A Dirty Job: A Novel (Paperback)

by Christopher Moore (Author)
Key Phrases: beta male, sewer harpies, sewer harpy, Minty Fresh, Charlie Asher, Death Merchant (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Death, of course, is not usually a funny subject, but in the hands of Christopher Moore it sure is." (Hartford Courant )

"Hilarious yet poignant." (Hartford Courant )

"Outlandishly funny." (Syracuse Post-Standard )

"My top pick for laugh-out-loud reading . . . dark, dark, dark and funny, funny, funny." (Sarasota Herald-Tribune )

"Makes you laugh in the face of death." (Rocky Mountain News )

"[Moore] is superb in this mock epic of death and love. Smart people will be enormously amused." (Library Journal (starred review) )

"[A DIRTY JOB] will keep a smile on your face long after you put it down." (Cleveland Plain Dealer )

"Dizzyingly inventive and hypnotically engaging, A DIRTY JOB is . . . like no other book I've ever read." (Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked and Son of a Witch )

"[A] wonderful, whacked-out yarn." (Publishers Weekly )

"One of the antic Moore's funniest capers yet." (Kirkus Reviews )

"Moore's signature tossed-off humor is in full effect, and it's easy to care about his warm, lumpy, honest characters." (Entertainment Weekly )

"[Moore's] most speculative, tripped-out and deeply felt book to date." (The Oregonian (Portland) )

"Outstanding . . . The dialogue follows a zany illogic worthy of the Marx brothers." (Washington Post Book World )

"A bravura mix of the familiar and the hilariously original." (Denver Post )

"To keep a straight face while reading this book, one would have to be dead already ... Grade: A." (Rocky Mountain News )

Product Description

Charlie Asher is a pretty normal guy with a normal life, married to a bright and pretty woman who actually loves him for his normalcy. They're even about to have their first child. Yes, Charlie's doing okay—until people start dropping dead around him, and everywhere he goes a dark presence whispers to him from under the streets. Charlie Asher, it seems, has been recruited for a new position: as Death.

It's a dirty job. But, hey! Somebody's gotta do it.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 405 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (March 27, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060590289
• ISBN-13: 978-0060590284
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (72 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,900 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Death and Dying, What a Hoot!, February 14, 2008

By	Douglas S. Wood "Vicarious Life" (Monona, WI) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

In `A Dirty Job' author Christopher Moore creates a wildly imaginative, often hilarious world of Death that somehow manages to be poignant at the same time. How does he do that?? I don't know, but it's a lot of fun, a great read, and yet touches the human spirit.

Moore's protagonist Charlie Asher, a mild-mannered recently widowed dealer in used goods is unsettled to discover that he has somehow become a Death Merchant. He has to track down people who have just died or are about to die and collect their soul vessel so it can be passed on to somebody else who really needs it. Simple enough, or so it seems until the Morrigan show up. The Morrigan are large black bird-like creatures who live in the storm sewers of San Francisco. They are at odds with Asher and his colleagues. And then some of the people who are supposed to die don't. Lack of death causes a Death Merchant a lot of trouble. It turns out that the lack of death is no accident, but is the result of a third-party intervention that involves really strange creatures made up of parts of dead animals sewn together and wearing nightgowns.

So, how does all that rollicking weirdness get poignant? Well, underneath all the weirdness, his book really is about Death, the death of spouses and mothers and lovers and how we deal with it.

Moore's Note and Acknowledgement explain his inspiration for some of his ideas, including the dead animals in dresses. Check out art by Monique Motil. It can be found on the web and it's, uhh interesting.

A Dirty Job is a lot of fun, a quick read, that's sure to brighten your day (hey, you're not dead yet, are you?).

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny! Like bear., May 30, 2007

By	R. Eckenrod "reckenrod" (York, PA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Charlie Asher, a beta-male, consignment shop owner and new daddy, is reluctantly and unwittingly recruited for the job of death's helper (notice the small case "d".) Unfotunately for Charlie, the position of death's helper comes with very little training and much of what he needs to know comes on a trial and error basis....with the emphasis on error! Throw in a couple of "sewere harpies" hellbent on de-railing Charlie's new career, a couple of hell hounds, a seven-foot black man named "Minty Fresh" (apparently his mother had a fixation with toothcare products), Charlie's daughter Sophie..who's smarter than the average bear, "squirrel people" and you have the recipe for another hilarious Moore novel.

Avid Moore readers will recognize some of the characters in this book from prior stories and there's one very clever and interesting scene where an encounter with another one of Moore's characters from Bloodsucking Fiends is narrated from Charlie's perspective.

Anything that Moore writes is recommended, in my opinion, and "A Dirty Job" is no exception. Pick up. Read. Enjoy.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful, irreverant ride - a sheer delight., October 22, 2007

By	M. Strong (Milwaukee, WI USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

It's been a long time since I've had this much trouble putting a book down. Christopher Moore creates a fun and dark vibe in this book that you just want to continue to be part of.

Moore's hero, Charlie Asher, has spent his whole life trying to play it safe and live under the radar and now he's been recruited as death. Watching Charlie come to terms with his new assignment and all that comes with it is as much fun as I've had reading a book in years. Moore even goes after some relatively weighty topics, but the characters, the author and the book never lose their sense of humor about the story, themselves, or the issues they tackle. That's what keeps the book feeling so fresh from one page to the next.

Gotta go now, I'm going to read something else by Christopher Moore. I recommend that you start that process here.