Rating: 
Summary: The demon as hood-ornament
Review: This book isn't exactly laugh-out-loud funny. Too many people are devoured by the demon for it to be tongue-in-cheek...unless it's the demon's cheek and our tongue we're talking about here. However, "Practical Demonkeeping" is witty, shading into heavily ironic. It is blackly humorous as in the scene where the demon coughed, "...and a red spiked heel shot out of his mouth and bounced off the windshield, spattering the glass with hellish spit."You might guess that the red high heel once belonged to a woman, but it's not that kind of novel. As a matter of fact it belonged to a motel night clerk named Billy Winston who was a transvestite from the waist down (the parts that the motel customers can't see below the counter). Most of Moore's characters have some redeeming characteristics, even the scum-bag drug dealers and pool sharks, and I was really sorry when the demon ate Billy. Even the demon whose name is Catch has his likeable moments--usually when he's reading Cookie Monster comic books and in between snacks. He also has a sense of humor, the kind of humor you'd expect from a cat toying with its next meal. Some of the book's real humor comes from a second supernatural creature, the King of the Djinn who has been chasing after Catch ever since the glory days of King Solomon--except for a few thousand years of down time in a lead jar at the bottom of the sea. He expresses himself in phrases such as, "By Aladdin's lamplit scrotum," and "Tell us where the Seal of Solomon is hidden or we will have your genitals in a nine-speed reverse action blender." The true hero of "Practical Demonkeeping," owner of Pine Cove, California's bait, tackle, and fine wines shop thinks the King of the Djinn looks like "a prune in a Carmen Miranda costume." Nevertheless, this unlikely pair teams up to do a bit of demon-hunting. Wickedly funny. That's the term I'm searching for. This book with its winos, pagans, wrinkled-prune Djinn, and hungry demon is wickedly funny. Read it and you might even die, especially if you ignore its warning not to pick up hitchhikers near Pine Cove, California.
Rating: 
Summary: A fiendishly toothsome amalgamation of scrumptious sentences
Review: For ninety-year-old Travis O'Hearn, who doesn't look a day over twenty-five, acting as the master of the snake-skinned demon Catch for the better part of the 20th century has been problematic. Granted, the position has its perquisites--immortality and the potential for world domination and so on--but on the other hand there is the difficult issue of the anthropophagous beast's appetite. Travis, unwilling demonkeeper and good guy that he is, has tried to limit Catch's diet over the years to drug dealers and other of life's non-innocents. But the situation is less than ideal, and Travis is eager to sever his relationship with Catch. The solution to Travis's dilemma may lie in Pine Cove, California, a tourist town populated by intriguing characters like Howard Phillips, owner of H.P.'s Cafe, who believes that his daily specials may be the only thing keeping the world from subjugation to a pre-human race. (Howard insists that his waitresses describe the specials in memorized passages of overwrought prose. Ham and eggs is "a fiendishly toothsome amalgamation of scrumptious ingredients so delicious that the mere description of the palatable gestalt could drive one mad.") Also arrived in Pine Cove is Gian Hen Gian, a rumpled little demon hunter who curses in blue swirls and hankers after table salt, and who once worked construction on King Solomon's temple. Christopher Moore is a witty and imaginative writer, and Practical Demonkeeping, Moore's first book, is a fun read. Moore's oeuvre should appeal to the Hitchhiker crowd and Tom Robbins fans.
Rating:
Summary: Delightfully demonic.
