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Loading... A Dirty Jobby Christopher Moore
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. DanaJean | Jul 9, 2009 |   I loved this book. (  )bumpish | Jul 5, 2009 | I was looking for a whimsical book to accompany me on a business trip, and this was the book I chose. It turned out that it was a good choice. Nobody will be writing any lengthy dissertations about this book, and a review any longer than a paragraph would treat the material with more seriousness than it demands of its readers. Moore brings a sardonic phrasing to the task of telling this story, and I found myself laughing out loud a few times. In this case, one can judge a book by its cover (a wonderfully tongue-in-cheek illustration by William Staehle). A reviewer criticized Moore’s later works (of which this is one) as not having gone through enough of an editorial process, but this book seems as if it was redacted from the original manuscript a bit too much, perhaps as much as 40 pages. I will not give anything away by observing that a significant character shows up toward the end of the book, who should have been present throughout the story. Moore introduces her to us with a very awkward narrative tool, by which the character explains what she’s been doing since she was a child, until that very moment, which violates the “show, don’t tell” rule of writing. Nevertheless, an amusing read. (  )keithmcramer | Jul 5, 2009 | A fun, leisure read. This is very humorous. Good for late high school level students. teachak | Jul 3, 2009 | My first Moore. I will definitely be reading more. This book was so heartbreaking at the beginning that I didn't want to read the rest of it, but, thankfully, I have a rule that I must finish every book I start. And this sort of thing is the reason why. It was hysterical, bizarre, and completely different from most things I've ever read. Despite the light, popular comedy tone that Moore uses through most of the book, he's clearly capable of more poetic turns of phrase, which gave the book a deeper wealth of feeling. It wasn't just light comedy, it was a great meditation on death. I'm glad I read it. (  )dsbs | Jun 9, 2009 | 0.040 seconds to build listing  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0060590270, Hardcover)Charlie Asher is a pretty normal guy. A little hapless, somewhat neurotic, sort of a hypochondriac. He's what's known as a Beta Male: the kind of fellow who makes his way through life by being careful and constant -- you know, the one who's always there to pick up the pieces when the girl gets dumped by the bigger/taller/stronger Alpha Male. But Charlie's been lucky. He owns a building in the heart of San Francisco, and runs a secondhand store with the help of a couple of loyal, if marginally insane, employees. He's married to a bright and pretty woman who actually loves him for his normalcy. And she, Rachel, is about to have their first child. Yes, Charlie's doing okay for a Beta. That is, until the day his daughter, Sophie, is born. Just as Charlie -- exhausted from the birth -- turns to go home, he sees a strange man in mint-green golf wear at Rachel's hospital bedside, a man who claims that no one should be able to see him. But see him Charlie does, and from here on out, things get really weird. . . . People start dropping dead around him, giant ravens perch on his building, and it seems that everywhere he goes, a dark presence whispers to him from under the streets. Strange names start appearing on his nightstand notepad, and before he knows it, those people end up dead, too. Yup, it seems that Charlie Asher has been recruited for a new job, an unpleasant but utterly necessary one: Death. It's a dirty job. But hey, somebody's gotta do it. Christopher Moore, the man whose Lamb served up Jesus' "missing years" (with the funny parts left in), and whose Fluke found the deep humor in whale researchers' lives, now shines his comic light on the undiscovered country we all eventually explore -- death and dying -- and the results are hilarious, heartwarming, and a hell of a lot of fun. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:05 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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Of course, evil entities are trying to get these souls to strengthen themselves so they can take over the world, and there are so many twists and turns and squirrel people with chicken feet, hell hounds, Jews, Buddhists, lesbians, The Emperor of San Francisco--it's just crazy!
Not my favorite Moore, but definitely entertaining enough to spend one's time on. Funny guy and a quirky writer. (