updated to remove the whine... and now for a fun romp through the pages with christopher moore, the authorguy!
as april draws nye, excitement is electric around this house. on april 3rd, sacre bleu will be released with all the fanfare of another book signing by christopher moore, the authorguy extraordinaire!
chris, a native californian, is the author of such wonderful books as practical demonkeeping, the lust lizard of melancholy cove, the island of the sequined love nun, the vampire trilogy (bloodsucking fiends, you suck and bite me: a love story) as well as his adaptation of king lear's story as seen through the eyes of pocket, the fool. then, chris offers the hysterical historical look at the life of joshua bar david during those missing years in the hitherto unknown lamb, the gospel according to biff, christ's childhood pal.
when chris wanted to go diving with the whales in hawaii, we got to learn why the winged whales sing in fluke.
chris has an outlook on the world that is unique and, thankfully for all of us, he is willing to share that vision with his writings!
join me below the squiggley-thingy for more moore! you won't regret it, i can guarantee!
after both chris and his wifey/girlfriend, charlee, both lost their mothers within a short time of each other, he took us through a poignant journey in the transitions from this world to the next in a dirty job.
indeed, throughout all of his books, underneath the humor and wit, there are poignant, tender and wise words. charlie asher (a dirty job) accepts being a beta male where nothing ever goes right. he not only expects it to but actively accepts it as his fate - until he sees a man in a mint green suit standing by his wife's bed immediately after his daughter is born. charlie then learns to grow into a world of understanding that he never envisioned in his wildest dreams. from life vessels to the undead, when chris finds something that interests him, we get the joy of sharing that interest in another off-beat, brilliant look into his way of thinking. his characters are so alive (except when they're not) that they jump from one book to the next, appearing with complete credulity in their new "homes".
in the stupidest angel, when lena, the town environmentalist, whacks her drunken ex husband (who is dressed as santa) with a shovel and kills him in front of a young boy, the christmas angel (raziel, from lamb) completely screws up his assignment to grant one child a wish and proceeds to raise EVERY body in the cemetery instead of just reviving santa - making for a christmas remake of night of the living dead, complete with sword wielding molly michon, the grade b (bi-polar) movie queen, her husband, the marijuana growing sheriff, theodophilus crowe, and the rest of the town in a fight to survive while the undead debate whether to eat brains now and shop at ikea later… or the other way around. (after all, everybody knows that zombies love flat box furniture!)
what makes reading the author guy so much fun is that many of us have thought those same thoughts, we've just not dared to think them aloud, much less, put them on paper with our names attached!
this jolly christmas tale reunites many characters from the other books, including the wonderful tucker case and roberto, the talking polynesian fruit bat wearing ray-bans (he no like the light) to brighten any holiday or otherwise time of year.
my first experience with moore was the lust lizard of melancholy cove. i picked up the book while browsing my favorite bookstore and started reading the inner cover… before i had finished, i was laughing so hard, i was gasping for air - the book never left my hands and nothing else was done until i had completed it. something about the idea that a little village psychiatrist who realizes she had been treating her patients with pills without really listening would, after one patient committed suicide, switch the entire village to placebos without telling anyone just offered too much potential for comedy. add to that, a recently awakened sea beast who is roused by the radioactivity levels in the sea who comes ashore to mate while rousing sleeping passions of all living creatures, well, let the wild times begin!
chris' ability to see through the eyes of others - both human and not - make for permanent language changes in his readers. for example, when the biologist's dog greets him, the dog sees him as "the food guy". the world through the eyes of the dog is so brilliantly simple and sweet and spot on funny! and EVERY moore fan knows what f*ckstockings are - and, of course, when heinous fuckery most foul is at hand!
i could go on and on about chris' work, such as lamb. when lamb was released, the "religious" fundies had a fit - how DARE he make "fun" of the story of christ - yet it is so poignant, humanly divine and insightful, his language has again become part of the modern lexicon with lamb now being a part of many curriculum studies in theological institutes. when peter doesn't understand why the disciples aren't rushing wildly into battle, josh (shortened name for jesus) tries patiently to explain that he wants them to LOVE their enemies. peter then turns confusedly to one of the other disciples and asks, "is this another mustardseed thing?"
chris illustrates vividly how difficult it must have been for a young messiah to try to teach a different message to the bellicose young men of his day who were all raring to go and fight the romans.
that is where chris takes us - from our wildest dreams and then he takes us out of them into our inner dreams and hopes. through all of his writing, there is one common theme - that no dreams are insurmountable when the spirit desires to fly. chris gives us wings with which to soar - whether we become like molly michon or like roberto the fruit bat - we dream the impossible and make it ours. or, perhaps, we are the charlie ashers of the world who change it in small, subtle ways without realizing our own significance in an insignificant world.
but…
i started out with a mention of sacre bleu - the newest to come our way. this novel is chris slipping into the world of the french impressionist painters and retelling their lives as we have never before imagined - all through his unique vision. as he has posted links to the first two chapters of sacre bleu, i will share those here with the hopes that you will enjoy this new book when it arrives as much as i already know those of us who are dedicated readers of christopher moore will do.
chris has won the prestigious quill award for his humor and writing in both a dirty job and the stupidest angel. his books hit the nytimes best seller list the moment they are released! his readers are obsessive - most of us buying multiple copies to share with our unsuspecting friends, who then go on to become multiple book buyers themselves.
it isn't enough to have every book chris has written, having more copies of moore for that perfect birthday, christmas, hanukah, any day gift is a requirement, for laughter really does heal all ills.
if you like terry pratchett, neil gaiman, carl haisen, stanislaw lem, doug adams, william shakespeare or any number of brilliant minds, this is an author you must add to your collection! (be forewarned, though, because once you begin to read chris moore, you will absolutely crave moore! soon, your bookshelves will hold duplicate complete sets: one for you and one for lending!]
so, here's some fun weird chris moore stuff as a bonus...
on "bite me: a love story" and "sacre bleu"
on comic timing and the spoken word
for portugal
and, on fool...
and, as an extra bonus, here are his tour dates - if you can make it to one of his signings, i guarantee it is nothing like you've ever seen before (unless you have already BEEN to one of his signings). he doesn't read - he talks about writing - and politics - and people - and stories. and, as an extra bonus, he is a staunch liberal progressive democrat and brilliant comedian.
[um. one little thing here, folks. if you post on his facebook page, do NOT tell him to get back to work! he will block you in a heartbeat. that is (rightly so) his hot button - he actually interacts with people, gets to know folks but gets very miffed when people tell him to get back to work! oh, he has two fb pages...]
not going to count how many times i've used the word brilliant in this diary - suffice it to say, it is insufficient to describe the amazing authorguy, christopher moore!
8:33 PM PT: UPDATE!!! i just found the link to the live staged reading of excerpts of FOOL by the shakespeare theatre of new jersey! you can download part one and part two and enjoy the audio fun of hearing a great company do a fantastic readers theatre production of this hilarious melding of all of shakespeare's works into the story of lear as told as a comedy instead of tragedy!