Sacre Bleu: A Comedy D'Art (P.S.) [Paperback]

The ever inventive and irreverent Christopher Moore tackles art history (circa 1891) in "Sacre Bleu" and creates a bizarre, spicey and often funny mix of Impressionist painters and angels, demons, trolls and other fantasies. Overall, this marriage of respectably-researched artist biographies cum French cultural history and Moore's usual wild romp of snarky/witty dialogue and otherwordly interventions provides some very entertaining moments. With a fictional Parisian painter, Lucien Lessard, and his Watsonian sidekick, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec on board as protagonists, the story is largely about the lives of late 19th Century Paris artists and their muses--especially about their muses! As often is the case, Moore emphasizes the foibles, vices and follies of his characters, creating some wicked and hilarious dialogue between them.

Funny as much of this book is, between laughs I was doing a lot of head scratching, particularly in the first 100 pages when the unfolding fantasy element was interwoven with the straight fictional aspects of the story. Eventually, this is sorted out and the tale takes off pretty well about halfway through. Interspersed throughout the book is a usually profane account (yes, blue) of Bohemian loose living, the vicissitudes of struggling artists' lives and a lot of Randy Newmanesque jokes about short people (poor Lautrec).

My recommendation is this: if you are familiar with Christopher Moore's work, by all means get this book and read it. If you have not tried the author before, go to another title first to see what you're in for ("Lamb", "A Dirty Job", etc.). The author is an acquired taste and one that requires some tolerance of mixed genres, modern sensibilities and dialogue in historic contexts and acceptance of sophomoric sex jokes.

That's how Christopher Moore characterizes Sacré Bleu. It's also a mystery, a comedy and a dizzying, dazzling trip through the art world of fin-de-siecle Paris.

I read somewhere that every single one of Christopher Moore's books has been optioned but not one has ever made it to film. I think it must be because producers eventually realize that it's just too much of a challenge to translate the sheer lunacy and demented sweetness of Moore's books to the screen.

The book begins on the day of Vincent Van Gogh's death in Auvers, a village near Paris. Vincent has gone to a crossroads to paint. The history is that Van Gogh there shot himself, then walked a mile to the home of his doctor to seek treatment. Moore wondered if it made any sense that an artist at the height of his powers, even one as tormented as Van Gogh, would shoot himself at that point. And then, why would he walk a mile to his doctor's place rather than just lie down and die? Moore appoints baker-turned-painter Lucien Lessard, and famed painter and libertine Henri Toulouse-Lautrec as his alter-ego detectives to pursue the answer to this puzzle. The pursuit involves Renoir, Manet, Monet, Whistler, Pissarro, Gaugin, Seurat, a menacing character called the Colorman, the artists' muses, a few side trips through time and space, and lots and lots about the color blue.

It's been a long time since I read a book in one afternoon, but once I started reading, I couldn't stop. Now, here I sit with my eyes burning and my head filled with whirling images of the adventures of the naive young Lucien and his usually drunk and lubricious but always endearing friend, Toulouse-Lautrec. In the Afterword, Moore writes, "I know what you're thinking: 'Well thanks loads, Chris, now you've ruined art for everyone.'" Far from it. He's definitely made it a whole lot weirder, but isn't that what you're looking for from one of his books?

Moore always travels to the settings of his books before he writes and, in this case, that means France, mainly Paris. If you visit his blog. he has included a chapter guide where, as he says, "you'll find some photographs, a little background on the geography, history, and art featured in the book, as well as observations and musing I had while researching and writing the book that just wouldn't fit in the story, but I hope will give some perspective on it." Before, during or after you read the book, I highly recommend a visit to the blog and the chapter guide. Among many other items of interest---and more extensive attempts to ruin art for everyone---there are photographs of Auvers, the village where Van Gogh was living at the end of his life, including the real-life settings of several Van Gogh paintings, juxtaposed with the paintings themselves.

In addition to being a flat-out joyride of a novel, this is a beautifully produced book, with typefaces evocative of its 19th century Parisian setting and reproductions of artworks of Toulouse-Lautrec, Van Gogh and many other luminaries of the period. Recommended.

The guy is a comic genius. As witty and hilarious as ever. If you're a fan you wont be disappointed and if you're new to the wonderful imagination of Christopher Moore you're in for a treat.