Practical Demonkeeping
by Christopher Moore
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Book Summary Information
Author: Christopher MooreEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-05-25
ISBN: 0060735422
Number of pages: 243
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Book Reviews of Practical Demonkeeping
Book Review: Not His Best Work, Still Quite Enjoyable
Summary: 4 Stars
Yet another of the seemingly endless supply of entertaining works from Christopher Moore. While not his best book, falling short of the heights attained by Lust Lizard, it's still a solid story that forces you to turn the pages faster than you realize. His standard silliness combined with an easy style make this book pass almost too fast. Not known for his deep philosophical perspectives or life lessons, Moore nevertheless solidly entertains in a realm that can be called nothing short of having a good time, something too many authors do not know how to do these days.
While this carefree comedic tendency makes Moore a bit of an anachronism in today's literature, he captures the spirit many people have in real life. Not mired in depression or any of the countless other ills that befall mankind, Moore's aim is to entertain the reader, taking you away from the things that make you hate going into work each day. While recurring characters and setting do lend a familiarity to his works, Demonkeeping still carves out its own space in Moore's insane literary world.
If I am forced to identify a downside, it would have to be that Moore probably didn't put the effort into tightening up the book as with others. The story reads somewhat sloppily, feeling a bit thrown together. Perhaps this was done under more strict time constraints. Again, that would be my comment were I forced to try to balance my opinion between positive and negative.
What will keep this book off any "all-time great" lists is the fact that in the end, the book has no point. Like Douglass Adams, both authors write with comedic entertainment as their primary objective, as opposed to passing on a moral or life lesson the reader can learn from. Strange as it sounds, in today's book world you generally can't be considered a great writer unless you have pain and suffering littering your pages. As such, Moore isn't going to be considered a great writer by those standards. I, on the other hand, love his work.
What Christopher Moore aims for with his writing, he more often than not hits. His stories are unreal, unserious, and unencumbered. One doesn't feel the need to cry or open a bottle of wine when reading Moore. Nobody picks up a Moore book and subsequently presses the speed dial for their therapist. In fact, you often find yourself laughing out loud when turning the pages of one of his stories. To that end, this is a very good book. Pointless? To be sure. But worth every pointless second if you ask me.
Summary of Practical Demonkeeping
In Christopher Moore's ingenious debut novel, we meet one of the most memorably mismatched pairs in the annals of literature. The good-looking one is one-hundred-year-old ex-seminarian and "roads" scholar Travis O'Hearn. The green one is Catch, a demon with a nasty habit of eating most of the people he meets. Behind the fake Tudor façade of Pine Cove, California, Catch sees a four-star buffet. Travis, on the other hand, thinks he sees a way of ridding himself of his toothy traveling companion. The winos, neo-pagans, and deadbeat Lotharios of Pine Cove, meanwhile, have other ideas. And none of them is quite prepared when all hell breaks loose.
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