Product Description

'Twas the night (okay, more like the week) before Christmas, and all through the tiny community of Pine Cove, California, people are busy buying, wrapping, packing, and generally getting into the holiday spirit.

But not everybody is feeling the joy. Little Joshua Barker is in desperate need of a holiday miracle. No, he's not on his deathbed; no, his dog hasn't run away from home. But Josh is sure that he saw Santa take a shovel to the head, and now the seven-year-old has only one prayer: Please, Santa, come back from the dead.

But hold on! There's an angel waiting in the wings. (Wings, get it?) It's none other than the Archangel Raziel come to Earth seeking a small child with a wish that needs granting. Unfortunately, our angel's not sporting the brightest halo in the bunch, and before you can say "Kris Kringle," he's botched his sacred mission and sent the residents of Pine Cove headlong into Christmas chaos, culminating in the most hilarious and horrifying holiday party the town has ever seen.

Move over, Charles Dickens -- it's Christopher Moore time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2388 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-01
• Released on: 2005-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780060842352
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Hilarity abounds in Moore's latest satirical gem. Sleepy Pine Cove, Calif., is abuzz with Christmas spirit, but Lena Marquez is fed up with her despicable ex-husband, Dale Pearson. On his way home from playing Santa Claus at the local lodge, Dale spies sneaky Lena uprooting his Monterey pines; he pulls a gun on her, she lashes out with a shovel and—oops!—kills him. Seven-year-old Josh Barker, thinking he's just seen the murder of Santa, prays for a miracle to save Christmas. To Lena's rescue comes Tucker Case, a slimy, reformed Casanova and DEA pilot, who gives her an alibi and sweeps her off her feet. The marijuana-cultivating town constable, Theo Crowe, suspects foul play, but Tucker intervenes with a blackmail scheme to keep the crime buried. Meanwhile, there's a new arrival in town: the glowingly blond Archangel Raziel (last seen in Lamb) has come "dirtside" on a "miracle mission" involving Josh's wish and reviving the town's dearly departed. Pine Cove's biggest challenge surfaces as comically reanimated zombies begin to rise and feast on the living, and a huge El Niño–induced storm swirls. This little slice of perverse Christmas cheer is enough to make even the most cynical Scrooge guffaw.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Readers of The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove (1999), the cast of which returns in this yarn, will confirm that, if any town could put the eerie back in Merry Christmas (whaddaya mean it's never been there--aintcha read Dickens?), it would be Moore's cut-rate California coastal paradise, Pine Cove. It all begins a few chapters in, when Dale Pearson accosts his ex, Lena Marquez, while she is stealing Christmas trees and ends up with a shovel-blade in the neck. Seven-year-old Josh Barker glimpses Dale's demise and, since Dale has on his Caribou Lodge Santa suit, assumes the jolly old elf's been offed; his Christmas wish becomes to have Santa back. Unfortunately, dim-bulb angel Raziel has drawn angelic Christmas duty, which is to grant one child's Christmas wish, and eventually (nothing is ever in a hurry in Moore's lurching, Margaritaville version of the world, though it reads fast) Dale/Santa is resurrected, along with quite a contingent from the same graveyard, just in time for the Christmas party in the nearby chapel. Delirious! Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"You’ll laugh your head off. Grade: A." -- Rocky Mountain News

Customer Reviews

I should've seen it coming
I've been a big fan of Moore's work since "Coyote Blue." If "Lamb" is the first book of his you've picked up, you should know that while a wonderful read, it is a different kind of good from the rest of his body of work.

For any self proclaimed Grinches out there, this book is a hoot. Moore pokes shameless fun at the weird things people do around Christmas, from aggressive Salvation Army bell ringers to Xmas Present Amnesty.

At first, I was a bit put off by the returning cast of characters from previous books. Theo Crowe and his wife Molly Michon were in "The Lust Lizard of Meloncholy Cove," as were Theo's friend Gabe Fenton and his now ex, Valerie Riordan. The Mastersons and Mavis Sand were in "Lust Lizard" and "Practical Demonkeeping." Tucker Case and Roberto made it to Pine Cove from "Island of the Sequined Love Nun."

While the characters are familiar, years have passed since the last time we saw them, and life has moved on. This book isn't a sequel, it's a deliciously funny tale in a familiar setting.

