Jesters do oft prove prophets: Christopher Moore's take on King Lear

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Christopher Moore has done it again –“it” being his creation of a darkly humorous book that no reader will be able to put down and feel untouched by the story within it. This time, though, Moore took on the Bard himself: the literary masterpiece King Lear has been reworked for his own purposes. To go from a tragedy to a comedy, albeit a black one indeed, is quite a literary feat and yet somehow Moore manages to pull it off almost perfectly, and with the flair and biting wit fans have come to expect of his writing.

The book, Fool, retells the story of King Lear from the perspective of none other than the mad king’s jester, Pocket. Lifted from his status of background character (no matter how vital to the story, nobody remembers the jesters) to leading man, Pocket becomes the one pulling all the strings as he attempts to save himself, his kingdom and the princess he loves, while at the same time discovering that he is much more than merely a king’s jester. Moore has a knack for taking a character you wouldn’t normally look at twice and giving them unexpected and delightful depths. Even his treatment of the villains, who are as evil as the night is dark, is humorous without losing any of their truly flawed humanity.

Moore’s traditional male hero can be found in Pocket: a cocky, rambunctious goofball who hides a good deal of insecurity –although he doesn’t hide his more carnal assets at all. “A dilemma. Taller in breeches or stunningly virile in a cod[piece]? Both illusions. Each with its advantage.” The sarcastic, womanizing charmer can be found in many of Moore’s stories, although he somehow manages to keep what could become a stock character fresh and interesting. Pocket tells the story of his life in brief bursts throughout the story, and although readers may be left wanting just a little more about him, he is a complex character to whose spirit any reader can relate.

Many of the details of Shakespeare’s original story have been changed to allow Pocket to take control both of its telling and its action, and some changes are just to allow Moore to play around with characters and locations (for example, there are occasional references to the fallen country of “Merica”). Although the story of Lear has changed, the changes are not so significant that the essence of the tale is lost to the reader; many lines have been translated directly from the original play –as well as few of Shakespeare’s other works –into dialogue or Pocket’s narration.

Though there are a few places where Moore’s take on Lear isn’t quite as satisfying as the original, and the odd grammatical mistake can be distracting (Moore seems to have forgotten that, when executed, people are hanged, not hung), Fool is still a rollicking, fun read. Moore has worked his goofy, endearing magic on this story, and it is yet another one of his books that is bound to be read frequently, and with great pleasure.