More...I will always read more by Christopher Moore.

How does one go about writing a review of any novel by Christopher Moore?  I will begin with a line from The Stupidest Angel:   “The prior Christmas, Mavis’s fruitcake had put two people into detox.  She’d sworn that it would be the last year.  Mavis shrugged. ‘This cake’s nearly a virgin.  There’s only a quart of rum and barely a handful of Vicodin’” (164).  Mavis Sand is the proprietor of the Head of the Slug Saloon, and in Practical Demonkeeping, Christopher Moore’s first novel, I read her background story.  I would love to try her fruitcake.

This novel introduces the setting of Pine Cove, California: a town Moore revisits in other novels including The Stupidest Angel.  The reader meets important citizens such as Augustus Brine, owner of Brine’s Bait Tackle and Fine Wines.  How can you NOT love the world of Christopher Moore?

My first journey into Moore’s hysterically hilarious irreverent world was Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal when it made the Top Ten YA Books List from the American Librarian Association.  Reading his novels, I am guaranteed to be laughing out loud with tears streaming down my face.  After reading The Stupidest Angel for the first time, I knew I must seek out and read everything written by Christopher Moore.

The angel Raziel appears in both Lamb and The Stupidest Angel; Pine Cove is a town the reader will revisit many times.  And demonkeeping is a topic addressed in many of his works.  This novel tells the story of Travis, a man who has spent about 70 years traveling with the demon Catch and is trying to get rid of him – permanently.  I’ll close with a bit of dialogue between these two characters:

            Catch: “You’re trying to be tricky.  What’s morality?” 

Travis: “It’s the difference between what is right and what you can rationalize.” 

Catch: “Must be a human thing.” 

Travis: “Exactly.” (73).

Moore, Christopher. Practical Demonkeeping. New York: Harper, 2004. Print. (Originally published 1992).

---. The Stupidest Angel. New York: Harper Collins, 2004. Print.

POST SCRIPT - I also listened to The Photograph by Penelope Lively.  As I do not have a print copy of this book, I am unable to write a review; however, I did enjoy the story.  Decided on this book because I had read The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald several years ago.  Well...when I was at the library looking at the playaways, I thought Lively had written The Bookshop.  LOL  One books leads to another...