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June 21, 2006
A Dirty Job
I have finished several books over the last few weeks, but have not had time to write about them. So here is a review of A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore. I had never read any of Moore's books such as The Stupidest Angel or Island of the Sequined Love Nun, but they are supposed to be decent and fairly funny. I was a bit reluctant when I found out that he is often compared to Douglas Adams and The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy since I read the Hitchhikers Guide after many friends recommended it and I did not think it was very funny.
The plot summary of A Dirty Job sounded interesting enough to give it a chance. The main character is Charlie Asher, a prototypical beta male who ends up becoming an assistant to Death. He is not exactly the Grim Reaper, but a Death Merchant who helps usher souls from one person to the next in the form of objects he takes from people before they die to resell them in his thrift shop. The theology of the book is a mishmash of Buddhism, Irish legends, and other stuff the author decided to throw in. The novel has a good sense of humor and wit, but it does not sacrifice its plot for them as Charlie tries to figure out what his new powers and responsibilities that are outlined in his copy of The Big Book of Death mean for his life now that he is raising his daughter by himself after his wife dies in the first few pages of the book.
It also has a good assortment of eccentric characters who are almost all interesting. Charlie is good as a dull, but smart, Beta male, but the supporting characters really shine. One of the other death merchants is a seven foot tall black man named Minty Fresh who is dressed in bright green suits and who Charlie first sees as the novel opens in his wife Rachel's hospital room. Minty does the same thing as Charlie, but owns a used CD store instead of a thrift shop and drives a gigantic car. Other memorable characters are his immigrant neighbors who take care of his daughter (one old woman from China and one old woman from Russia who is "big like bear"), two hellhounds who show up one day to protect Charlie's daughter, and finally the various squirrel people made out of dead animal parts and spare human souls. The most interesting squirrel person was a spy in a former life and used a crossbow a lot. My favorite character was the teenage Goth chick who works at his store and who thinks it is totally unfair Charlie gets to be a death merchant instead of her. After reading this I wonder why Goth people are not used more as comic relief in other works of fiction. The only major character who did not work well for me was his other shop assistant a retired cop obsessed with mail order brides who thinks Charlie is a serial killer (Charlie thinks the same about him)
The plot and characters kept me interested until the end, which is more than I expected from a humor driven book like this. I actually cared what happened with the death merchant problems struggle against the underworld. The characters dealt with death in a fairly emotional and respectful way as well for the most part. I also though it was appropriate that San Francisco would be the gateway to the demons of hell. It kind of reminds me of Stephen King's The Stand where most of the human population is killed and the good survivors go to Colorado, while the evil ones go to Las Vegas.
Posted by Pete at June 21, 2006 09:22 PM
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