A Dirty Job...but somebody's gotta do it

I love Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs).

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, it's a tool utilized by Amazon on new & popular books to pull text phrases that one isn't likely to hear in the course of a normal day. SIPs offer glimpses into the odd little corners that make up a story.

For instance, let's say you were thinking of purchasing Spaceballs the Book (which I often do). You'd probably see SIPs like Druish Princess, Barfolemew, Ludicrous Speed, and Horse-faced Space Dog.

A Dirty Job's SIPS include: bobcat guy, fuck puppet, squirrel people, soul vessel, porcelain bear, dog drool, and big death. How can you not want to read this book?

Christopher Moore is a local Ohio boy--born in Toledo, raised in Mansfield, and educated at the Ohio State University. He moved to the West Coast when 19 and now splits his time between San Fransciso and Hawaii. While Chris has a number of best-selling books to his name, he is most well known for Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal.

Moore's novels often center on "everyman" characters thrust into absurd situations. One of the newest titles, A Dirty Job, is our first selection. I'm hoping it will be a fun, quick read that will well reflect Chris' style and provide a great start for the club.

-Eren

Christopher Moore's favorite author and other influences, in his own words:

John Steinbeck, but that's based on his comic work, not so much the heavy stuff that he's more known for. Steinbeck wrote about flawed people with great affection and forgiveness. I aspire to that in my own work.

As a kid I think I was influenced by Jules Verne and Ray Bradbury--it was in Ray's stories that I think I first realized that there was a craftsman behind the story, making everything work. That was about sixth grade, I guess. Later on I was influenced by horror story writers like Robert Bloch and Richard Matheson, and then as I was moving toward doing what I do now, in my twenties, I was influenced by Kurt Vonnegut, Tom Robbins, and Douglas Adams, all of whom were writing funny books and getting away with it, which is what I wanted to do.

A Dirty Job, jacket cover:

Charlie Asher is a pretty normal guy. A little hapless, somewhat neurotic, sort of a hypochondriac. He's what's known as a Beta Male: the kind of fellow who makes his way through life by being careful and constant -- you know, the one who's always there to pick up the pieces when the girl gets dumped by the bigger/taller/stronger Alpha Male.

But Charlie's been lucky. He owns a building in the heart of San Francisco, and runs a secondhand store with the help of a couple of loyal, if marginally insane, employees. He's married to a bright and pretty woman who actually loves him for his normalcy. And she, Rachel, is about to have their first child.

Yes, Charlie's doing okay for a Beta. That is, until the day his daughter, Sophie, is born. Just as Charlie -- exhausted from the birth -- turns to go home, he sees a strange man in mint-green golf wear at Rachel's hospital bedside, a man who claims that no one should be able to see him. But see him Charlie does, and from here on out, things get really weird. . . .

People start dropping dead around him, giant ravens perch on his building, and it seems that everywhere he goes, a dark presence whispers to him from under the streets. Strange names start appearing on his nightstand notepad, and before he knows it, those people end up dead, too. Yup, it seems that Charlie Asher has been recruited for a new job, an unpleasant but utterly necessary one: Death. It's a dirty job. But hey, somebody's gotta do it.