Christopher Moore Gives Out ‘Cannery Row' to Convert Steinbeck Haters

New York Times

22-05-2025

In an email interview, the author of comic novels about Jesus ('Lamb') and Death ('A Dirty Job') shared what drew him to write about the artists Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. SCOTT HELLER
What books are on your night stand?
'The Village of the Vampire Cat,' by Lensey Namioka, and 'The Destroyer of Worlds,' by Matt Ruff. And I'm rereading my own novel 'Noir' because I'm writing another book with those characters.
Describe your ideal reading experience.
Settling on the couch in our screened-in porch in Ohio, under a blanket, during a summer thunderstorm, with a novel that completely immersed me in the story. Because I was about 11, I'd guess it was a Jules Verne novel.
What's the best book you've ever received as a gift?
Very early in our relationship my wife gave me a first edition of Steinbeck's 'Cannery Row,' my favorite novel of all time. It's the book that taught me to write with forgiveness and humor toward my characters and I'm eternally grateful for that lesson. (I always buy extra copies when I'm at a used-book store to give out to people who were ruined for Steinbeck by having to read 'Of Mice and Men' in high school.)
Why do you think 'Lamb' has proved such a favorite among your readers?
I think it's funny, it gives readers a sense they're doing something slightly naughty, like giggling during Mass, then they get a rush of vindication when they find out the book is sweet. 'Lamb' humanizes Jesus and allows the reader to see this character, not as the son of God, but as a likable, earnest and somewhat confused young man, through the eyes of a friend who loves him for those qualities, not because he 'saves the world.'
What's the last great book you read?
I've recently reread 'Don Quixote.' Cervantes illustrates the folly of chivalry and romance, while being entertaining and lyrical, and, I think, showing that there is value to aspiring to nobility of spirit. Maybe that's just what I want it to say.
What books are you embarrassed not to have read yet?
'Pride and Prejudice.' I have seen numerous screen adaptations, so I know the story, but I'm relatively sure I'd get distracted while reading by trying to figure out how to plausibly get Elizabeth to become a ninja.
What's your favorite book no one else has heard of?
'Last Days of Summer,' by Steve Kluger. It's a very funny epistolary novel set in the 1940s, about a kid who keeps writing to a baseball player on the New York Giants, pretending to have different diseases and begging the player to hit a home run for him.
This feels like a moment in time that calls for satire. Why turn to the past instead?
One, I really enjoy writing and I don't want to spend a moment more thinking about our current political situation than I have to. Two, the current reality seems so absurd I don't know how I could send it up. Everything is so profoundly stupid.
Why Klimt and Schiele?
Klimt because I admired his paintings, and Schiele because he was Klimt's protégé. But it started with wanting to write about Vienna in that period because it was a genius cluster: Klimt, Mahler, Freud, Richard Strauss, Walter Gropius, not to mention political figures like Trotsky, Tito, Stalin and Hitler. I picked 1911 because that's the year Schiele met Klimt's model, Wally Neuzil, and the relationship between painters and models would be central to the story.
In real life, was either of them especially funny?
Klimt wrote almost nothing about himself, or his art, for that matter, so it's hard to say, but there are a lot of photographs where he's dancing and celebrating, so it seems he very much enjoyed life. Schiele did write about himself and his art, and he seems very dour and self-critical, so not funny. In my book, the women in their lives are the funny ones.
How much cultural history do readers need to know to appreciate 'Anima Rising'?
If you've seen pictures of Klimt's work in books or online, and have some idea of the time period, the rest will fill in. It helps if you've read the original 'Frankenstein' or have seen an adaptation that's close to the novel, but I think 'Anima Rising' will work even if you don't have that background.
What's the last book you read that made you laugh?
'Spook Street,' by Mick Herron.
Your favorite book about art or an artist?
Kurt Vonnegut's 'Bluebeard.'
What's the most interesting thing you learned from a book recently?
From one of Ben Aaronovitch's 'Rivers of London' novels, I learned that when they put the Underground through the city, they had areas where the trains came out of the tunnels to the surface, and they only demolished the backs of buildings to accommodate them. So there are houses in London that are nothing but brick facades of Victorian buildings.
How do you sign books for your fans?
Happy reading. Your pal, Christopher Moore