Book Review: Practical Demonkeeping

Another hilariously honest tome from Christopher Moore, Practical Demonkeeping is his world, a crooked mirror, reflecting demons, angels and humans all looking stupider than they really are—and you can’t stop laughing at how much you recognize yourself.   Moore has a knack for killing off just the right amount of characters—the kind you don’t exactly mourn unless you’ve got a soft spot for cross-dressers with bad timing.

The book is packed with inside jokes. Some are for the underworld, some for the Sunday-school dropouts and a few for people smarter than me. Doesn’t matter—you still laugh, even when you don’t get it. Especially when you don’t get it.

And then, in the middle of all the chaos, Moore drops a line like: “There was something about her that made Travis want to dump his life out on the coffee table like a pocket full of coins; let her sort through and keep what she wanted.”  That’s Moore at his best—sliding raw humanity into the absurd, reminding you that even in a story about demons, people are still the strangest creatures of all.

Another line cuts to the heart of it: “As if the next few words he spoke would reveal the true meaning of life, the winning numbers in the state lottery and the unlisted phone number of God.” That’s the pulse of the book: desperate, ridiculous, half-true and fully insane.

By the end, you’re laughing at blasphemy, rooting for creatures you shouldn’t and wondering if maybe God really is just unlisted. It’s brutal, it’s hilarious and it leaves you with the uneasy sense that demons might not be the worst company after all.