The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove by Christopher Moore
This book involves a psychiatrist who is convinced that she is terrible at her job and is trying to make amends, a pot addicted police-type public worker and a sea monster named Steve. And an B-movie starlet named Molly who may or may not be completely crazy. At least she knows it, though, right?
Where to start? I am not really sure honestly. This is a typical Chris Moore book, in the sense that it doesn't really make any sense.
I mean, the storyline is sort of contrived, loosely strung together by a series of events that are wholly implausible and if I wasn't the only person personally annoyed by the sheer lack of verisimilitude, then wow.
But I digress. I like Chris Moore's books usually. I really do. I loved A Dirty Job, I really did. But this book is nowhere near as good. I think this is because Moore forgets what he's doing halfway through novel writing. At some point I think he just gives up on making the plot cohesive and just strings all the bits together enough to come up with some sort of ending that would make partial sense to a deranged monkey.
But I'm probably being terribly unfair. I'm sure there are lots of people who LOVED this book. Those are probably the same people that consider The Stinky Cheese Man to be a legitimate fairy tale book. I mean, it is found in the "kids" section of the bookstore, right? And yes, I know that The Stinky Cheese Man is a postmodernist take on fairy tales, just like I know that Chris Moore writes absurdist fiction. But it's not good fiction, this book isn't. The rest of his stuff: bloody funny.
Anyways, my verdict and official rating is 3 stars. Not great. I tend to give most books I don't mind trudging through three stars. The books I don't like get two. The books I can't stand and don't ever want to see again will get only one. I have to really enjoy a book for it to get four stars. Most books will never get five stars. Thank you goodreads rating system.
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