Practical Demonkeeping | Christopher Moore

Practical Demonkeeping | Christopher Moore | This is hillarious

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Practical Demonkee...

	Practical Demonkeeping Christopher Moore Harper Paperbacks, 2004 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 114 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Demons make lousy pets

Among the various writers who I read, Christopher Moore is a relatively recent addition to the list. My first experience with him - Bloodsucking Fiends - was fun, so I started picking up his other works. Practical Demonkeeping - my second Moore book - is also a light, entertaining read.

The novel follows Travis O'Hearn who is around a century old but hardly looks twenty. The secret of his youth seems to be tied to Catch, a demon of immense power and bad attitude. To some extent, Catch serves Travis, but that doesn't stop the demon from the occasional consumption of a human being; Travis is at least able to keep Catch's diet limited to criminals, but can do little more to control the demon's appetites. Both wouldn't mind getting rid of the other, but they are bound together by a magic link that neither can sever called the Seal of Solomon.

Meanwhile, in Pine Cove, California (where Travis and Catch are heading), respected town elder Augustus Brine is visited by the djinn Gian Hen Gian, who happens to Catch's adversary. With relatively little ability to directly combat Catch, Gian has recruited Brine. The bulk of the novel - which takes place over one weekend - deals with Catch's efforts to create havoc and the often unlinked efforts of Travis and Augustus to contain him.

Moore mixes in a lot of humor in his story, but he retains enough seriousness to create a decent amount of suspense (even if the light touch does seem to promise things will turn out all right). Beyond that, Moore's decent knowledge of both mythology and pop culture add a level of depth to this story that might not be expected...it may not actually be a deep story, but it isn't exactly shallow either.

What Practical Demonkeeping is is offbeat. This is not a case of the same-old story of the supernatural, just as Bloodsucking Fiends went beyond the standard vampire cliches. It's not War and Peace, but it doesn't need to be to be a top-notch piece of entertainment.

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This is hillarious

This is the first Moore book that I have read, and I have to say, I am a fan. I've read a lot of Tom Robbins (Jitterbug Perfume, Still Life With Woodpecker) and his style is very similar, but more straightforward I think. And just as funny. I haven't laughed so hard at a book in a long time.
The premise is fairly simple... A young man, Travis, conjurs a demon on accident while cleaning the accolyte candles at a Catholic church. He is stuck with the demon, who does not have to tell him how he can be sent back to Hell. He tries various methods of returning his demon friend to the underworld such as reading cantations from spell books and running him over with his car. The young man wanders the United States in search of a way to be rid of his scaled friend, while the demon Catch proceeds to eat various victims in every place they stop. They finally come to the unsuspecting town of Pine Cove California.
The story takes off from there, jumping back and forth from different perspectives as the town tries to deal with this demon menace.
Moore has an easy to read, yet very witty and sarcastic writing style. I would recommend this book and the author to anyone who's looking for a good laugh, and I plan to read more Moore in the future. Heck, I could even see this being made into a movie...

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CHRISTOPHER MOORE ROCKS!

This book is one of the funniest books I've read in a long time. In fact, anything by Christopher Moore is a "must read." This guy's sense of humor borders on the insane...it's light and easy reading, appeals to male or female readers, definitely a worth-while read. My first experience with Christopher Moore was when I picked up "the Stupidest Angel" at an airport. That book was so funny I couldn't put it down, I had read it cover to cover in the time it took to leave Sacramento and touch down in St Louis!

Moore's first shows some flaws, but it's still HIGHLY ENJOYABLE!!

This was Christopher's Moore 1st book, and it displays most of the traits that would keep him so successful throughout his later books, and also some rookie "jitters."

As with most of his wacky novels, the plot is difficult to summarize and almost beside the point. It deals with a demon who is beholden to a man who would VERY MUCH like to shake off his burden (it's a drag being the "master" of a demon when that demon still must quite frequently kill and eat people). The demon and his keeper have been more or less tracked to the town of Pine Cove, CA (Moore's favorite coastal town, full of wacky characters and the main location for other works) by a genie. Don't ask! As I said, Moore's plots twist like crazy, but the real joy with him are the crazy characters, little asides and observations that he and his characters make, and, quite bluntly, the off-the-wall humor. There are lots and lots of strange, messed-up, yet delightful people to meeting PRACTICAL DEMONKEEPING. There are many funny events. There are also lots of biting and observant comments from the author...little metaphors and similes that just make you stop in your tracks with an admiring smile.

