Review: Fool by Christopher Moore
Title: Fool
Author: Christopher Moore
Genre: Humor, historical fiction?
Reason for Reading: I wanted something light and funny, and I know that Moore delivers quite well.
Synopsis:
Christopher Moore, much beloved scrivener and peerless literary jester, now takes on no less than the legendary Bard himself (with the utmost humility and respect) with a twisted and insanely funny tale of a moronic monarch and his deceitful daughters, as seen through the eyes of a man wearing a codpiece and bells on his head.Pocket has been Lear’s cherished fool for years. So naturally Pocket is at his brainless, elderly liege’s side when Lear demands that his kids swear to him their undying love and devotion. Of course Goneril and Regan are only too happy to brownnose Dad. But Cordelia believes that her father’s request is kind of…well…stupid, and her blunt honesty ends up costing her her rightful share of the kingdom and earns her a banishment to boot.
Well now the bangers and mash have really hit the fan. And the only person who can possibly make things right . . . is Pocket. Now he’s going to have do some very fancy maneuvering: cast some spells, start a war or two – the usual stuff – to get Cordelia back into Daddy Lear’s good graces, to derail the fiendish power plays of Cordelia’s twisted sisters, and to shag every lusciously shaggable wench who’s amenable to shagging along the way.
Pocket may be a fool…but he’s definitely not an idiot.
Other Thoughts:
My Thoughts: The only other Christopher Moore book I’ve read to date has been the hillarious and irreverent
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal. And since Christopher Moore has officially taken on the Bible, why not Shakespeare? King Lear isn’t one of my favorite of the bard’s plays–I’m a comedy girl myself–so I was curious to see how well Moore would do at lampooning it.
This book was pretty much exactly what I was expecting. It was uproariously funny and deliciously vulgar, and Pocket and his friends are likeable characters in their own right.
Pocket is a great narrator. He’s a little full of himself, and he delivers some good one-liners, and, like all good heroes, ends up in the middle of all the action. And through Pocket we get to meet all the other characters, from Pocket’s large idiot apprentice Drool, to the steadfast if not terribly bright Earl of Kent, to Lear and his daughters themselves. Not all these people are likeable, and even the ones we root for aren’t immune to the jabs of Pocket’s wit. And yes, there’s a lot of shagging and wanking, not all of which was strictly necessary, but anyone who knows me at all knows I’m not opposed to a bit of shagging.
Moore does take a few liberties with the original play, but for the most part, he hits the highlights. He also pokes fun at other Shakespeare plays. (the witches in Macbeth appear briefly, and there are lots of references to Hamlet.) I’m sure a Shakespeare scholar–provided he had a decent sense of humor–could probably cite other examples.
Lastly, the narration from Audible was wonderful. Euan Morton has the perfect accent–very British without sounding overly posh. And just remembering the way he said Pocket’s favorite explitive, “Fuckstockings!” makes me giggle.
Final thoughts: The bard has probably had worse hommages paid to him. This is a fun and lighthearted book, and I highly recommend it.
Grade: B+
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