This was Raziel's first Christmas miracle. He'd been passed over for the task for two thousand years, but finally his turn had come up. Well, actually, the Archangel Michael's turn had come up, and Raziel ended up getting the job by losing in a card game. Michael had bet the planet Venus against his assigned task of performing the Christmas miracle this year. Venus! Although he wasn't really sure what he would have done with Venus had he won it, Raziel knew he needed the second planet, if for no other reason than that it was large and shiny.
Having read, and surprising myself by enjoying, Christopher Moore's Lamb some years ago, I was drawn to pick up The Stupidest Angel; which happens to also feature the titular Raziel. As a mindless beach read with Christmas approaching, this book suited my needs precisely and I winced and cringed and smirked my way through it in a few hours. As an author's warning levels at the reader, this wouldn't be an appropriate gift for grandmas or kids (too much cussing, violence, and middle aged sex), and I suspect that I'm not the ideal audience for Moore's absurdist sense of humour myself, but I went with the flow and mostly enjoyed the ride.
In another Christmas story, Dale Pearson, evil developer, self-absorbed woman hater, and seemingly unredeemable curmudgeon, might be visited in the night by a series of ghosts who, by showing him bleak visions of Christmas future, past, and present, would bring about in him a change to generosity, kindness, and a general warmth toward his fellow man. But this is not that kind of Christmas story, so here, in not too many pages, someone is going to dispatch the miserable son of a bitch with a shovel. That's the spirit of Christmas yet to come in these parts. Ho, ho, ho.This Dale Pearson – who seems to have had it coming – happened to have been returning from a Christmas party at the Caribou Lodge when he took the blade of a shovel to the throat, and because Dale was wearing a Santa suit at the time, a seven year old boy who saw everything believed he had just witnessed the death of Santa Claus. In a heartfelt prayer to God, this Joshua asks for Santa to be brought back to life for the sake of all the good little boys and girls around the world, and it is to grant just such a prayer that Raziel had been sent to Earth. But because Raziel is the stupidest angel, the whole thing goes wrong.
I understand that this story sees the return of many of Moore's characters from earlier books, and in a way, that's exactly how it reads: there are a bunch of very particular people, with hinted at backstories (the retired B Movie Queen who has gone off her meds, the pot-smoking Constable that nobody listens to, the crusty old bar-owner/nympho who could kiss or kill you at the drop of a word, the stranger to town with his talking pet fruit bat), and although these characters do all interact together, most of the action follows them as individuals continuing their own storylines (which I guess is what I would want to see if I had met anyone other than Raziel before?) But I will add that, just as I enjoyed with Lamb, there's nothing really irreverent here: for an absurdist storyline with a lot of fratboy humour, Moore doesn't mock God and prayer and people of belief; even Joshua isn't sure about God, but Raziel is obviously real and acting as His emissary. As a Christmas story, I find that appropriate. The ending might be a little weak (even with the bonus chapter that was added later to address this weakness), and the reading experience might have little value beyond a few hours' entertainment, but I was in the mood for something like this and it worked for me.