There are a few laugh-out loud funny moments, but mostly there is just frantic, inventive fun throughout. If you've never read Christopher Moore, this might be a good place to start. It gives an excellent introduction to his wacky sense of humor. If you enjoy it, you might do best to then read his books in the order of release. For example, the next one would be BLOODSUCKING FIENDS, a book with a little less humor but a lot more humanity. As Moore matured, his books juggle the real human feeling with strange and hilarious events with ever more deftness. ISLAND OF THE SEQUINED LOVE NUN and my favorite (so far) COYOTE BLUE show an author with a truly unique voice and vision.

The rookie problems with book are mostly centered around a lack of tightness. Moore always has sprawling plots and many plot threads which don't come together until the end. This book is actually a bit more sprawling...with so MANY characters to juggle and keep track of and so many threads to weave together in time for the climax that sometimes I frankly forgot some of the characters. Someone might have been introduced on page 25, for example, and that person didn't reappear for 100 pages, and by then, I had forgotten them altogether. Later, Moore's plots became more outrageous and convoluted (FLUKE), but there were fewer characters to guide us through the machinations. PRACTICAL DEMONKEEPING was just a little big more hard work than I'm used to with Moore. Also, his romances, though charming and wittily observed, never made me CARE what happened. Later, his romantic entanglements become more emotionally resonant. But not yet.

But these are fairly modest flaws in a generally excellent book. It's funny...and not many books are genuinely FUNNY and not mean-spirited. It's not "humor" like a Dave Barry book, but it's not tormented, like many works by Kurt Vonnegut, which can make you laugh out-loud, but are also quite searing. Moore just writes inventive, funny, downright crazy stuff. I sense his audience is slowly blossoming with each new release. I'm glad...because I've enjoyed his work so much over the last few years that I want others to enjoy it too.

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Not His Best Work, Still Quite Enjoyable

Yet another of the seemingly endless supply of entertaining works from Christopher Moore. While not his best book, falling short of the heights attained by Lust Lizard, it's still a solid story that forces you to turn the pages faster than you realize. His standard silliness combined with an easy style make this book pass almost too fast. Not known for his deep philosophical perspectives or life lessons, Moore nevertheless solidly entertains in a realm that can be called nothing short of having a good time, something too many authors do not know how to do these days.

While this carefree comedic tendency makes Moore a bit of an anachronism in today's literature, he captures the spirit many people have in real life. Not mired in depression or any of the countless other ills that befall mankind, Moore's aim is to entertain the reader, taking you away from the things that make you hate going into work each day. While recurring characters and setting do lend a familiarity to his works, Demonkeeping still carves out its own space in Moore's insane literary world.

If I am forced to identify a downside, it would have to be that Moore probably didn't put the effort into tightening up the book as with others. The story reads somewhat sloppily, feeling a bit thrown together. Perhaps this was done under more strict time constraints. Again, that would be my comment were I forced to try to balance my opinion between positive and negative.

What will keep this book off any "all-time great" lists is the fact that in the end, the book has no point. Like Douglass Adams, both authors write with comedic entertainment as their primary objective, as opposed to passing on a moral or life lesson the reader can learn from. Strange as it sounds, in today's book world you generally can't be considered a great writer unless you have pain and suffering littering your pages. As such, Moore isn't going to be considered a great writer by those standards. I, on the other hand, love his work.

What Christopher Moore aims for with his writing, he more often than not hits. His stories are unreal, unserious, and unencumbered. One doesn't feel the need to cry or open a bottle of wine when reading Moore. Nobody picks up a Moore book and subsequently presses the speed dial for their therapist. In fact, you often find yourself laughing out loud when turning the pages of one of his stories. To that end, this is a very good book. Pointless? To be sure. But worth every pointless second if you ask me.

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