Leaving the demon- and vampire wracked state of
California behind, Christopher Moore has turned his attention to the Paris
inhabited by the Impressionists in Sacré
Bleu. Focusing his story on the bread baker-cum-artist Lucien Lessard,
Moore allows himself to depict some of the greatest artists of nineteenth
century Paris, from Henri Toulouse-Lautrec to Paul Gaugin, to Jean Renoir,
in a story that is set off by the mysterious suicide of Vincent van Gogh and
implicates an even more mysterious man known only as The Colorman.
Moore does not completely turn his back on the humor
for which he is known, but he does downplay it.
The jokes and humor that is included frequently are the result of
specific character’s points of view rather than by the inclusion of the
narrator’s fiat, as Moore employed in his novels from Practical Demonkeeping through Fool.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and readers who are looking for
Moore’s sense of humor will definitely find it, it just means that Sacré Bleu is a more serious novel than Moore has previously
published.
