Books › A Dirty Job
A Dirty Job
A Novel
First published 2006 · 623 pages
A hilarious, chaotic romp through the underworld of San Francisco that somehow manages to be a touching story about single fatherhood and grief.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like riding a runaway cable car through a funhouse mirror version of San Francisco. It is a masterclass in balancing the deeply morbid with the profoundly silly, wrapping genuine meditations on grief and single fatherhood in a chaotic package of hellhounds, sewer monsters, and bureaucratic soul-collecting. The pace is brisk and bouncy, propelled by snappy dialogue and an irreverent, deadpan narrative voice that treats the apocalypse as a mild inconvenience. Despite the constant presence of death, the atmosphere is surprisingly warm and affectionate, anchored by a neurotic but fiercely loving protagonist. It will delight anyone who appreciates dark humor, urban fantasy with a slapstick edge, and stories where the end of the world is just another Tuesday.
- Mood
- morbidly cheerful
- chaotic
- quirky
- surprisingly tender
- Tone
- irreverent
- darkly comedic
- absurd
- affectionate
- wry
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- absurdity of mortality · single fatherhood · grief and healing · finding purpose in the mundane · cosmic bureaucracy
- The writing
- Snappy and dialogue-heavy, laced with deadpan observations, bizarre metaphors, and sharp comedic timing.
- The arc
- Moves from bewildered grief and neurotic panic to a bizarrely confident acceptance of cosmic responsibility.
- Who it's for
- Readers who love their existential dread served with a side of slapstick comedy, quirky urban fantasy, and genuine heart.
Content notes
- death of a spouse
- grief
- morbid humor
- comedic violence
- profanity
About the book
Charlie Asher is a pretty normal guy with a normal life, married to a bright and pretty woman who actually loves him for his normalcy. They're even about to have their first child. Yes, Charlie's doing okay—until people start dropping dead around him, and everywhere he goes a dark presence whispers to him from under the streets. Charlie Asher, it seems, has been recruited for a new position: as Death.
It's a dirty job, but hey! Somebody's got to do it.
Description from Open Library.
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