Christopher Moore

A man of infinite jest, Pocket has been Lear's cherished fool for years, from the time the king's grown daughters - selfish, scheming Goneril, sadistic but hot Regan, and sweet, loyal Cordelia - were mere girls. So he can see trouble brewing when Lear demands that his kids swear their undying love and devotion before a collection of assembled guests. Of course Goneril and Regan are only too happy to brownnose Dad. But Cordelia's blunt honesty ends up costing her her rightful share of the kingdom and earns her a banishment to boot. The only person who can possibly make things right is Pocket, who has already managed to sidestep catastrophe on numerous occasions, using his razor-sharp mind, rapier wit and the equally well-honed daggers he keeps conveniently hidden behind his back. He's going to have to do some very fancy maneuvering - cast some spells, incite a few assassinations, start a war or two (the usual stuff) - and shag every lusciously shaggable wench who's amenable along the way. Pocket may be a fool . . . but he's definitely not an idiot.

Fool

Pocket, King Lear's fool, sets out to straighten out the mess the mad king has made of the kingdom and the royal family, only to discover the truth about his own heritage.

Sarah Sammis

Christopher Moore writes too kinds of stories: light hearted irrelevant novels (set typically in California or on far away tropical islands) and parodies. The latter have recurring mix and match characters. I adore these novels, even the much maligned Fluke. The former, not so much.

Fool is a parody and fans of Lamb seem to love it. I'm going to guess that the opposite is also true. If you're like me and didn't like Lamb, you probably won't like Fool.

The book starts with King Lear and more generally the works of William Shakespeare. It's told from the the point of view of the Fool, a character who disappears mid play to allow for dual role playing with for the actor playing Cordelia. Since Fool isn't a major character, Moore has to fill in the blanks, just as he attempted (and failed) to do in the middle years of Jesus's life.

Besides trying to fill in the blanks ala Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Moore is attempting (and failing again) to write in the style of William Shakespeare. There are a few problems with this approach. He doesn't understand British slang or British regional accents as well as he thinks he does and he's not crude enough. That's right; this "bawdy" tale is hardly bawdy. The humor never really gets beyond the pedestrian stuff in a typical Mike Myers film. Shakespeare's stuff is funnier and cruder. To make things worse, the book has all these pointless footnotes to "explain" the slang in the book. Unfortunately he picks obvious words and gives them rather plain definitions. Am I supposed to be shocked by a fellow American giggling at the word "wanker?"

My last complaint with the books, and Moore's parodies in general, is the pacing. Fool like Lamb starts off in the middle of the story being parodied and as long as it's following the original story closely. As soon as Fool disappears from the real play, Moore is lost. He tries to bandy around some ideas and throws some other Shakespearian tragedies into a blender and then giggles at the results. Then somewhere near the end Moore comes to his senses (just as he did in Lamb) and gets back to parodying the original text. For Fool he creates a completely different ending, reminiscent of the The Player and for a brief sixty pages the book reads like the Moore I enjoy.

Christopher Moore is as amusing as always. But, the author could have done a better job of explaining all the Shakespearean scheming that's going on.

Frederik De Bosschere

Ben Nathan

Really quite wonderful. I love Shakespeare. I love King Lear. This was just tons of fun and a way to make watching Lear even more fun. Made me want to be seeing this on stage much of the time. Super witty. Also, I saw King Lear played by John Lithgow and Kent played by Clarke Peters, so they are who I was seeing in my head. So awesome.

Fool

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