WARNING: The novel being discussed in this post is slightly absurd, with odd scenarios and sarcastic humor. But it’s about a thrift shop owner and how the items in his store hold souls, so I thought it would be neat to share. End warning.
I picked this novel by Christopher Moore up a few weeks ago and didn’t think to post about it until today. It’s about a man named Charlie who owns a thrift shop. His wife passes away unexpectedly and he becomes involved in a new sideline business of retrieving the souls of the dead or dying to protect them from the forces of the underworld. In other words, he becomes “Death.”
You folks are thinking “So Liz,… why are you telling us about this? It sounds kinda creepy!”
Well, you’re right. That kind of plot does sound a little creepy. But the book is written with enough humility and sarcastic humor to make it a really fun read. And the concept of how souls move about Earth is pretty nifty.
The concept is that a soul goes along with a person until they die. It’s then attached to an object that person really cared for when they lived. The person is then re-born, and goes along life without a soul until they reach the point in their new life where they died in the last one. Then they pick their soul up and do it all over again.
Charlie - the thrift shop owner - is responsible for making sure that the ’soul-items’ get safely from one person to the next. This is an ideal job for him since he owns a thrift shop and sees people’s formally cherished and used possessions come and go. And thus, he is “Death.”
See,… it’s not that creepy.
Can you think of any one object that you’ve loved and would like to see in the after-life?
We’ve all found things we’re proud of… maybe it was more “meant to be” then we know.
Either way, this is a fun book and it makes you appreciate a thrift shop a whole lot more!
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February 24th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
Reminds me of a television show we used to make here in Canada - Friday the 13th (The Series). In this show every object was possessed. Kind of a lame idea actually…
I once had a creative writing teacher tell me ‘if you’re going to write a story about a pair of magic gloves, you better have a pair of human hands wearing them.’ and maybe thats the kind of narrative you’re talking about here. Thanks Liz. I’ll keep an eye out for the book.