Christopher Moore can be very hit or miss for me. Initially I thought Fool would be a miss, but by page 30 I was hooked and off to the races with Pocekt, Drool, Kent, Cordelia and the rest. It upends the tragedy of King Lear making it a bawdy comedy.
At first I thought about writing this up for the Fantasy Friday entries for the blog (its got a ghost, right?), but decided against it, because I'm not sure its fantasy. It surely is a comedy though and is a lot of fun with laugh out loud moments for me.
Our guide to the mythical/fantastical England of Fool is Pocket, King Lear's fool. He's an outrageous little bastard (figuratively and literally) and oddly likable for all that he's quick witted, sharp tongued, impulsive to a fault and a womanizer. Still, unlike other attempts at similar characters, Pocket is likable, able to see humor in most situations (and his own advantage) and outrageously cunning. Character wise he has elements of Richard the III, Falstaff and Othello, still he is the good guy of the piece - which means the others are real pieces of work.
Fool is a parody of King Lear, so Shakespearean purists need not read. However, if you've ever seen the play, and dealt with it or read it and thought Lear an empty headed old goat, well, Fool is the book for you. The plot follows King Lear fairly closely but gets into details the play doesn't address, filling in a few plot holes while at it.
The book also makes King Lear nastier, Regan and Goneril a pair of dangerous fuming sluts and Edmund the bastard a supremely dangerous foe.
I can't say too much for fear of giving it all away, but its a lot of fun, a bedroom farce and worth reading.
Likes: Pocket; His relationship with Cordelia and Drool; Revelations about Lear; Looting other works by Shakespeare; Setting the book in a mythical medieval England; Making fun of religion - polytheism and Catholicism; Pocket's reactions to ghostly and witchy riddles of of prophecy.
Dislikes: How Drool is treated; Casual attitude towards women.
Suggested for: Anyone that wants a bawdy laugh.
At first I thought about writing this up for the Fantasy Friday entries for the blog (its got a ghost, right?), but decided against it, because I'm not sure its fantasy. It surely is a comedy though and is a lot of fun with laugh out loud moments for me.
Our guide to the mythical/fantastical England of Fool is Pocket, King Lear's fool. He's an outrageous little bastard (figuratively and literally) and oddly likable for all that he's quick witted, sharp tongued, impulsive to a fault and a womanizer. Still, unlike other attempts at similar characters, Pocket is likable, able to see humor in most situations (and his own advantage) and outrageously cunning. Character wise he has elements of Richard the III, Falstaff and Othello, still he is the good guy of the piece - which means the others are real pieces of work.
Fool is a parody of King Lear, so Shakespearean purists need not read. However, if you've ever seen the play, and dealt with it or read it and thought Lear an empty headed old goat, well, Fool is the book for you. The plot follows King Lear fairly closely but gets into details the play doesn't address, filling in a few plot holes while at it.
The book also makes King Lear nastier, Regan and Goneril a pair of dangerous fuming sluts and Edmund the bastard a supremely dangerous foe.
I can't say too much for fear of giving it all away, but its a lot of fun, a bedroom farce and worth reading.
Likes: Pocket; His relationship with Cordelia and Drool; Revelations about Lear; Looting other works by Shakespeare; Setting the book in a mythical medieval England; Making fun of religion - polytheism and Catholicism; Pocket's reactions to ghostly and witchy riddles of of prophecy.
Dislikes: How Drool is treated; Casual attitude towards women.
Suggested for: Anyone that wants a bawdy laugh.
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