Review: Those who believe truth is stranger than fiction haven't travelled the novels of Christopher Moore. In LAMB, the Big Sur novelist reveals Jesus's "missing years" through the Son of God's childhood friend, Biff. In the ISLAND OF THE SEQUINED LOVE NUN, he travels to a trippy tropical island with Tucker Case, a hopeless geek trapped in a cool guy's body. In COYOTE BLUE, he introduces us to Samuel Hunter, a successful Santa Barbara yuppy, tormented by the trickster god, Coyote. In THE LUST LIZARD OF MELANCHOLY COVE, he turns a horny, prehistoric Sea Beast named Steve loose on the hippied-out, Pacific Coast California town, Pine Cove. It was in his debut novel, PRACTICAL DEMONKEEPING, that Moore first introduced his readers to Pine Cove. Strange things happen to the residents of Pine Cove, even long before the town psychiatrist takes them off their anti-depressant medication in THE LUST LIZARD OF MELANCHOLY COVE and Steve the Sea Beast crawls ashore. In PRACTICAL DEMONKEEPING, a demon named Catch goes on a feeding frenzy in Pine Cove, while his keeper, Travis O'Hearn (a 100-year old ex-seminarian stuck in the body of of a 20-year-old) attempts to send the demon back to hell. Not even a people-eating demon seems out of the ordinary to the pagans, goddesses, and "Vegetarians for Peace" who rally together to protect their town from hell on earth. After reading Moore's wickedly funny first novel, readers will not soon forget August Brine, Pine Cove's resident Zen purveyor of bait, tackle, and fine wines. G. Merritt
Rating:
Summary: A Riot
Review: If you want to laugh...this book is a riot!..very imaginative fantasy tale featuring very real characters
Rating:
Summary: Make people on your flight jealous!
Review: Christopher Moore will never be mistaken for a serious writer ... but that really doesn't matter. Practical Demonkeeping et al keep the reader engrossed in the story and the reader will often find themselves laughing out loud while reading [any] of mister Moore's works. In Practical Demonkeeping the audience is introduced to the "lovely" fictional town of Pine Grove near Big Sur. This is the same location featured in another of Christopher Moore's books - The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove ... whose population is a bizarre mix of eccentrics and small-town-strange people. If you have never read anything by mr. Moore ... I would recommend this as a good place to start. This novel will keep you laughing page after page ... keeping you completely engrossed in the story. Definitly a worthwhite read
Rating:
Summary: Funny, creative, and intelligent-Christopher Moore!
Review: Practical Demonkeeping may have been the first book by Christopher Moore, but it sure is a keeper. I am now reading his lastest and if you have had a chance to pick up one of his books-DO IT NOW! Practical Demonkeeping is funny for sure, but the characters really come alive on the pages. I for one would love to see one or all of his books put on the big screen. Good story lines, excellent humor....just what this world needs now
Rating: 
Summary: Unusual, fun book
Review: This is another zany, fun book from Christopher Moore; it is the 2nd novel I've read of his, the first being Coyote Blue. Practical Demonkeeping was neither as funny, nor as thoughtful as Coyote Blue, but was unusual enough, and had good enough characterizations to make this an easy, quick, and fun read. The setting of Pine City in CA provides plenty of characters for Moore to establish, but the story of the demon and his keeper is a bit too involved, and perhaps not grounded sufficiently to make this a four or five star book. Even so, it was fun to read.
Rating:
Summary: Great first novel
Review: This is a good place to start reading Moore because he has recurring characters throughout his books. Practical Demonkeeping is very funny but has a lot of characters to keep track of. I loved all of the characters but felt that the story was truncated by them and wrapped up too quickly. I would have made the ending a bit longer. Other than that, it is still a great read. Moore's books are like eating chips - after reading one, you will have to consume them all.
Rating:
Summary: Very entertaining with a few rough edges
Review: This book has great character development and interesting story line. It describes events in humorous and yet ponderous ways. Some crude language, and use of F word. It was written with deeper meaning and background than many might suspect. For more info see the ancient "Testament of Solomon."
Rating:
Summary: Splatter Punk, Thorne Smith,Cabell (James Branch)
Review: Okay, look, so none of the guys I mentioned in the title mean anything to you.
So why should you read this book?
Are you depressed? Out of sorts? Out of booze? Down to seeds and stems again?
This book makes it all right. Truly it does.
Work your way through the blood and gore. The characters you THINK are nasty-assed bastards and bitchs, and you'll come to the joyful heart of this book. Yeah, the guy is a master. Perhaps tyhe best new writer of fantasy in years, but you won't find him in the science fiction section. Nope, no ghetto for him.
Ain't no swords in this book. No grand quests. Just Catch and his reluctant keeper. Trust me, they are enough.
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