"So Now You're Death: Here's What You'll Need:" A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore

Happy Sunday cyber-world here from the BOOKWORMportal! I was a little late in starting Chris Moore's book but it is such an entertaining read that I blew threw the first third of the book in a mere three hours and finished it the next day. As I mentioned in my post last week, I chose this book in remembrance of my friend that passed away three years ago. This book is a perfect reflection of his quirky humor and several times I actually laughed out loud. I enjoyed it so much that I may venture into Chris Moore's other work.

So according to what I have read about Moore's style, he generally likes to write about the "every man." He takes his main character who is usually an unimpressive guy and completely turns his normal world upside down. Charlie Asher (beta-male as he refers to himself) is the nice and normal guy in A Dirty Job and he runs a business where things from the deceased are collected. After his wife dies after giving birth his entire life changes in a most unexpected way.

On a side note this novel really reminded me of the show called Dead Like Me where grim reapers live among us like normal people and take your soul before you die to minimize the pain or to keep you safe while you die (if that makes sense). It is a great show and I highly recommend it! With that being said, as the story progresses Charlie notices that some of the things in his shop now emit a red glow to which he attributes to his grief for the loss of his wife. No one else can see these things glow unless you .

"Amid the shelves of knickknacks and books, the piles of old radios, the racks of clothes, all of them dark, just lumpy shapes in the dark, he could see objects glowing a dull red, nearly pulsing, like beating hearts."

This is the moment when it all begins. My thoughts initially from what I have heard about this book were that he becomes death and collects artifacts belonging to the deceased that these objects were essentially their resting place for their soul. I was not too far off but Chris Moore makes it much more intricate than that and he sort of toys with the idea of reincarnation. If you are spiritual you generally believe that what makes us "us,"our very being is held within our soul. Charlie is the keeper of these souls until they find their next home. Once they find their next home the red light will go out in the object being held.

"Always compliment the merchandise; it might be a piece of crap to you, but they might have a lot of their soul poured into it."

Aside from the humor I really think one of the best parts of this novel is the character developments. Charlie starts off as a normal guy but really he is surrounded by a plethora of colorful people. His fellow Death Merchant friend is named Minty Fresh, a seven foot tall black guy that wears mint green suits, aside from Charlie he is my favorite character. Charlie also has a daughter Sophie who has a very dark and scary trick of killing things by saying "kitty" to them and her two hell hounds have just as much of a personality as everyone else. Charlie's store is ran by an oversexed guy named Ray and a sassy goth girl who is the first to discover Charlie's new role in life.  Quite honestly this novel would make an awesome sitcom if just for the characters alone.

The only qualm I had was I thought the end was a bit silly and almost predictable but overall I think this novel was a great step out of the box and I have to give it a 5 out of 5 across the board. I think I may have to add one or two of his novels to my reading list. Until next time my fellow bookworms, enjoy the rest of the weekend before we have to get back to the grind.