The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove | Christopher Moore

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove | Christopher Moore | Christopher Moore

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The Lust Lizard of...

	The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove Christopher Moore Harper Paperbacks, 2004 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 105 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The town psychiatrist has decided to switch everybody in Pine Cove, California, from their normal antidepressants to placebos, so naturally?well, to be accurate, artificially?business is booming at the local blues bar. Trouble is, those lonely slide-guitar notes have also attracted a colossal sea beast named Steve with, shall we say, a thing for explosive oil tanker trucks. Suddenly, morose Pine Cove turns libidinous and is hit by a mysterious crime wave, and a beleaguered constable has to fight off his own gonzo appetites to find out what's wrong and what, if anything, to do about it.

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Classic Moore

If you are a fan of Moore's other books, you will recognize some common characters. Set a little earlier than his "The Stupidest Angel", the book never disappoints. Outrageous characters, great story, and unbelievable laughter on each page. No one makes me laugh out loud like Christopher Moore.

Christopher Moore

The author hasn't written a bad book yet. Completely amusing and the characters are well developed as normal everyday people. Very relatable. If a regular person ended up in the situations the characters do, they would react the same. Lust Lizard is one of my favorites.

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Steve!

Moore's 5th novel takes us back to the town and surrounding area where his career kicked off, Pine Cove. A few of the main characters from Practical Demonkeeping return but the main stars of this one are fresh, eccentric and very enjoyable to read about. A stand alone novel, not a sequel to his first novel, reading this book before that one won't spoil anything!

It's the off season tourist wise in Pine Cove but a leaking pipe from a Californian Power Plant attracts a tourist even bigger than your normal American human one. When a fuel truck gets angry with him he must take refuge in trailer park to recover and wonder why she couldn't just have told him no! Meanwhile a psychiatrist decides to switch all her patients' drugs with placebos resulting in hilarious consequences for the town but great business for the Slug (town bar). The town rent a cop is addicted to pot. A former B grade movie star existing as a crazy woman is getting attached to her new neighbour in more ways than one. Throw in a nerdy guy obsessed with finding out why his microchiped rats fled town and the whole town suddenly getting their libido back and you've got one hilarious tale. You've got to get all of his books!

If you like the surreal eccentric character comedy novels also check out the authors Bill Fitzhugh (Pest Control's a great place to start), Carl Hiassen (Stormy Weather's as good as any other), Dave Barry (Tricky Business) and Max Barry (Syrup).

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Move over Saphira, here comes Steve!

I love dragons. Christopher Paolini's Saphira is one of my favorite of the modern day variety. Now Steve has become my second favorite.

I am currently working my way through Christopher Moore's books after a friend of mine called him to my attention. I started with "A Dirty Job" (about death), just finished "Lust Lizard", and am currently reading my annual Christmas book, "The Stupidest Angel."

All I can say about Christopher Moore is he's funny. Laugh out loud funny. And to me, reading is a real pleasure. So any time I can combine a good book with good belly laughs, what's not to like?

Let's see, you have picturesque Pine Cove, California, the Head of the Slug saloon, a melancholy blues man from the Mississippi Delta, a colossal sea beast drawn to the sound of the slide guitar, a gonzo policeman with a cannabis habit, Molly Michon (the resident crazy lady who used to be Kendra Warrior Babe of the Outland), and a psychiatrist dispensing antidepressants like they were tic-tacs. In other words, your typical Christopher Moore book.

Chris's characters are loony and loveable and he has the knack of taking something really fantastic and over the top and making it seem real. That is an amazing gift. Do yourself the favor of giving yourself one of Moore's books as a gift. You won't be sorry.

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Putting humor on the scales

After Harry Leon Wilson died in 1940, American comic novels stopped being funny about people. They didn't stop being funny.

But if they were writing about real people, the fun ended in tragedy, so that we had the comitragic novels of Peter de Vries. Or they wrote about giant monsters of amorphous instincts and physiology, like Christopher Moore in "The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove."

This is, at least, funny. Some recent comic novels are either disgusting or puzzling without being fun.

Moore is a little puzzling. He appears to be making some point about psychotropic medicine, but I can't figure out what. And it is at least a little disgusting that his protagonist eats so many people.

Moore is a stylish writer and every chapter or two he gets off an amusing line. The plot is clever although Moore does have an irritating habit of forgetting what he wrote one or two pages earlier so that characters have to be in two places at once.

Ah, well, I cared enough about the poor monster to finish the book. I can't say as much about very many other recent comic novels.

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