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?