A Dirty Job - by Christopher Moore
Cover Summary: Charlie Asher is a pretty normal guy with a
normal life, married to a bright and pretty woman who actually loves him
for his normalcy. They're even about to have their first child. Yes,
Charlie's doing okay—until people start dropping dead around him, and
everywhere he goes a dark presence whispers to him from under the
streets. Charlie Asher, it seems, has been recruited for a new position:
as Death.
It's a dirty job. But, hey! Somebody's gotta do it.
Charlie Asher is your average beta-male...at least for the first twenty or so pages of this book. His life is quickly complicated by the death of his wife (right after she gives birth to their first, and only, child) and the appearance of a man in a mint green suit. Charlie comes to discover that he, like the man in the mint green suit, is what we would consider a grim reaper. Though, Charlie prefers to refer to himself as a "death merchant". Each morning after becoming
For me, it's not just the plot that makes this an extremely interesting read; the author, Christopher Moore uses fantastic descriptions for both the characters and the plot. When the reader first meets Lily, Moore provides this brief but image-provoking description, "She was sixteen, pale, and a little bottom heavy-her grown-woman form still in flux between baby fat and baby bearing. Today her hair happened to be lavender: fifties-housewife helmet hair in Easter-basket cellophane pastel" (22-3). There are not many authors who paint such a vivid picture in my mind when I read, but Moore solidly accomplishes this. He is also quite successful at balancing the depressing topic of death with wit, humor, and sarcasm. Charlie encounters several frustrations as he is adjusting to his new position in life; Moore employs his unique, sarcastic humor and writes, "The can opener slipped again, spurting tuna juice on his shirt and sending his toast scooting to the floor, and now there was fuzz on it. Fuzz on his toast! Fuzz on the toast of Death. What the hell good was it to be The Lord of the Underworld if there was fuzz on your underdone toast. 'Fuck!'" (67). Often, Moore will use short scenes like this to temporarily lift the depressing haze of dealing with death on a daily basis.
Unfortunately from a teacher's perspective, this is not a book that I could even dream of teaching in class or offering as a SSR selection (silent, sustained, reading). Moore is a bit heavy on the expletives. I don't think he uses them in bad taste, however. For example, when describing the character of The Emperor, Moore writes, "The Emperor decided to make a proclamation to the troops about the importance of compassion in the face of the rising tide of heinous fuckery and political weasels city in the nearby kingdom of the United States" (54). I think this aptly describes the character/his perspective. Unfortunately, I would more than likely lose my job if I placed this book in the hands of one of my students.
All in all, this book definitely makes my top ten list of awesome books. I would highly recommend this book to any fan of heavy wit, creative characters, and a dash of science fiction. Rumor has it, Moore is in the process of a sequel; you can bet I will be one of the first to preorder when that becomes and option.
