jumping from scene to scene without incorporating the main plot line. When the inevitable showdown between the Forces of Darkness and the Illuminatus occurred, it was a let down.
There are other indications that Moore wrote this book in a hurry - the main character is highly inconsistent. If he's a Beta Male, where do all the heroics come from? In any event the Beta Male thing is overworked and unnecessary. The sex scenes are thrown in helter-skelter, also without much relevance, and far too kinky to be funny. There is enough gore to classify parts of this book as horror. Some of the plot elements are so contrived as to be annoying (Charlie's sister conveniently forgets to give him an important message, his assistant conveniently fails to give him an important package, etc). And, at the last minute Moore tosses in several new characters with puzzling inconsistencies - e.g. a lipless zombie-squirrel who can't pronounce "p" but does just fine with other labials ("w", "b," "f"). Little things like that can destroy your confidence in a zombie.
All in all, A Dirty Job was entertaining. But with a little more thought on the part of the author, and a tad more editorial input, this could have been a truly wonderful read.
Summary of A Dirty Job: A Novel
Charlie Asher is a pretty normal guy with a normal life, married to a bright and pretty woman who actually loves him for his normalcy. They're even about to have their first child. Yes, Charlie's doing okay?until people start dropping dead around him, and everywhere he goes a dark presence whispers to him from under the streets. Charlie Asher, it seems, has been recruited for a new position: as Death.
It's a dirty job. But, hey! Somebody's gotta do it.
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