A Dirty Job

Loved this book! Too bad the ending was kind of summarized, but I still feel like it deserves five stars for all the times it made me laugh.

An enjoyable book. I really wanted to love this book but it didn't quite get there. It was funny in parts but I felt a lot of the jokes fell flat for me. I also thought Charlie would be a character I would love but while I liked Charlie I didn't care strongly enough about him. I will probably try another Christopher Moore book to see if this is just a one off, as the premises of his books really interest me.

I have not laughed out loud in a long time! It's nice to find some humor I can enjoy. Right up there with the Dortmunder series by [a:Donald E Westlake 21453878 Donald E Westlake https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] and some of the Discwold series by [a:Terry Pratchett 1654 Terry Pratchett https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1235562205p2/1654.jpg].

Hilarious, absurd, and a nice escape. The only downside was the commentary on beta-males.

Imagine you are just living your life when...suddenly, you are death. Like, you decide who dies...but maybe you are just a schmuck and you don't really know what happened.

A solid 4 star book. Moore is, as always, irreverent, funny, and unwilling to be forced into political correctness.

What would happen if you woke up one day and realized you were now a death merchant, tasked with gathering and relocating souls of the dead. How would you feel knowing your newborn was abounding with powers... potentially deadly powers. Join Charlie on his journey of death awakening and enjoy some dark humor and imaginings and travel the road of the Death Merchant.

A little too long, and a little too much forced quirkiness, but a decent read.

This was very interesting, unique and fun story. My first Moore book and I did enjoy the humor to brighten a dark and sad topic.

Charlie Asher is a normal guy. Beta male, owns a secondhand shop, pretty average. Charlie and his wife Rachel have a baby, and the world changes. This book is hilarious!. I was tempted to stop reading and check out the audiobook. Lots of great characters, I especially liked Lily and Jane. Check it out, it's a fun read.

OMG! I don't think I can write a review that will give this book the justice it deserves! I LOVED this book! I laughed so much that I actually had to close it and put it away because I was in public and people were beginning to stare. LOVE! LOVE! LOVE!

I was actually kind of enjoying this, but then the squirrel people showed up and it got ridiculous. (Even more ridiculous than it already was, that is. I mean, it was a comedy about a guy who was Death. I wasn't expecting greatness.)

It took me a bit to get into this one, but once I did I found it hilarious!

Short Review: A decent funny book (Although with a lot of bad language). Asher is a ‘death dealer'. Someone that helps moves souls from one body to another (sort of reincarnation, but a different perspective on it than normal). This is somewhat similar to the concept behind Piers Anthony's On A Pale Horse, but funnier.

Overall, it enjoyed the book, but I wan't thrilled about the end. Part of it was obvious from about 1/3 of the way in and another part I just didn't think had to happen. But since most of the book was establishing the characters and telling the story, it was still worth reading. I didn't like it nearly as much as the last Christopher Moore book I read (Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff), but I liked it enough that I will read more Christopher Moore.