Like all of Moore's books, relationships are at the center of the plot. No one wants to be lonely, not at Christmas, so just as quickly as people break up, they seek to pair off, if only through New Year's Day. Misunderstandings occur when Theo and Molly have their own O. Henry "Gift of the Magi" moment. Tucker Case, now divorced, is so desperate for compay he proceeds to successfully hit on a woman who has just defended herself to the death and doesn't know what to do with the corpse.

Unfortunatly, the corpse is dressed like Santa, and one little boy who wittnessed the murder is about to be visited by an Angel here to grant him a Christmas wish.

There are a lot of predictable places the story could go at that point. I thought I was braced for the right one. I won't give away the end, but I cheerfully admit I snorted strawberry-banana smoothie in shocked laughter. It took all my self control not to call people and read the last few chapters over the phone, just so someone would howl in laughter with me.

But that would be cruel.

Instead, I'm writng this reveiw, urging you to pick up this short, fast, fun read (only 275 pages on smallish paper). The buildup is fun, but where it goes is a laugh-out-loud, rib cracking good time. Believe me, this one is worth the price of a hardback.

A unique Christmas story
Christopher Moore has written a Christmas book like no other. Bringing characters from several of his past novels together in Pine Cove, CA, the site of his first hilarious book of terror, "Practical Demonkeeping," he tells a story that will have you rolling on the floor with laughter. When a child who's just seen "Santa" killed meets up with the angel Raziel, last seen in "Lamb," who's been selected to perform a most-important Christmas Eve task, a series of misunderstandings culminate in a hilarious, horrific send-up of your favorite so-bad-they're-good horror movies.

Moore's twisted sense of humor shines in the odd pairings he cooks up -- the biologist Gabe and his dog, whose ruminations will have you laughing out loud; the pilot Tucker Case and the talking fruit bat he got as part of his divorce settlement; sheriff and former pot-head Theo Crowe and his wife, Molly Michon, the former scream queen who's gone off her meds and thinks she really is the warrior babe from her movies. The action starts on page one and doesn't let up until the final word on the last page. For devoted fans, this is a long-awaited delight. For those who've not yet experienced one of the Author Guy's hilarious terror trains, prepare to be hooked. There's always a surprise when you least expect it.

"Life is messy...People, generally, suck."
Whenever you read something by Christopher Moore, you enter a whole new world. In the case of The Stupidest Angel, the world you enter is familiar, if you have read Moore's previous books. Moore is reprising many of the most popular characters from the past in this Christmas-inspired satire of life in Pine Cove, a California coastal community, filled with "holiday quaintage" and "festive doom." Lena Marquez, divorced from Dale Pearson, an unmitigated boor, first appeared in The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, and becomes the subject of the major plot here when she inadvertently "kills" Dale, who is dressed as Santa. The local constable, Theophilus Crowe, also appeared in Lust Lizard..., and Tucker Case, who comes on the scene and falls madly in lust with Lena, was the main character in Island of the Sequined Love Nun. His sunglass-clad, talking fruit bat, Roberto, also plays a role.

Lena's argument with Dale is witnessed by young Josh Barker, aged seven, who is distraught at the thought that "someone killed Santa." Soon Josh is visited by the Archangel Raziel, who appeared in Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, a klutzy angel whose mission it is to go to earth and "find a child who has made a Christmas wish that can only be granted by divine intervention," and do something for him. Josh wants Santa to come back to life.

As always, Moore's off-the-wall imagination takes over, and the investigation of Dale Pearson's disappearance becomes complicated. As the holiday comes closer, Raziel starts to work his bizarre magic and bring about his Christmas "miracle." The juxtaposition of the Christmas message and the violence in town are seen in sharp, ironic relief, and the question of whether there are any heroes in this novel and whether Raziel is truly an archangel come to the fore.

A no-holds-barred, let-it-all-hang-out free-for-all which gives a whole new meaning to "the willing suspension of disbelief," this is a fast-paced narrative that will keep you in stitches. The young at heart probably will not bat an eyelash at its profanity, its vulgar hilarity, and its unexpected satiric twists and turns. Your staid and proper Aunt Martha, however, may be more than a little startled. Mary Whipple