Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d'Art Kindle Edition

I adore the writing style of Christopher Moore & have read/own many of his titles. A number of them tie as far as my Christopher Moore favorites list goes, but this book is by far, one of my most favorite books of all of the books I own! (I hoard books, so that's saying something. Book addiction.) Being an artist and art history major, I found this extra funny, probably too funny. Moore weaves a wonderfully researched tale that could very well have been plausible - while filled with magic. The story contains fantastic elements of intrigue, suspense, mystery, sorrow, endearing love, of course, Moore's unique, colorful sense of humor, & quite frankly, one of the creepiest, weasle-y-est villains I've ever read. You definitely do not have to be an art nerd to appreciate & fall in love with Christopher Moore's "Sacre Bleu". The core of inspiration, the tragedy and beauty of the artist & his relationship with his art is described in the most creative, passionate fashion. I keep this book on my nightstand and also have a copy for my kindle. Enjoy!

What's not to like about Christopher Moore? Must admit about the middle of the book, I wasn't sure where he was going with the story and characters. But it's like he heard me, and the pace and story (already on a relatively fast trajectory) TOOK THE HELL OFF and became a marvelous onion that was just a pleasure to peel. I love fiction that uses historical or other facts as its foundation, and Mr. Moore is a master weaver. This novel took me back to the beginnings of creating and painting with colors, from 30,000 years ago, right up through the present day, and offered possible insights into how some of the most famous painters in history interacted with their contemporaries. AND all through Moore's unique, hip voice. You must read this one.

Vincent van Gogh is murdered right at the beginning of this story. Instead of suicide, his death being presented as murder isn't hard to believe, since in reality he shot himself in the stomach, only to walk a mile to the doctor for help. What man does that? Exactly.What a wonderful treat this book was! Being both a painter AND an author of a series that starts out during the same bohemian art era as this book takes place in, I long for fiction that uses the era of Impressionism as its backdrop - and that is extremely difficult to find. When a good friend of mine told me she had just read this book it took me about 2 seconds to download it. I wasn't disappoined, not even for one minute.All of the famous painters that were mentioned and had roles in this story came to clear life and immersed me into my favorite period in history. I have often wished I could go back to that era and for awhile Mr. Moore allowed me to live there. Readers who are expecting stuffy history will be greatly disappointed. These artists were anything but stuffy! Their dialog is rough, sexual, and funny, also he didn't try to make them "sound" nineteenth century, which I appreciated, since the artists WERE ahead of their time.Lucien and his family were so well developed and funny that every day on my treadmill found me laughing out loud at times. What a pleasure it was to read their interactions! Poopstick (The Colorman) and the muse (most often Juliette) became so real that by the time I was finished I was almost convinced they actually existed. And who's to say they didn't? And, by the way, Lucien was so likable that he soon felt like my best friend.Henri Toulouse-Lautrec (who most of us know was a real person) had a main role in the story and I loved the artistic freedom the author took with this artist, making him a funny,interesting man that brought a smile to my lips with every encounter. (One of the revviewers was offended with his portrayal, saying because of his deformed body it was a fact that he couldn't perform sexually. She would do well do relearn her art history, as Henri died of syphillis.It was also a well known rumor that he had enlarged sexual organs.)So many other famous artists, along with Theo van Gogh, Vincent's brother and art dealer, Tanguey (the art supply dealer) have brief parts in this story. As a painter I just can't say enough wonderful things about this all too brief jounrey into the great decadent bohemian Montmarte during the late nineteenth century.Very cool. Thank you for this fabulous story. I didn't want it to end!

The worst kind of sophomoric humor ~ The artist characters were pretty much duplicates of one another ~ A discernible plotline was all but missing ~ Yikes! Just awful. ~ I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I stuck with this silly and boring novel for 124 pages.

I picked this up originally because I loved Lamb by Christopher Moore...and lets just say, I love impressionistic art. He does a fun job incorporating the paintings, and a storyline kind of connecting them all...but I will say, I am not a quick reader, and in the beginning there were times where i got a little lost of where the story was going or some of the points in the narrative...so i took me awhile (which probably didn't help with my complete comprehension of the story) but once I finally broke through, I thorougly enjoyed the story. It is unique, entertaining, and witty...reliable traits you know you can count on from Christopher Moore.

I will not go into a lengthy description of the characters or the book because other reviewers have done an excellent job of doing just that. Suffice it to say that a rather devilish paint seller seems to make a lot of artists famous with his blue paint, and as the story unfolds, we see just how many artists have the same experience. The main character, Lucien Lessard, a baker/artist, is an appealing and sympathetic person, and his interaction with Bleu, the Colorman, and the Parisian artists around him is a lot of fun to read. The author also includes an interesting afterword which answers a few questions and raises a few more, especially about Van Gogh's death.Moore is a really good writer, his descriptions are wonderful and witty and I loved the premise of this book. One of my favourite parts is Claude Monet painting his series in Gare Saint Lazare, and the wonderfully weird way it happens. The unfolding of the plot had me captivated from the beginning and kept me interested to the very last page. Although this is the first Christopher Moore book I have read, I will look for others by the same author just to see how it stacks up.

I have read pretty much every novel by Christopher Moore, but somehow I missed "Sacré Bleu: A Comedy d'Art" the first time around. A mistake that has been rectified.To put it simply: I love this book - all caps and three exclamation marks.It now ranks aside, if not atop Fluke, Lamb and A Dirty Job, my favourite Moores.I love everything about this book: His style, plotting, characters and first and foremost the setting - the wonderful city of Paris during the birth of Modernism in French art, the days of Toulouse-Lautrec, Monet, Manet, Renoir, Gauguin and even Seurat, the first pointillist. Moore flawlessly incorporates a large number of these artists and historical events into the story.Though this book is available for the Kindle (and I made the mistake of starting on same), you NEED to read this is as a hardcover, because it is liberally sprinkled with full colour reproductions of paintings from those days, most of which are nicely incorporated into the story!Highest possible recommendation.PS: Fool, the only Moore I've not read yet, has jumped up some 372 spots on my 'to read'-list. (less)

Its difficult to review this as a Christopher Moore work as its so different from anything else of his that I have read. Yes, it involves the supernatural, but otherwise its very different. First of all it involves art, and impressionist art at that. You don't have to know much about that genre, but it does help if you know the names of the artists of the period. These are the greats of the late 19th century and created some wonderful work. To find them now at the centre of a Christopher Moore book is slightly bizarre - bit then bizarre is what Moore does.I won't try to describe the plot, all I will say is that it involves the colour blue, a mysterious woman, a sort of demon, some murder, a lot of syphillis and some painting. Christopher Moore manages to recreate the atmosphere of Montmartre in the late 19th century. It might even be said that he recreates it too well. I doubt I'll ever be able to look at my print of Le Chat Noir again without visualising Toulouse Lautrec sans pantalons. Not a pretty image to be left with.The book is perhaps a little long, especially if you aren't into the art, but for fans its a great read and probbaly the best iof Moore's that I have aver read - and not a vampire or zombie in sight.

Suffice it to say that I'm a fan of Mr. Moore and read Noir last December and Sacre Bleu this January. Planning to get Shakespeare for Squirrels in a week or two. He never disappoints.

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.

bought as a gift, not my thing, but recipient enjoyed it