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.
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. . . .
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.
"The lunacy is appealing, but the book, alas, is way, way too long. Not quite to die for, then, but one of the antic Moore's funniest capers yet." - Kirkus.
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Rated of 5
by
Lizz D Dirty Job At the Semi-Annual Used Book Sale at the Main Library Downtown, I picked up this title for .50 cents. I'd read Christopher Moore's "You Suck" and while it was entertaining I wasn't expecting a whole lot from "A Dirty Job." Holy twisted cheese doodle, was I wrong!!
Charlie Asher is an average "Beta-Male" who has the unlucky fortune of receiving the calling of "Death Merchant." He's basically a soul-reclaiming Repo Man. As people die their souls are stored into one of their treasured possessions and it's Charlie's job to reclaim these soul items from the family of the deceased .
This book was memorable because I laughed out loud the whole way through. Whether it was the Gothic employee Lily, with her charitable sexing; the squirrel people creatures in complete time-period costumes; or Sophie and her set of 400 lb. Hell Hounds; there were laughs to be had through all 384 pages.
There was a fair amount of sex, a lot of swearing and copious amounts of violence. Like I said, fun for the whole family!!
Christopher Moore is the author of eleven novels, including the international bestsellers, Lamb, A Dirty Job, You Suck, and Fool, a retelling of King Lear from the perspective of Pocket, the Fool.
Chris was born in Toledo, Ohio and grew up in Mansfield, Ohio. His father was a highway patrolman and his mother sold major appliances at a department store. He attended Ohio State University and Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara. He moved to California when he was 19 years old and lived on the Central Coast until 2003, when he moved to Hawaii.
Before publishing his first novel, Practical Demonkeeping in 1992, he worked as a roofer, a grocery clerk, a hotel night auditor, and insurance broker, a waiter, a...
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