After spending a month in Portland on the set of Something
Like Summer, which entailed long hours, little sleep, and generally other
things that prevented me from sitting down and reading, I now have the time to
get back doing what I love most –reading!
Once again, the creative Christopher Moore returns to San Francisco
in this long-awaited sequel to 2006’s A Dirty Job. Secondhand Souls picks up a
year after the last book, with the forces of evil regulated back into the
sewers of the city that also cost the life of our hero, Beta-male Charlie Asher.
But the balance between good and evil is a precarious one, and since Asher’s
death, most of the other Death Merchants –folks who collect the souls of the
dead so they can be moved onto other soulless folks- have stopped doing their
jobs. And now, after a year, the results of those souls not being collected
begin to manifest themselves –mostly in the form of ghost hanging out on the
Golden Gate Bridge. Then there is the arrival of a banshee who begins to warn
folks like cops Rivera and Cavuto of some impending doom (who also steals –in one
of the most inspired bits- a taser gun from the cops and who wields it with
demented glee). With so many unretrieved souls, the banshee notes, a new (old)
power darker than previously known begins to rise. So the gang, including the homeless
crazy man The Emperor of San Francisco, his trusty solider dogs Lazarus and
Bummer, Minty Fresh, Lily, and a resurrected Charlie Asher (long story that
entails one of few newcomers to this story, a painter of the bridge) must face
this evil. Then there is the Squirrel-People and 7-year-old Sophie Asher, a.k.a.
the Big Death, who can kill anything by merely uttering the word “kitty.”
So while it may not be totally necessary to have read A
Dirty Job, it does help immensely that you have, but it will not stop you from
enjoying this wonderful, expletive-ridden, laugh out loud look at life and
death. The book is crammed with Moore’s typical surreal off-the-wall humor,
one-liners and a diverse group of outcasts that would feel safe in a Tim Burton
movie. Much like his vampire novels –Bloodsucking Fiends, Bite Me, and You Suck
–all set in the same city and universe- A Dirty Job and Secondhand Souls are
good primers for new readers looking for a funny, light book that reminds us
that not all supernatural tales come with a bloated back-story.
Note:
I was hoping –and it may still happen, but logic dictates it
won’t- to reach 52 books read in a year. This one represents number 34, and
number 35 begins shortly. Still, the month off of reading will really put that
goal in jeopardy. And I’m fine with that, really. And to be honest, while it
was a personal goal for me, in the grand scheme of life, it means little. It’s
not like I can spin my love of reading into a financial gold (as I once hoped
to do), not in this day an age when many thing reading Tweets and People
Magazine constitutes “reading”.
I know that reading is a solitary thing, unsocial in some
ways. But I’ve come to the conclusion that this is my lot in life. I work, I
read, I eat, I sleep. Wash, rinse and repeat. It’s a lonely life, but one I
chosen, so there in no one left to blame but me.
And I guess, in the end, I wouldn’t want any other way.
Well, except spending countless hours on a movie set. I kind of dig that.
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