Anima Rising by Christopher Moore

 

Started this yesterday in a coffee shop (kinda on-the-nose for a novel set in Vienna) and finished it this evening. It's Christopher Moore, so there's bawdy goofy humor smeared all over, but it's also a pretty serious novel--or at least, it's a novel with some real, serious things to say, mostly about how men treat (constrain, abuse, belittle, subordinate) women. It's perhaps a little less goofy-hilarious than Sacre Bleu but it's arguably a better novel, in some ways maybe a counterpoint if not an outright corrective.  I mean, it's still funny: I don't think Christopher Moore could write an unfunny novel if he tried; I think this is just in some ways more respectful, the way Noir and Razzmatazz are, of the people in it who aren't privileged white guys.