Practical Demonkeeping

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.

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.

I was looking for something light, amusing, breezy, and fun. I found that and Moore in Practical Demonkeeping. I was almost turned off when I read a review that mentioned the horror/fantasy genre, but what Douglas Adams did for the Universe, Chrisopher Moore does for Pine Cove, CA. Moore's character development is superb and he is one of those "draw you into the pages of the book" authors that avid readers crave. I enjoyed the book so much that just hours after finishing it, I already downloaded Moore's next Pine Cove-based book "The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove" into my Kindle 2.

This is the third Christopher Moore book I've read in the past few weeks and while I greatly enjoyed it I keep hoping it is going to be as good as the first one I read (Dirty Job). I put this book on par with The Stupidest Angel in that it was quite funny, however, it took a good 1/3 of the way through the book to really hit its stride. Not that the beginning was boring, it just takes a bit to get going. Yes, the humor is juvenile and stupid.... but that is what makes Moore's books so much fun to read. They are a complete break from reality. What would you do if you had a man eating demon under your control and it also kept you from aging? I can think of a few people I know that would make a nice snack for the demon. Worth the read.

For ninety-year-old Travis O'Hearn, who doesn't look a day over twenty-five, acting as the master of the snake-skinned demon Catch for the better part of the 20th century has been problematic. Granted, the position has its perquisites--immortality and the potential for world domination and so on--but on the other hand there is the difficult issue of the anthropophagous beast's appetite. Travis, unwilling demonkeeper and good guy that he is, has tried to limit Catch's diet over the years to drug dealers and other of life's non-innocents. But the situation is less than ideal, and Travis is eager to sever his relationship with Catch. The solution to Travis's dilemma may lie in Pine Cove, California, a tourist town populated by intriguing characters like Howard Phillips, owner of H.P.'s Cafe, who believes that his daily specials may be the only thing keeping the world from subjugation to a pre-human race. (Howard insists that his waitresses describe the specials in memorized passages of overwrought prose. Ham and eggs is "a fiendishly toothsome amalgamation of scrumptious ingredients so delicious that the mere description of the palatable gestalt could drive one mad.") Also arrived in Pine Cove is Gian Hen Gian, a rumpled little demon hunter who curses in blue swirls and hankers after table salt, and who once worked construction on King Solomon's temple. Christopher Moore is a witty and imaginative writer, and Practical Demonkeeping, Moore's first book, is a fun read. Moore's oeuvre should appeal to the Hitchhiker crowd and Tom Robbins fans. Reviewed by Debra Hamel, author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece

I read Practical Demonkeeping when it was first published in 1992 and only remembered one scene from it, so when I came across it on Amazon I couldn’t resist getting a copy to rekindle the memories. I’m glad I did because this is a great read. I also learned that this is part of a mini-series of sorts about Pine Cove, the fictional town where it’s set. The dark elements in this novel are amazing and they are offset slightly by the comedic interludes. The layers of stories within the story are great and done perfectly, keeping me turning the digital pages and losing track of time.

This book isn't exactly laugh-out-loud funny. Too many people are devoured by the demon for it to be tongue-in-cheek...unless it's the demon's cheek and our tongue we're talking about here. However, "Practical Demonkeeping" is witty, shading into heavily ironic. It is blackly humorous as in the scene where the demon coughed, "...and a red spiked heel shot out of his mouth and bounced off the windshield, spattering the glass with hellish spit." You might guess that the red high heel once belonged to a woman, but it's not that kind of novel. As a matter of fact it belonged to a motel night clerk named Billy Winston who was a transvestite from the waist down (the parts that the motel customers can't see below the counter). Most of Moore's characters have some redeeming characteristics, even the scum-bag drug dealers and pool sharks, and I was really sorry when the demon ate Billy. Even the demon whose name is Catch has his likeable moments--usually when he's reading Cookie Monster comic books and in between snacks. He also has a sense of humor, the kind of humor you'd expect from a cat toying with its next meal. Some of the book's real humor comes from a second supernatural creature, the King of the Djinn who has been chasing after Catch ever since the glory days of King Solomon--except for a few thousand years of down time in a lead jar at the bottom of the sea. He expresses himself in phrases such as, "By Aladdin's lamplit scrotum," and "Tell us where the Seal of Solomon is hidden or we will have your genitals in a nine-speed reverse action blender." The true hero of "Practical Demonkeeping," owner of Pine Cove, California's bait, tackle, and fine wines shop thinks the King of the Djinn looks like "a prune in a Carmen Miranda costume." Nevertheless, this unlikely pair teams up to do a bit of demon-hunting. Wickedly funny. That's the term I'm searching for. This book with its winos, pagans, wrinkled-prune Djinn, and hungry demon is wickedly funny. Read it and you might even die, especially if you ignore its warning not to pick up hitchhikers near Pine Cove, California.

If you remember Pulp Fiction or Playing by Heart for jumping between any of several plot lines and wondering how they relate, this story isn't quite that intense, but you get the idea. There are a lot of characters and you feel invested in all of them by the story's end... even the bad guy. This book wasn't as funny as Lamb, which is really great, but I enjoyed it nevertheless.

Got a free copy of this from years back and never continued the series but I am fully remembering how much I loved how Christopher Moore wrote at the time and am totally loving it again. With his dark serialism humour with added sex appeal. Highly recommend this novel and I will be this time continuing the Pine Cove.

Enjoyed.

This is where it all began. I miss Pine Cove. Read this. Read Lamb. Read everything Moore has written.

The only reason this has two stars is because parts of Mr. Moore's writing are fairly witty and I like the deliberate juxtaposition of horror/gore and sly social commentary. (At times, the 'sly' turns nasty, but it's still fun.) Unfortunately, the author is (apparently) a card-carrying member of the "men are brutal and useless, women are fabulous semi-divine creatures who put up with them only because they need their sperm" political school of contemporary entertainment culture. At least his particular mode of preaching isn't the typical screeching, in-your-face delivery that is the standard now. Instead, it's more of a slow burn kind of thing - it sneaks up on you as you read more of his work (i.e. the three Pine Cove novels). I made myself read all three because I had paid my money and, aside from the tiresome low-frequency feminism, they're reasonably entertaining. However, I won't be buying any more of his work.

This is the 3rd book I have read by Moore, and it was a good book and the story was all right. However, it was not as funny as Lamb or Fool. But it was worth the read.