Christopher Moore's Fool

William Shakespeare is considered on the best playwrights of the last millennium but who says there is no room for improvement? Take Christopher Moore's Fool a retelling of the Bard's great tragedy King Lear told from the point of view of Pocket, the Court Jester. However, unlike the play this story isn't all tragic with everyone that is a lovable character dying (although there is death so be warned).
The story opens much like the play with the elder Lear asking all his daughters to swear their undying love and devotion to him in front of the court. Goneril and Regan get up there and tell King Daddy exactly what he wants to hear. Cordelia on the other hand gets up there and tells him this is all a bunch of BS. Enraged (and embarrassed) Lear banishes Cordelia from court where she ends up marrying King of France. Lear's kingdom is divided up between his two remaining daughters who in turn start to treat Daddy Dearest like the doddering fool they think he is. I mean, once they have what they want, what's the use in being nice to dear old Dad?
The bulk of the book takes place with Pocket following Lear to his daughters and trying to figure out a way to avenge Cordelia who is his love. While going through this, he remembers his past including his stay at an abbey with nuns and his strange and sexual encounters with an anchoress whom he never sees. Once their affair is discovered, Pocket is kicked out of the nunnery and forced to join a band of traveling performers which is how he meets up with Lear and his family and becomes their Jester. As you read the story you find out there is a more to the history of Pocket and Lear and the sad way of how they are really connected.
Pocket is an humorous narrator albeit a horny one; so be warned there is a lot of sexual jokes in this book. If you are easily offended by stuff of a sexual nature, pass this one up. What is also amusing about this book is the references Pocket makes to other Shakespeare plays. At one point, he mentions in passing something about Moors and says he has nothing against them as they are excellent wife stranglers. The witches he meets up with to help get his revenge and to try to show Lear what a fool he has been are the same witches from Macbeth. There is also other allusions to other stories that will have you laughing out loud while you read this book.
A good author all around, Moore's latest is most impressive because as you read it you can tell all the work he put into it. He studied a lot about England itself, he studied a lot of other Shakespeare plays to get his allusions and he even studied the language so it would sound like the way people talked in 'ye old merry England'. If you read this book, you won't regret it and if you like it, be sure to pick up more of Moore's books.