Coyote Blue
by Christopher Moore
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Book Summary Information
Author: Christopher MooreEdition: Paperback
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2004-06-01
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 304
Book Reviews of Coyote Blue
Book Review: Not Moore's best, but it's still good
Summary: 4 Stars
Christopher Moore has carved out his own little niche in the fictional world with his brand of humorously supernatural stories. In Bloodsucking Fiends, he wrote about the logistical difficulties of being a vampire. In Practical Demonkeeping, he dealt with devils and djinns. Now, in Coyote Blue, he involves Indian gods (with a touch of Egyptian mythology for good measure).
Coyote Blue follows Sam Hunter, a successful Santa Barbara insurance salesman in his mid-thirties. What no one knows is he was once Samson Hunts Alone, a Crow Indian who fled the reservation twenty years earlier after throwing a brutally corrupt cop off of a dam. Now, Sam finds his good life suddenly turned upside down: he has major problems at both work and home, but on the plus side, he has fallen for attractive single mother Calliope Kincaid, who in turn has fallen for him.
The cause of all this chaos? Sam's spirit guide Old Man Coyote, an Indian trickster god who alternates between being helpful and harmful. Although at first rather elusive, Old Man Coyote does eventually manifest himself fully to Sam, who finds having such a deity as a sort of guardian angel is more of a hindrance than a benefit. Their uneasy alliance is put to the test when Calliope goes after her child's father, a drug-dealing biker who took the kid with him on a trip to Vegas and points beyond.
Of the three Moore books I have read, this is probably the weakest, maybe because this is one of early works and he may still be honing his craft. The story's biggest problem is probably the middle when the focus gets away from Sam and shifts to Old Man Coyote, who is all power and little wisdom. But even weak Moore is fun to read, so although it rates a low four stars, it is definitely a cut above three-star material. This may not be the best Moore book to be introduced to him with, but it will not really disappoint either.
Summary of Coyote Blue
From Christopher Moore, author of Fluke, comes a quirky, irreverent novel of love, myth, metaphysics, outlaw biking, angst, and outrageous redemption.
As a boy growing up in Montana, he was Samson Hunts Alone -- until a deadly misunderstanding with the law forced him to flee the Crow reservation at age fifteen. Today he is Samuel Hunter, a successful Santa Barbara insurance salesman with a Mercedes, a condo, and a hollow, invented life. Then one day, shortly after his thirty-fifth birthday, destiny offers him the dangerous gift of love -- in the exquisite form of Calliope Kincaid -- and a curse in the unheralded appearance of an ancient Indian god by the name of Coyote. Coyote, the trickster, has arrived to transform tranquillity into chaos, to reawaken the mystical storyteller within Sam ... and to seriously screw up his existence in the process.
This is an accelerating comedy with shadows setting off the wry, polished humor. Trickster deities thrive on contrariety, which is why one finds them bringing life into dead landscapes and disorder into order. A Santa Barbara insurance salesman's too-tidily-contained lifestyle, far from the Crow reservation he grew up on, is an irresistible target for Coyote, who wants to make sure his chosen people don't forget him. Coyote descends on Sam Hunter like one of Job's plagues, albeit a charmingly disingenuous one. "Why me? Why not someone who believes?" asks Sam, suffering from god-induced chaos. "This is more fun," says Coyote. He's right.
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