I finished reading both The Stupidest Angel and Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore.
I had bought them both at the same time, and after really enjoying The Stupidest Angel, just dove right in to the second and didn't look up until I was done... but I get ahead of myself.
The Stupidest Angel takes place in Pine Cove, California, a small touristy town on the California coast south of Monterey. It's Christmas time, and the archangel Raziel is dispatched to Earth to make a child's wish come true. But Raziel is not the sharpest tool in the shed, and when he stumbles upon a kid who had just witnessed the accidental death of a guy in a Santa suit and who now believes that Santa is dead... well, things get complicated.
I'll re-emphasize what I've said previously about Christopher Moore's stuff: it's pure fun escapism. Don't expect any great lessons in morality, and all of his characters have their flaws. Also, his endings aren't that great, a little too "deus ex machina" sometimes. Moore has no hope whatsoever of becoming a literary great. And yet... I love reading his stuff. His dialogue is genuine, and genuinely funny. His characters are real and engaging, flaws and all.
Bloodsucking Fiends is one of his first books, and you can tell; the writing is a litle rougher and he hadn't quite settled into his style yet. The story concerns a woman in San Francisco who leaves work late one evening and is grabbed, pulled into an alley, and turned into a vampire -- then stuffed into a dumpster with a bag of money, but unlike every other vampire story in the world, without the orientation talk on what it means to be a vampire. She then discovers the joys and sorrows of the life of the Undead, including meeting C. Thomas Flood, aspiring writer and night shift manager at the Marina Safeway, and potential love of her (after)life. But the vampire that turned her is still kicking around town, and the town ain't big enough for the two of them...
Bloodsucking Fiends is still a good read. Not as consistently funny as the later books I've read, but definitely worth picking up.
Next: Dress your Family in Corduroy and Denim, by David Sedaris.
10:31:36 AM  ; ;
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