Monday, July 23, 2007

Practical Demonkeeping by Christopher Moore

First sentence:

"The Breeze blew into San Junipero in the shotgun seat of Billy Winston's Pinto wagon."

Description:

"In Christopher Moore's ingenious debut novel, we meet one of the most memorably mismatched pairs in the annals of literature. The good-looking one is one-hundred-year-old ex-seminarian and "roads" scholar Travis O'Hearn. The green one is Catch, a demon with a nasty habit of eating most of the people he meets. Behind the fake Tudor façade of Pine Cove, California, Catch sees a four-star buffet. Travis, on the other hand, thinks he sees a way of ridding himself of his toothy traveling companion. The winos, neo-pagans, and deadbeat Lotharios of Pine Cove, meanwhile, have other ideas. And none of them is quite prepared when all hell breaks loose."

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this introduction to the sometime wacky citizens of Pine Cove and their encounters with Catch the demon. Moore's description of the attempts to attract tourists (and the resentment of the same) was especially funny to me. I also liked the interactions of the characters such as between Travis and Catch and between Augustus Brine and the djinn Gian Hen Gian.

Date read: 7/22/2007
Book #: 65
Rating: 3* = good
Genre: Fantasy

ISBN-10: 0060735422
ISBN-13: 9780060735425
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Year: 2004
# of Pages: 256
Binding: Trade Paperback
LibraryThing Page

3 comments:

Literary Feline said...

Everyone talked this book up before I read it and I made the mistake of setting high expectations. I did like it to some degree, but I wasn't overly impressed. I will probably try reading something else by the author, but Practical Demonkeeping hasn't gotten me to rush out and do so.

krin said...

Hi. Thanks for your comment. While I liked the book, it's not one of his best. Try some of his others - I especially liked The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, The Island of the Sequined Love Nun, Bloodsucking Fiends, and Lamb.

Literary Feline said...

That is good to know! I think I have You Suck and Blue Coyote in my TBR collection. I really like Christopher Moore's blog--he seems like such a funny man. I want to like his books. I will have to check out the three you mentioned. I won't give up on him yet!