Bibliofreakblog

Fool by Christopher Moore

I was shocked and horrified recently when discussing Christopher Moore with a friend on Twitter, who said that she liked all of his books except for two.  Which ones? I asked.  Lamb and Fool, she said.  WHAT??  Those are my two favorites, says I.  She said that she didn’t think that he did parody well.  And then we got into a discussion about what is and is not parody, because I wouldn’t say that either of those books are actually parody.  And then we started talking about something else, I forget what.

But that’s what first got me thinking that obviously I need to review this book if some tweeps are going around telling other tweeps that it’s no good.  

The titular fool in Moore’s last raunchy laugh-fest is King Lear’s Fool.  But this isn’t your English teacher’s Shakespeare.

Though I think that Shakespeare would approve, as he liked a good joke or ten, and didn’t mind stealing stories from other people.

Actually, this isn’t really Lear’s fool either, because as Moore explains at the end in “You Cheeky Little Git–An Author’s Note”, he kind of threw in a whole bunch of Shakespeare references and can’t even remember which came from where any more.  Which is good for the average reader who hasn’t read a ton of Shakespeare but still might recognize that something is a quote but not know from whence it came and laughs anyways.

So, then, about this parody business.  In my mind, and in some definitions, parody is sort of antagonistic.  I don’t think that that is Moore’s MO.  He loves the Bard.  He just wants to bring the same humor and protagonist (really the Fool = Biff = the geeky kid from the vampire books whose name I can’t remember = that Death guy, etc., etc….not that there’s anything wrong with that…I’m just sayin’) to Shakespeare as he does to every story.  Of course, some say that parody is just making a humorous spin-off of a much-lauded work of art.  In that case, I don’t understand how Moore, a comic genius in his own right, could possibly be doing anything wrong.  

Therefore, ignore what a certain person on Twitter might tell you and go read this book.

Notice that I didn’t really tell you any of the jokes or plot (how it is and is not King Lear) but that is because you can read the first chapter at no cost to you on Christopher Moore’s blog.
Buy Fool on Amazon

If you like this book/author, you might like:

(my reviews in blue)

The Complete Works of Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
Wise Children by Angela Carter
Nine Kinds of Naked by Tony Vigorito
Stardust by Neil Gaiman
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar
Mirror Mirror by Gregory Maguire
Wicked by Gregory Maguire
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire
The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure by William Goldman
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Graham-Greene
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
Baudolino by Umberto Eco
Politically Correct Bedtime Stories: A Collection of Modern Tales for Our Life and Times by James Finn Garner
 

Other works by Christopher Moore:

Lamb 
You Suck
Island of the Sequined Love Nun
Coyote Blue
The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror
A Dirty Job
Bloodsucking Fiends
The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove
Practical Demon Keeping