Thursday, March 5, 2009
If anyone could turn Shakespeare’s classic tragedy King Lear into a feel good novel, it would be Christopher Moore. Moore’s latest piece of work, which deserves the double entendre, Fool, revolves around our instigating protagonist, Pocket, lead fool to King Lear’s court and on a few lonely nights King Lear’s conniving daughters, the servant staff, a religious hermit and his true love. I’ll warn you, just as the introduction does, that this is more lewd than prude, and not for readers with heart murmurs.
Pocket’s Cinderella story incorporates all the expected characters, while also adding some the readers might wish were there in the first place. With witches borrowed from Macbeth, a “bloody ghost” courtesy probably of Hamlet, and allusions to Othello spurring the dialogue and character development, readers find the best kind of friend in our “black jester,” honest and flawed, the tiny fool makes us feel tall not only physically, but emotionally.
Admittedly, time and place were a problem in retrospect, but the combination of linguistic styles, dark humor and timeless human dilemmas (because we’ve all secretly wanted to kill a sibling sometime) help overshadow such concerns. One must admire the delicate details Moore fits together to combine the original story line with his tight wire stretches. The plot balances on the edge of ridiculousness, but never falls into anything less than a net of praise.
To quote Moore in his author’s note at the end of the novel, “I don’t care if that’s true or not, I thought it was funny.”
Rating: 3 1/2 out of 4 stars
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