Monthly Archives: July 2009

I finished Fool by Christopher Moore last week and have been putting off a ‘review’ for the sole reason that Moore’s humour is very subjective. Not everyone is going to find a character who talks in bad British slang, swears a ton, and belittles the French all that funny. In fact, more historically-acurate people would probably be offended by Moore’s sense of geography. And more literary-snobbish people would be insulted by Moore’s mangling of Shakespeare. But Moore’s style of humour is absolutely hilarious to me. In the Author’s Note, Christopher Moore wrote, “I didn’t begin ‘Fool’ as a tribute to Shakespeare; I wrote it because of my great admiration for British comedy.” I have to whole-heartedly agree with this! The Brits just have such a different style of comedy. I don’t watch many North American comedy shows (save for SNL) but when I go to England, it seems like every show has a special brand of comedic undertones. Now that I’ve gone on and on, I’m sure you’re wondering, ‘what the hell is it about anyway?’ Well, I know some people find this tacky, but the cover copy seems to entice the reader into Moore’s humour better than I could hope to by summarizing the plot (aka King Lear): 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 erotic-fantasy-grade-hot) Regan, and sweet, loyal Cordelia—were mere girls. So naturally Pocket is at his brainless, elderly liege’s [...]