My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/dirty-job/

Libro divertente che miscela e mescola vari generi per un cocktail davvero dissetante e frizzante per evadere qualche ora dalla realtà quotidiana che ci circonda, o forse sarebbe meglio dire per guardarla con occhi diversi. Chissà mai cosa vediamo spuntare dal prossimo tombino?
Ci troviamo a leggere di un maschio beta (Moore utilizza spesso la contrapposizione tra maschi beta e alfa: del tipo le donne passerebbero ore a parlare con un beta, ma alla fine si scoperebbero un alfa), di nome Charlie che si ritroverà catapultato in una serie di avventure spassosissime e incredibili dopo essere diventato suo malgrado un “mercante di morte”, un traghettatore di anime. Un esistenza tranquilla arrivata al culmine con la nascita di una figlia e d'improvviso gettato in pasto alle forze oscure.
Quello che da forza al romanzo è sicuramente la storia originale, ma è sostenuta alquanto dai personaggi che ruotano attorno a Charlie: da citare su tutti sicuramente le vicine “del blocco orientale”, che strappano più di una volta una risata allegra. Ma da non dimenticare la figlia Sophie, i cani infernali, il Signor Menta Fresca; appunto la menta fresca da l'idea della piacevole lettura che il lettore si troverà ad affrontare: la frescura della fantasia e il pizzicore della comicità.
Il tutto ambientato nella città di San Francisco che ben si adatta ad una storia così bizzarra, geniale e curiosa.
Nel libro c'è spazio per molti generi il gothic fantasy per esempio, una punta di horror, un tocco di emozione in alcune parti toccanti, ma sempre con un sottofondo di comicità che fa sorridere con stile. Questo è appunto il mix che rende speciale il tutto.
Davvero consigliato a chi ha voglia di leggere qualcosa di originale, ben scritto e scorrevole. Adatto tra un libro impegnativo e l'altro. Leggerò sicuramente gli altri suoi scritti.

This was a great read. It was a funny read, I found myself laughing out loud many times. I listened to it as an audiobook which I highly recommend as it was narrated very well. It was easy to differentiate the different characters. The story can be a bit dark at times which is then usually relieved quickly with a smart comment.

Charlie Asher is just your normal every day second-hand store owner until one day he becomes Death. As Death, his assignment is to collect souls from the dying and make sure they fall into the right hands by selling them in his shop. I thought this was an interesting and entertaining book, but it didn't shine. It wasn't great. Moore is a very funny writer, to be sure, and there were times when I laughed out loud or wanted to read a line aloud to someone. I just didn't love it and didn't find myself longing to get back to reading it when I was doing other things. The ending felt rushed and things started happening somewhat randomly. I'm not sure I'd recommend it to anyone except diehard Moore lovers.

Morbid, humorous, and fun. Loved it. 5/5

A nobody becomes, one day, a “death merchant”.
I've found a new favourite author, someone who makes me laugh as much as Terry Pratchett, Tom Robbins, or Douglas Adams yet wears his learning very lightly.
I never felt that I was being lectured at, but saw underneath the hip cynicism a sacred respect for the dying.

I've read a few other books by Christopher Moore and this looked fun. So. In this story, Charlie Asher, a secondhand shop owner with a kid on the way suddenly finds that he's moonlighting as Death. Which sort of casts a pall on the evening. (Sorry, obscure Python reference there). Anyway, in Moore's typical light-hearted style, bad things may happen but quirky characters make the best of the situation – a situation that only keeps getting stranger. Quick, non-taxing, mostly fun read, nothing super great though. One plot point that the reader sees a mile off catches Charlie by surprise. I hate that. Still, this guy writes an entertaining story.

Now this is entertainment. There is a little bit of everything here–hellhounds, sharpies, goth chicks, death merchants, and as an added bonus, re-animated squirrels. Tying it all together is the tale of a slightly neurotic, but deeply devoted father of a little girl, Charlie Asher. He is a rather simple guy who is struggling to raise his new daughter under conditions that would give anyone a little stress: he has a seriously complicated new job, his support system is unconventional at best, and his daughter's emerging, but limited, vocabulary might literally kill things. And with a seemingly impending apocalypse on the way; it all may be a little bit more than he can handle.

How this is all resolved is charmingly clever and surprisingly poignant.

“A Dirty Job” might be one of the most surreal and absurd novels that I have ever read. It is easily one of the funniest. Highly recommended.

This book is hilarious. Charlie Asher is quirky, smart, and likeable, as are his lesbian sister and the goth-girl and sexually repressed ex-cop who work in his second-hand store. Definitely recommended.

This book was a little disappointing. I was told my a friend that is was a hilarious dark comedy and that she really enjoyed it but I could hardly get through the first few chapters. It has an interesting plot but the follow through is slow and not really all that funny. This is another book I'll never finish.