Rating: 
Summary: mostly fun
Review: Amazon.com has been recommending Coyote Blue to me for some time now, presumably due to my generally high ratings for Tom Robbins. This book is sort of a Robbins-Lite. We've got an enjoyable puree of natural and supernatural, without Robbins' mastery of the metaphor. Now, Moore's writing is clever and funny, but Robbins' makes me smile at least once per page.In Coyote Blue we get a man facing up to his past (at the insistence of an ancient Native American god) and falling in real love for the first time. The best bits were the Native American myths told from a 20th Century point of view. The worst bits came at the end of the book. I won't give it away, but I will say that it's too much deus ex machina, even for a book about gods. Everything up to that point had made sense in its own way, but this was too much. I will read more Moore, but I won't expect brilliance - just fun.
Rating: 
Summary: Self help is great, but sometimes we need Coyote.
Review: Before I encountered this book, I thought I already knew all about Coyote, the trickster god of the Native Americans. He's the one who sticks out his foot and trips you once you've hit your stride. He's the one who turns up the heat in your comfort zone until he blasts you out. Moore puts a spin on him, however, that gave me a lot of fresh material to think about. There is something in this book that will appeal to everyone--satire, humor galore, love of all sorts, Las Vegas, bikers, a traveling miracle salesman, a Crow shaman who wonders himself if his visions are in fact now actually the D.T.'s--and last but not least, Sam Hunter (nee Samson Hunts Alone)who thought he'd already found himself until Coyote came along. In a rut? Read this book. You'll find yourself looking forward to having your world turned upside down.
Rating:
Summary: Everyone Needs a Good Bad Example
Review: Coyote Blue is laugh-out-loud hilarious. As Moore warns in the pronunciation guide, don't try reading this in public. With each book of Moore's, I become more amazed at his ability to be obscenely funny and satirical, yet somehow respectful to the deepest truths underlying the story. The characters in this book are a little thinner than usual, but that may be due to so many of the characters being attributes in human form. The minor characters like Adeline Eats were very well portrayed. The storyline seemed a little jumpier to me than usual also, with major shifts in time and place, but that may be because I was reading so fast, since Moore's books always pull you along like a crazy amusement park ride.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful read by a GREAT new author
Review: Since my son is in Native American Studies, this book quickly caught my eye. Mr. Moore's Trickster Coyote "helping" Sam straighten out his life..and the predicaments it gets them into left me holding my sides with laughter at times. Be prepared for suspense, romance, horror and humor and to have a ROFL experience when reading this or any of the four books Chris Moore has written
Rating:
Summary: Fast and Fantastic
Review: A friend lent me this book, insisting that I would love it. He was right. From the spurious pronunciation guide at the beginning to the chapter titles ("Chapter 15 - Like God's Own Chocolate, I'd Lick Her Shadows Off a Hot Sidewalk"), every word of it felt exactly right. I paused for a moment, once, to admire a particularly effective bit of alliteration, but I was having too much fun just reading to stop and mull things over for very long. Seeing religious themes expressed with such irony, obscenity, and outright humor shocks you into paying attention. Coyote Blue hit me in just the right place at just the right time, and I enjoyed it more than I've enjoyed my first reading of just about any other book.
Rating:
Summary: Moore hillarious fun and antics....
Review: Where else can you find a zany jokester indian GOD, a corrupt condo manager, a multi-religious blond woman, and a bunch of hard riding bikers. Christopher Moore does it again in this laugh out loud funny story of Sam Hunter, runaway Crow Indian turned slick talking Santa Barbara insurance salesman. Sam Hunter has spent 17 years away from his heritage, building a so called life amoung the white man has made Sam Hunter a hollow man with a mercedes, cool condo, and a closet full of armani suits. Then a beautiful but odd blond woman strikes his fancy and a Zany Indian God turns his life upside down. All of a sudden his very planned and predictable life becomes a complete nightmare and he is afraid 17 years of hiding his crime will be revealed. Same struggles with his identity, love, doubt, and ultimately his religious beliefs. This is a wild, crazy journey full of wacky and racy events that will make you break out in laughter so read it where you can laugh out loud and not get kick out.
Rating:
Summary: Something Moore to howl about.
Review: After leaving his Crow reservation in Montana at age fifteen, Samson Hunts Alone changed his name to become Sam Hunter, a "hardworking, intelligent, and even likable" (p. 15) Santa Barbara insurance salesman with a Mercedes, a townhouse, and a "steady, level, and safe" life (p.16). Although his yuppie lifestyle seems perfect on the surface, Sam suffers from "Coyote Blue," the constant fear that something might go wrong to upset his "world of one" (p. 117). After meeting Calliope Kincaid, a free-spirited woman with the power to inspire men "to art and madness" (p. 64), and a mysterious, shape-shifting Indian (none other than Old Man Coyote) shortly after his thirty-fifth birthday, Sam nearly loses everything--his Mercedes, his money, his career, and his condo, only to discover himself in the chaos of his new life. Filled with unforgetable scenes such as a coyote humping a leather sofa "like a furry jackhammer" (p. 50), Moore's second novel, COYOTE BLUE, is a quirky, entertaining novel, that will leave you howling with laughter. G. Merritt
Rating:
Summary: Moore's best
Review: My children love the Coyote stories. If you live in the American Southwest, or just enjoy mythology, you're probably familiar with the Trickster myths. Even if you're not, this is a wonderful spin on Coyote, strictly for adults. The premise is wonderful and Moore's excution is right-on with an updated view of Coyote's antics. Moore's alternate views of what we tend to take for granted are also priceless: I still chuckle when I think of Seuss's Sam I Am.
Rating:
Summary: A truly funny book, and a bit more
Review: Coyote Blue is the first novel of Christopher Moore's I have read, and it is easy to see why he is so popular. The whole book is a crazy, zany, wild ride for the reader and main character alike, and ultimately reaches a higher quality that transcends the goofiness. Moore presents a completely hilarious character, the Crow god Coyote. Coyote and a number of Crow legends (I have no idea how historically accurate they might be) are always invoked in significant ways in the story, however, and force thoughtfulness and serious consideration on the reader. In other words, I was laughing as much as I ever have with a book, while at the same time mulling over some serious issues about life in general. Coyote Blue is a wonderful book!
Rating:
Summary: Clive Barker meets Kurt Vonnegut
Review: After reading all of Vonnegut's books, and all of Barker's books I was fortunate enough to discover Christopher Moore. While "Lamb" (which I highly recommend) was much more a work of satire, "Coyote Blue" is a comic adventure of absurd fantasy. The book does have some glaring continuity omissions (notably, how one could live under an alias for 20 years and still have a nice car, credit cards and a townhouse is not explained). It's probably best just to ignore this and enjoy the book. Coyote Blue certainly has some laugh out loud moments, and is peppered with clever puns, some I missed then caught it while I was on the next page. Very exciting, if totally absurd, plot development. I like this guy's writing and I'm sure I'll read all his current published offerings soon enough. I'm working on it...
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