Author: Christopher Moore, a contemporary American author who has his own website AND a Facebook page.
Category: American Literature, Contemporary Literature, Humor, Fantasy, Adventure, Magical Realism
Why I Read It: I saw the cover of another of Christopher Moore’s novels, Bloodsucking Fiends, in Barnes and Noble one day. The thing about Barnes and Noble is that I’m no longer in there planning on buying a book that second. I go in for ideas to put on my Wish List, and then I go home and get them used, either from bn.com or, if I can find it, a local used bookstore. So, I’m in Barnes and Noble and I see the cover for this other book and I have to look at it because I love vampire fiction and I write it down and when I get home I decide I want to work my way through Moore’s works chronologically. I read his first book, Practical Demonkeeping, a few months ago and loved it, and next on the list was Coyote Blue.
Reading Time Period: July 8, 2010-July 14, 2010
Book Printing and Condition: Printed November, 1998, Spike Trade Paperbacks, in the USA. The spine of the book is a teensy bit warped so the book doesn’t sit right on its back, but otherwise the pages are clean and nothing is ripped.
Where I bought it: The Beat Book Shop in Boulder, CO, for $6.50
Thoughts: I enjoyed this book a lot, and would have read it faster if stupid things like ‘work’ and ‘exercise’ hadn’t kept getting in the way.
Moore’s style here is jaunty, quick moving, and very fun, with lots of innovative phrasing and imagery. There’s a lot of joy in the lightness and the word play that comes across here.
The characters in this book were all quirky, unique, and alive. Maybe too quirky for their own good in certain cases, but this is not the novel for normal people. This is the novel for the weird ones, and boy do they come in droves. There wasn’t one character here that I even mildly disliked. From the smaller characters, like Adeline Eats, to the major ones, Sam and Calliope and Old Man Coyote, all of them had something I liked and that made them stand apart. Especially Minty Fresh. Holy crap, do I love Minty Fresh.
I’ve already read Practical Demonkeeping, as I’ve said, and I smiled when a few of the characters from that novel made an appearance in this one. Between the two, I’d say I like Coyote Blue better, but only by a small fraction.
Favorite Lines:
“…long, oily saxophone note.” Great imagery.
“Do you think that the Germans make such good cars to atone for the Holocaust?” Spoken by Calliope, it’s a great introductory line into her character.
“If he’s dead, she reasoned, he can wait until I’ve made some coffee. If he ain’t, he’ll probably want some.”
“…rambling through him like a heartbreak.”
“I don’t give a desiccated damn. I don’t give a reconstituted damn. I don’t give a creamed damn on toast.” I LOVE creative swearing.
“Why understand when you can believe?”
“Them things are so dark they just eat up your headlights.”
“Quit being afraid of things that ain’t happened yet.”
“Full bore batshit.”
“...instead of that American manifesto of high-pressure sales, Green Eggs and Ham.”
“Damn! Another hell thought!”
“The ostentation of the casinos did not create desire for money; it made money meaningless.”
“Living late-afternoon shadow in sunglasses.” I love Minty Fresh so much I’m minutes away from writing “Mrs. Shannon Fresh” all over my Trapper Keeper.
“You carry your name like a man with a knife hidden in his boot.”
“Never face heavily armed bikers without your wubby.”
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