English language
Published April 3, 2012 by William Morrow.
"From repeat New York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore comes a love story, the portrait of a young artist, the portrait of the young artist's myterious girlfriend, a thriller, and a comedy -- all about the color blue"--
The book was enjoyable and amusing, and kept you reading just so that you could figure out what the heck was going on here, and who was this strange colorman anyway? But it was also somehow dissatisfying, because the answer, when it was finally given, didn't quite make logical sense. Not that logic had anything whatsoever to do with this book.
Made me think of Tom Robbins "Jitterbug Perfume" crossed with the film of "Moulin Rouge". Started off pale by comparison to these two, but I grew to like it in it's own right.
This is a fun novel in which Christopher Moore imagines a rollicking tale that revolves around the Paris art scene, circa 1860-1870. The main character is the completely fictional Lucien Lessard, but he is surrounded by many real artists of the time--Pissaro, Cezanne, Renoir, Manet, Seurat, Monet, Degas, and especially Toulouse-Lautrec. The novel begins with the tragic death of Vincent van Gogh, which Moore infuses with mystery; in this novel, his death is not suicide.
Moore creates a magical, time traveling story about a colorman, a muse (who does indeed amuse), and the world's most famous artists that is both funny and inspiring--funny in its humor, inspiring in that it's made me want to read more about some of these artists. The last section Moore writes is "Afterward: So, Now You've Ruined Art," in which the author conscientiously reveals to us the liberties he's taken with the characters and some …
This is a fun novel in which Christopher Moore imagines a rollicking tale that revolves around the Paris art scene, circa 1860-1870. The main character is the completely fictional Lucien Lessard, but he is surrounded by many real artists of the time--Pissaro, Cezanne, Renoir, Manet, Seurat, Monet, Degas, and especially Toulouse-Lautrec. The novel begins with the tragic death of Vincent van Gogh, which Moore infuses with mystery; in this novel, his death is not suicide.
Moore creates a magical, time traveling story about a colorman, a muse (who does indeed amuse), and the world's most famous artists that is both funny and inspiring--funny in its humor, inspiring in that it's made me want to read more about some of these artists. The last section Moore writes is "Afterward: So, Now You've Ruined Art," in which the author conscientiously reveals to us the liberties he's taken with the characters and some of the research he'd done before penning this creative tome, and it's not to be missed.
Educational and entertaining! I enjoyed this very much.
I confess, I’m having a rough time lately and suffice it to say: I needed Moore. Fortunately for me, he published Sacre Bleu. (Thanks, Chris.)
I don’t know why I’m attracted to Christopher Moore’s books. His humor is often 3rd grade. His hapless male characters’ relationships to women are cute and clever little power struggles. I’m not usually a fan of cute, clever little power struggles. The friendships between his male characters? Strong and 3rd grade too, at least from my point of view.
Yet, I adore his writing. I love the clueless awkwardness wrapped around all the true-hearted, well meaningness, speckled with zany. The heroes are confused and sincere, the heroines are slutty, edgy, open-hearted, and off kilter. Maybe I find myself in his fun, maybe I can’t figure out how to find myself in the fun so I just watch, bemused. Maybe Moore is damn good at what …
I confess, I’m having a rough time lately and suffice it to say: I needed Moore. Fortunately for me, he published Sacre Bleu. (Thanks, Chris.)
I don’t know why I’m attracted to Christopher Moore’s books. His humor is often 3rd grade. His hapless male characters’ relationships to women are cute and clever little power struggles. I’m not usually a fan of cute, clever little power struggles. The friendships between his male characters? Strong and 3rd grade too, at least from my point of view.
Yet, I adore his writing. I love the clueless awkwardness wrapped around all the true-hearted, well meaningness, speckled with zany. The heroes are confused and sincere, the heroines are slutty, edgy, open-hearted, and off kilter. Maybe I find myself in his fun, maybe I can’t figure out how to find myself in the fun so I just watch, bemused. Maybe Moore is damn good at what he does. After all the books he’s written, I suspect that “damn good at what he does” is the most true review.
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal is still my favorite but Sacre Bleu moved into second place. At first I thought, “He’s grown up. This is so tame and carefully constructed. There’s history and a sedate handling of crazy.” By the middle, the story had devolved into the usual snarky, snappy meandering that always leads to somewhere you want to go. The dialogue is so clever, you’re happy to be along for the ride.
If you are new to Moore, this is a good first read. If you don’t like it, chances are you won’t like anything else. If you do, I envy you. You’ll have a stack of zany adventures to read through and what better way to spend the summer?
Not one of his best. It starts out slow, with the pace finally picking up when the magical element is revealed. It felt too "gag-y" -- you can almost hear the drummer do the rimshot as the comic delivers the punch line. For example, he uses the same joke about 3 times -- a line about Toulouse-Lautrec wearing a top hat, while otherwise in deshabille, because he's a gentleman. Repetition doesn't make it funnier, and it never makes sense, because a gentleman doesn't wear a hat indoors. He makes no attempt to make the dialog sound appropriate to the era, which is fine, I suppose. [return][return]I've loved some of his other books, so I will still be on the lookout for his next one. If you've never read any Moore, don't start with this one. I recommend Coyote Blue, or Practical Demonkeeping.
