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Thursday, March 25, 2010

Books Reading Last Night: Christopher Moore

Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Mar 25, 2010 at 4:00 PM

I published my opinion on author Christopher Moore yesterday on Slog, but he's an author with a rabid fanbase that includes my intern, J.T. Oldfield. She went to the Christopher Moore reading last night at University Book Store. Here's what she had to say about it:

Last night Christopher Moore read as part of his two-night Seattle engagement. He’ll read at Third Place Books tonight at 7 PM. You should go only if you are really really into Moore. The same goes for his newest book, Bite Me. As Moore said last night, he’s “committed a trilogy,” concluding the story he began in Blood Sucking Fiends and You Suck. Moore also said, rather too glibly, that he had to wait for this one “till [it got to the point that] you guys will just buy anything.” How true it is.

It's as if Moore isn’t even trying in Bite Me. Aside from a few laugh-out-loud funny moments, most of the book is derivative of his old shtick. The quirks of main character Abbey Normal by now seem so familiar that I wanted to wring her scrawny Goth-chick neck.

Apparently, Moore never reads from his books at “readings." He did what amounted to a little stand-up and then answered questions. Just about everything he said garnered boisterous (if maybe sycophantic) laughter.

If you are, like me, a serious fan of Christopher Moore, I probably can't dissuade you from reading Bite Me. If you are fairly new to Moore, you should wait until his next book (he announced that he’s just finished writing a graphic novel—to which I can only say “squee!”) or just go pick up Lamb instead.

Comments (12) RSS

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Moore's books are a light, quick, fun read. Lamb in particular, the Christmas book, and Fluke are hilarious. They're not meant to be taken seriously and they're not highbrow, but that's half the fun.

And color me weird, but I really enjoyed the first two vampire books, since they were so absurdly dopey and charming.

Posted by Joe Szilagyi

on March 25, 2010 at 4:25 PM

I am apparently not enough of a Moore fan to have known about the reading ahead of time. But having stumbled upon it by chance about fifteen minutes before it started, it was really a pleasant way to spend part of my evening! The vampire books may not be his best work, but they're certainly a great distraction from the rest of the sparkley vampire nonsense going on in the literary world. (My favorite is Coyote Blue.)

Posted by ssmary on March 25, 2010 at 4:29 PM

@ 1 & 2: I totally agree with both of you. I enjoyed the last vampire books, but could hardly get through this one. Lamb is my favorite to date, but also the first of his I ever read.

Posted by J.T. Oldfield

on March 25, 2010 at 4:36 PM

Lamb FTW

Posted by jns on March 25, 2010 at 4:47 PM

Wait, wait..."Abbey Normal"? Please tell me he credited Young Frankenstein at some point...endnotes, maybe?

Posted by schmacky on March 25, 2010 at 4:51 PM

No @5, I don't believe he ever does. It was honestly pretty distracting to me.

Posted by Paul Pearson on March 25, 2010 at 7:55 PM

I didn't realize there was a third book that came out, although I am rereading Lamb for probably the sixth time. That book has the annoying habit of not being returned to me when I lend it out, so I'm on my third copy at this point too.

Posted by The Psion

on March 25, 2010 at 7:57 PM

I LOVE Christopher Moore's novels, they are witty, intelligent and very highly amusing.

Posted by atheism on March 25, 2010 at 8:06 PM

While Moore's enjoyable for the first 5/6th of all his books (I love most of the Pine Cove novels right up until just before the sort of "man, I'm sick of writing a book" climax). I assume his readings are much like his books: great right up until just before where the climax should be at which point they sort of drift of into a ("deus ex machina" is far too generous) "let's just finish this" sort of end. Is this wrong?

I can imagine he's a great conversationalist who just drifts off mid-sentence and disappears at the end of the night.

Posted by thename on March 25, 2010 at 11:43 PM

Moore's fun. It is unfair to him not to say that. He definitely has witty moments and I have laughed out loud, or at least chuckled, during every book of his that I have read. The vampire novels are... not my favorite. I don't see any reason to read this newest one.

Nobody else ever seems to mention really liking Fool, but I'm kind of a Shakespeare junkie and I thought it was great. I mean, he's no Stoppard, but there was something terrifically amusing about rewriting Lear for the groundlings.

@9

"Conversationalist" isn't what you meant, is it?

Posted by balderdash

on March 26, 2010 at 12:18 AM

Lamb is epic, but I have to say my favorite of all his books so far is A Dirty Job. It seems the least cartoonish, the least buffoonish, of them, a little heavier on the detail I guess. Fluke, the Pine Cove books, and Island of the Sequined Love Nun were cute and funny, but had way less character development. If someone wants to get into Moore, I recommend A Dirty Job, then Lamb, then Fool. But that's just me.

Posted by charlie on March 26, 2010 at 9:10 AM

My co-worker lent me the audio book of A Dirty Job for my daily commute.

Not only are Moore's jokes lame, they are unremitting. You will not get a single sentence of relief from the puns, pseudo-snappy dialogue and the cliched quirks of the characters.

This isn't to say you shouldn't read or listen to his works. I found the road rage that a Dirty Job induced strangely therapeutic.

Posted by randar on March 26, 2010 at 10:52 AM