Fan Boy Says: Fool is good stuff

This is my first foray with Christopher Moore ^[1], unless you count repeatedly grabbing Lamb in bookstores reading two or three pages and then putting it down.  My issue with him has always been a matter of substance mixed with comedy. When I saw Fool and realized it was about Lear ^[2]I compromised and bought the audio book. It was an excellent experience, and I’ll definitely listen to it a second time in a few years.

Fool is the newest pop comedy by Christopher Moore ^[3]. His other works include Lamb ^[4], which is about Christ’s best friend; You Suck ^[5], a vampire love story; and A Dirty Job ^[6], which is about a grim reaper, I think. While I haven’t read any of those other titles plenty of my friends have enjoyed them. So why did I start with Fool? Because it’s about King Lear ^[7]. I fucking love that play. I love so hard it goes cross-eyed sometimes.

My love of Lear comes down to two simple facts. One it was the first Shakespearean play I was assigned to read but allowed to enjoy. Two writing about someone’s twilight years is difficult—the Canadian comedy Slings and Arrows explained it best in their third season: “Shakespeare takes you through the entire life span of men and women, and then at the very end he gives you this wondrous gift in Lear. A man losing his mind but finding his heart at the very end” (paraphrased).

Moore lives up to that legacy in a different respect. Moore shows us Lear from the Fool’s point of view. We understand not what it is to lose power but what it is to see it change hands erratically. The entire story, in essence, becomes the storm. There are gales and thunderclaps, lightning bolts and down pours, we’re stuck in it and there is nothing that can be done—AWESOME.

This is not a direct translation of the work, and I decided not to try and force the issue. The ending is different, though not completely different than the source material. It doesn’t matter. I would never want a novelized modern language version of Lear. What could it possibly offer a reader? Nothing. However, a parody with a flare for the profane is excellent. Many Shakespearean undertones are brought to the surface and turned into comedy. For example, dirty jokes are everywhere, but they’re not subtle treats for the astute reader. Instead there are dozens of hysterical comments, including a few necrophilia jokes towards the end.

My major compliant is Moore puts the comedy aside, though not entirely, in the last third of the book to deal with the plot. It’s a common occurrence in comedy novels, but a real pet peeve of mine. The book starts out with roars of laughter that are slowly replaced by plot driven drama. Moore is better than most. He continues to toss us jokes the whole way through, but the quantity dwindles. And he makes a nice push during the resolution to restore the humor level to the opening chapter. So, all in all he does a great job keeping things funny. But, like most internet fan boys, he failed to completely satisfy me and I’m calling him out on it.

The audio performance, by Euan Morton ^[8], is good. The character voices work well. The natural narration tone is pleasant to hear and easy to understand. This may seem glib, but believe me there are two types of audio book performances: good and terrible. Sometimes an author will read his or her own work, which in my opinion adds a little something extra to the experience, because an author will accent things differently than a voice actor. A written and read experience gerenally feels more geuine, particularly in the case of essayists like David Sedaris. However, voice actors tend to give each character an independent sound, which his awesome.  Rob Inglis read The Lord of the Rings and actually sang the songs—crazy good.

I think most people with a general interest in literature, Shakespeare, or even the time period would get a kick out of this book.