What do readers think of Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore? Write your own review.

Christopher Moore has tackled Shakespeare and the Gospels, among other cultural icons. This time he turns his sights on art and the Impressionists, with a specific focus on the color blue. His story mixes the supernatural with real people. It's great fun seeing how he incorporates some of the best-loved artists. You do have to be willing to suspend disbelief, but once you do that, you can't help but have a good time. Even though I loved this book, I'm holding back a point the way I hold back my standing ovations. If given too freely, they mean nothing. Moore's books are clever, but I doubt anybody would mistake them for great literature.

When I received this book, and did my initial flip-through, I thought I would not like it, but I told myself to keep an open mind. I have never read anything like this before, but I enjoyed this book! There isn't a lot to the plot, but it is clever and fun. I also told myself not to expect to learn a lot about art history, but I ended up knowing more than when I started. Not one of my Bookbrowse faves, but enjoyable.

Moore’s mystical, mordant comedy starts off with a bang—literally. Van Gogh shoots himself in a wheat field, and then walks a mile to seek medical attention. Why try to commit suicide and then ask for help? That is a mystery, one of several in this bawdy revisionist history of the French Masters. It’s an artful madcap romp and roll of fin de siècle France. Sacré bleu refers to an ultramarine color adorned by the Blessed virgin, but it’s also French profanity for blasphemous cursing. In other words, sacré bleu covers territory from the sacred…to the profane, just like Moore’s comedy d’Art of the late nineteenth century Impressionists.

A mystifying woman, Juliette, is the muse for Lucien Lessard, a baker turned painter. Lessard’s closest friend is painter Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, the bon vivant frequenter of bars, baguettes, and brothels. Henri and Lucien find themselves chasing love and the “blues” in this absurdist, and, to some degree, shaggy dog story where a dwarf and a donkey seem mysteriously connected to the great passions and masterpieces of Seurat, Manet, Pissaro, Cezanne, Monet, Renoir, and others of this era.

Colorful anecdotes of the great painters add fine brushstrokes to the story’s ribald and ruddy complexion, and are just as entertaining as the story’s central premise. The principal twister is dragged out to a long-winded finale, so that the reader is ready for it to end at about 80 of the way through. However, it is a thought provoking and satisfying conclusion. Also, Moore gives us more with a tantalizing afterword.

If you ever tried to mix a certain shade of blue paint you can understand the problems artists in the 1900 had trying to succeed.
Blue was impossible without the help of certain minerals that the "colorman" would sell to the artists. The paint would be mixed with turpentine and the fumes would cause hallucinations.

I loved the conversations and ways of life of the artists. Just imagine listening to van Gogh and Gauguin discuss their paintings over a glass of wine.
I always imagined the poor artists huddled in dark corners and starving. They were poor but all were willing to help others. Stores would ask for paintings on the walls so they would be sold "for a fee"

This is a great story of artists life in Paris .

I didn't know what to expect so I entered cautiously. It is unlike anything I'd read before, but in a good way. Fun story with a great dry sense of humor. I enjoyed the characters the most, particularly Henri. (I wanted to hang out with him!). Recommended.

I was so excited to read the newest Christopher Moore. I have read almost all of his books and found them to be laugh-out-loud funny. Not so with this book. It was certainly amusing, but not what I expected from Moore. It was, however a very original story about real artists in a very unreal situation. I would recommend it for the story and the illustrations of beautiful paintings.

Sacre Bleu is comic historical fiction about the post impressionist painters of the late 19th century. Toulouse Lautrec is one of the main characters. Fiction about art and artists is one of my favorite types but this book took me awhile to get into because of its totally irreverent approach to its subject matter. Once I got over the author’s sophomoric potty-mouth writing style, I enjoyed the book a lot. The author captured the angst of artistic life and had an interesting take on the artist’s muse. I particularly enjoyed the inclusion of the works of art referred to in the story. As I read the book, I felt I was reading a comic book or graphic novel. The most similar book that I know is Secret Lives of Great Artists by Elizabeth Lunday which is a graphic book.

I have read all of Christopher Moore’s books. They are generally irreverent, full of wit and fairly absurd in the best of ways. That being said, Sacre Blue didn’t too much deviate from the norm. For me, it started very slow, to the point that I had to force my way through the first fifty or so pages. It eventually picked up the pace; however, the outlandish take on the artist and his inspiration through the ages didn’t inspire me as much as Moore’s previous works. There were elements I really enjoyed such as the way he incorporated actual historical painters and their works into the storyline bringing art to life blending truth with fiction. Toulouse-Lautrec, in a supporting role and the 1800’s equivalent of a party animal, was my favorite character. He did make me laugh. It was the mystery that drew me in this book rather than the comedy and it wasn’t enough to keep me from being fully entertained.