Island of the Sequined Love Nun

This book reminded me of Meet the Parents, a movie that I stopped watching after the main character's name was revealed to be Gaylord Focker (his first name has "gay" in it and his last name sounds like "fucker"! That is hilarious). So when Moore presented the character Zoophilia Gold, I knew that the book could safely be added to my trade-in pile.

Granted, my simple lady-mind is ill-equipped to recognize and appreciate humor. In the 30 or so pages before Zoophilia's entrance, nothing struck me as funny, though clearly it was meant to. Hey, the jerk main character Tuck flies a pink jet! Pink! And he's a dude! How wacky! And then he crashes it while initiating Meadow, a prostitute, into the mile-high club, getting his junk impaled on show more shrapnel in the process. Most of the subsequent "jokes" were about his injured dick. Will he recover before he comes across his next prostitute?!

Speaking of sexually objectified women characters, the ratio in the first few chapters was quite high. Meadow introduces herself to Tuck by smooshing her chest into his shoulder. Then there's a nameless priestess wearing nothing but fishnets, heels, and a lot of makeup who touches herself to a news report about Tuck's crash. Mary Jean, cosmetics mogul and Tuck's boss, is not sexualized but instead fills the role of the aggressive, hypocritical business executive. Once again, it's nothing but the same two tired options: sexxxy or megabitch (or dead, in Zoophilia's case, which according to SVU is the best of all). Way to move outside that dichotomy, Moore, you iconoclast!

Yeah, humor is definitely a subjective thing. To me, goofy unrealistic names and nutty situations can't stand on their own as humor; they're lazy substitutes for actual comedy that's created from the interactions of established, believable characters and from events observed in a new light. Shoving in cartoony-ass cannibals and slapstick bodily harm isn't going to make a story funny just because it contains those elements.

I'm sure I'm missing out on a lot of fart and boob jokes by not finishing the book, but I'll probably survive. show less

Pretty zany and entertaining, and I needed some lightweight distraction, but it’s a little racist and homophobic. To be fair, the protagonist is meant to be a schmuck, and he does improve by the end of the book. Still probably my least favorite Christopher Moore to date. Oliver Wyman was a great reader, and entirely suited for the character of Tucker Case.

This is an absolutely bonkers book and I liked it! Truly bonkers. A cannibal, a ghostly messiah, a talking fruitbat, a lovable transvestite, a reporter with flying pig underwear, supervillains, R-rated sex, ninjas (sort of), a knockoff but still pink Mary Kay with a thick Texas accent, etc etc. The hapless hero turned out to be a hero and the book came to a very satisfying end. Narrator second to none.

This book about a cargo cult is hilarious. The title alone is great fun, and as the book unfolds it make perfect sense. Tucker Case starts off the novel as not a terribly likable guy. He's a womanizer and has poor impulse control and it costs him - it cost him a great deal. It is hard to not relate to Tucker, though, as his thoughts are hilariously human as he somehow manages to achieve the redemption his character so desperately needs.

This book has an entire cast of likable and memorable characters. Moore excels at layering threads of plot and action together in what becomes a rich and detailed tapestry. This book is no exception to that rule. I have bought this book several times over simply because I love being able to loan this book show more out, but it is so good it never returns home again. It is well worth it to share Moore with others. I have to give someone a book by Moore and have them dislike it - everyone who reads him ends up being a life long fan. show less

In a world full of books which make us smile, here's a twisted tale that had me chuckling, suppressing giggles and admiring a level of wit and wackiness rarely seen. Christopher Moore has a talent for taking a normal guy, albeit one with low moral values, and bending bad luck around them. Love Nun, although bordering on farce at times, is so slick you are tugged along with the story, the lunacy is so integral to the tale it could be misplaced for normalcy. It centres around a cargo cult and a mysterious missionary doctor who needs a pilot for his brand new Lear jet. Curious how a missionary doctor has a Lear jet... Even more curious is why he wants our central character, since he's banned from flying for having relations with a hooker, show more whilst flying, and then whilst crashing. So, if you want a mystery book, that is cleverly plotted, filled with sharp humour, which is bold and shows no fear, then grab Love Nun now. A masterpiece. show less

(A few very mild spoilers here. No endings revealed.) I have mixed feelings here. First of all, it's definitely funny, which is the primary purpose. So it succeeds there.

The short version: Moore seems to be trying to take dumb, offensive stereotypes from trashier stories as a starting point, and then trying to treat those characters as sympathetically as possible as he goes forward. (The cannibal native Pacific Islander, the woman who uses sex to get whatever she wants, the crazy transvestite, etc.) The result is much less obnoxious than the original stereotypes, but doesn't completely remove the sting. (Also, he kinda botches the pronouns on the one gender-queer character, and while I don't blame him as much as if the book had been show more written now (instead of 20 years ago), it still makes for somewhat awkward reading.) show less

This is yet another example of Christopher Moore's just-not-right-yet-entertaining stories with a beta male protagonist whose a little bit Hamlet, a little bit Moses, surrounded by a cast of eccentric characters, from a phony Sky Priestess & Sorcerer to a transvestite-turned-lesbian navigator (don't ask...I couldn't explain that if I tried :P), a talking bat named Roberto, Shark People and a pilot god named Vincent who plays poker with Jesus.

This is the 7th Christopher Moore book that I have read and although I do think that Moore's writing only gets better with each book that he writes,these characters combined with a highly imaginative story incorporating cargo cults, satirical commentary about religious corruption, gratuitous (& show more very funny) sexual encounters, and supernatural phenomena kept me reading & wondering up until the end. show less