4 out of 5 Stars

Synopsis

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 got to do it.

My Thoughts

This book was so funny. If you are easily offended than Christopher Moore may not be for you. His humour always has a very religious basis, and usually full of sex and profanity. Only Christopher Moore can have his main character, Charlie, get in a fight with someone about “Finding Jesus”

“In a way, Charlie started to enjoy the notoriety of being the guy with the cute little girl and the two giant dogs. When y ou have to maintain a secret identity, you can’t help but relish a little public attention. And Charlie did, until the day he and Sophie were stopped on a side street on Russian Hill by a bearded man in a long cotton caftan and a woven hat.

Sophie was old enough by then to do a lot of her own walking, although Charlie kept a piggyback kid sling with him so he could carry her when she got tired (but more often he would just balance her while she rode on the back of Alvin or Mohammed).

The bearded man passed a little too closely to Sophie and Mohammed growled and imposed himself between the man and the child.

“Mohammed, get back here,” Charlie said.

It turned out the hellhounds could be trained, especially if you only told them to do things they were going to do anyway. (“Eat, Alvin. Good boy. Poop now. Excellent.”)

“Why do you call this dog Mohammed?” asked the bearded man.

“Because that’s his name.”

“You should not have called this dog Mohammed.”

“I didn’t call the dog Mohammed,” Charlie said. “His name was Mohammed when I got him. It was on his collar.”

“It is blasphemy to call a dog Mohammed.”

“I tried calling him something else, but he doesn’t listen. Watch. Steve, bite this man’s leg? See, nothing. Spot, bite off this man’s leg. Nothing. I might as well be speaking Farsi. You see where I’m going with this?”

“Well, I have named my dog Jesus. How do you feel about that?”

“Well, then I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you’d lost your dog.”

“I have not lost my dog.”

“Really? I saw these flyers all over town with ‘Have You Found Jesus?’ on them. It must be another dog named Jesus. Was there a reward? A reward helps, you know.” Charlie noted that more and more lately, he had a hard time resisting the urge to fuck with people, especially when they insisted upon behaving like idiots.

“I do not have a dog named Jesus and that doesn’t bother you because you are a godless infidel.”

“No, really, you can not name your dog anything you want and it won’t bother me. But, yes, I am a godless infidel. At least that’s how I voted in the last election.” Charlie grinned at him.”

Or explain to us the “Evolution of Stripper Names” so eloquently,

““I’ve spent some time in strip joints, Charlie. I’m not proud of it, but it’s sort of what you do when you’re a cop. And you pick up on the pattern of stripper names.”

“Didn’t know that.”

“Yeah, and there’s sort of a progression going back to the fifties: Bubbles, Boom Boom, and Blaze begat Bambi, Candy, and Jewel, who begat Sunshine, Brandy, and Cinnamon, who begat Amber, Brittany, and Brie, who begat Reagan, Morgan, and Madison. Madison is a stripper name.”

“Ray, you weren’t even alive in the fifties.”

“No, I wasn’t alive during the forties either, but I know about World War Two and big-band music. I’m into history.”

The characters are all loveable in their own completely messed up ways; Charlie (the typical beta male) , Ray (the ex-cop turned shop keep looking for love in all the (very) wrong places) , Lily (the young Goth who wished to be Death) , Jane (the sister of Charlie to whom he is going to lose all of his good suits) , and the amazingly hilarious babysitters Mrs. Korjev (to whom everything is “like bear) and Mrs. Ling (who will eventually eat every pet in the neighbourhood) . If you want to relax and laugh at Death for a while…. Literally, I highly recommend this book! But, don’t just take my word, check it out for yourselves!!

Amazon U.S

Amazon Canada

Amazon U.K

A Dirty Job is Best Served With a

Grim Reaper

I got this recipe from A Healthy Life For Me

Ingredients

• 1oz Kahlua
• 1oz Rum
• 1/2 oz Grenadine

Directions

1. Grab a whisky tumbler and fill with ice
2. Pour in Kahlua
3. Pour in Rum
4. Pour in Grenadine
5. Stir before drinking
6. CHEERS!!