Fool’s Gold

Fool
Christopher Moore
Harper

You have to love an author who is brave enough to eff with the classics. Moore’s Fool is an off-the-wall, non-re-telling of Shakespeare’s King Lear. Often zany and always funny, this tragic-comedy is narrated by Pocket, Lear’s Black Fool and erstwhile companion of the princess Cordelia.

The plot is complicated – Lear, an aged and sorrowful king, decides that it is time to divide his kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, etcetera) among his daughters. The allotment of the realm will be determined by the girls themselves. He has asked each of them to publicly declare their love for him and be judged by their words. Sycophants and flatterers to the bitter end, Regan and Goneril lie through their teeth and speak of their deep and abiding love for their father. Lear is well pleased. Cordelia determines to speak the truth and admits to a deep filial love and nothing more. Lear decides, the kingdom is divided in twain, and Cordelia is exiled.

Enter the Fool. A true jackanapes, Pocket incites civil war, hangs with Macbeth’s witches, gets visited by a ghost, kills a nasty steward, takes care of a Natural named Drool, and recounts the innumerable times where he had occasion to shag Goneril and Regan rotten. As if that weren’t quite enough, he also introduces the reader to a wonderfully inventive swear word. Ready for it? Fuckstockings! I’ll be saying that for weeks!

While I didn’t love this book as much as Moore’s Lamb, I did enjoy it immensely. The numerous references to the Bard’s other works kept it interesting and I think I counted at least six or seven – maybe more. Three rollicking bollocks out of five.