Review of Fool by Christopher Moore (2009, Sphere)

Thirteenth century Britain.  Having been bought up by nuns and been a member of a travelling troupe, Pocket was taken in by King Lear to amuse his youngest daughter, Cordelia.  For years he has been the court jester, the Black Fool, who talks truth to power with rapier wit, often receiving death threats in return.  Lear’s daughters are now young women and when Lear tests their love for him, Goneril and Regan lie to gain favour, each receiving half the nation, while Cordelia tells the truth and is banished to France.  Haunted by a ghost that talks in rhymes it is left to Pocket to try and restore family harmony and to put a halt to the ambitions of the scheming older sisters, each of whom sees an opportunity to claim the crown for themselves.  That’s no easy task given the shifting alliances and skulduggery at play, but Pocket is one heck of a schemer himself, assuming he can stay alive and keep his libido in check.

In Fool, Christopher Moore reworks King Lear, weaving in a bunch of other references of Shakespeare’s players, to create a kind of ‘Carry-on’ version that is a bawdy, sweary, tragic comedy that involves a lot of well-endowed codpieces and heaving chests, back-stabbing, scheming, and characters dropping like flies.  There is, of course, also a convoluted plot, full of twists and turns, intriguing reveals and betrayals, as each character seeks to gain the upper-hand.  At the centre of the tale is Pocket, the Black Fool, a man with a lustful eye and a sharp tongue who is trying to pull strings of King Lear’s elder daughters, Goneril and Regan, their husbands, and the Earl of Gloucester and his two sons, in order to ensure that Lear’s reign is not cut short and his youngest daughter, Cordelia, inherits her rightful share of his estate.  Pocket is aided by Drool, his dim-witted, sex-mad sidekick, a rhyming ghost, three witches, and the Earl of Kent, a knight of King Lear’s inner-circle.  In theory, I should have delighted in the tale and its telling – the plot is clever and well constructed, the characters are well penned, and many of the scenes are humorous – and yet it didn’t quite click for me for much of the book.  I’m not really sure why.  I think in trying to pay homage to Shakespeare in his own unique way the tale felt like an over-produced parody where the bawdiness is a little forced at times.  Nonetheless Fool is an interesting, entertaining tale with some laugh-out-loud lines.

Review of A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore (Orbit, 2006)

Charlie Asher is a beta-male who runs a second hand thrift store in San Francisco which he inherited from his father. He can’t quite believe that he’s managed to snag and marry Rachel, a smart, beautiful woman, and is even more amazed to find himself the father of Sophie. Sophie’s birth, however, is tainted with tragedy when Rachel dies of post-natal complications. What’s more, Charlie can see the death merchant sent to collect her soul, which is a shock to both of them. In addition to running the store and bringing up Sophie, it seems that Charlie is destined to collect the souls of those dying and to pass them onto the soulless. However, he seems to have more powers than the other death merchants, able to actually cause death; in fact, he might not be one of death’s helpers at all, but actually Death. To make life even more interesting, dark forces are gathering beneath the city, taking their chances to snatch waylaid souls in order to grow their strength so that they might rise up and cast the world into darkness. Taking them on seems more suited to the alpha-women in his life, than his beta-male persona, but Asher is nothing if not a trier. If the world only knew what was happening it would be suing for peace.

I loved this book. It was inventive, clever, laugh-out-loud witty, and well told. The main trick to comic noir fantasy is to create a fully believable world that the reader can inhabit despite its oddities. Moore does an excellent job of this, placing the reader in the geography of San Francisco, the world of Charlie Asher and the ‘death merchants’, and the underworld of the Morrigan. The contextualisation concerning beta-males and soul collecting is nicely woven into the narrative. The characterisation, in particular, was very nicely done with each character well-penned, distinct and fully fleshed out. The plot is well developed and engaging, tugging the reader relentlessly along, although the timing element was sometimes a little clunky in the transitions as the story jumped forward a year or more at a time. The mark of a really good book is that you’re disappointed when it ends. I was quite miffed when I turned the last page of A Dirty Job - the story had come to its natural end, but I was definitely left wanting more. The book is already on its way to my nephew, who I know will love it, and Moore’s other books are firmly on my radar. Expect a review of another of his stories by the end of the year.