My least favorite Moore book. ( )

The last time I read King Lear was more than two decades ago as an English Literature student. I can't say I remember much about the nuances of the plot, so I had no problem going along with Moore's interpretation. I settled in for a bawdy, fun romp, expecting to laugh and enjoy the ride. But I turned the last page wishing I'd liked this book more than I had and wondering what went wrong.

For me, the humour felt forced and often fell flat. It was as though Moore was trying really, really hard to make a fairy straightforward tragedy feel fresh and hilarious -- and in the end, it was neither. I smiled a few times, but I also cringed a lot, and the ending seemed too pat and convenient to be in the least believable. I will not be continuing with this series, and it'll be a while before I pick up something else by Moore. ( )

Fool is Christopher Moore's comic retelling of the Shakespeare tragedy King Lear. Not to mention numerous references to other Shakesperean plays. You've got your witches, your ghost, your regacide... But, in my mind, Moore displays his own comic genius best when he combines Shakespeare with Dr. Seuss and gives us a ditty called Green Eggs And Hamlet
Green eggs or not green eggs ?
Whether' tis nobler in the mind to eat them in a box with a fox-- ( )

This book was fun, mostly. It was funny, and I laughed out loud more than I typically do with books. The word play, for most of the book, was entertaining and clever. It's also cool that it plays out alongside the plot of King Lear.

Then it starts to get old. It seems like he starts to get lazy, and just uses the same words and phrases over and over again toward the end. The first half of the book was much funnier than the second half.

And I have to say, I'm sorry but there's no way every single woman this guy encounters has "smashing knockers" and wants to have sex with him. I know some of it is his own "misguided" belief that every woman wants to have sex with him, but over the course of the book, most of them actually do, including all three of King Lear's daughters, and I find that kind of unbelievable. Pocket kind of reminds me of one of those abhorrent PUA types who purposely forget your name and put you down and then supposedly you just can't resist their rakish charms. I don't know. Maybe he's just devastatingly handsome. Maybe I'm just a bitch.

Finally I think I kind of went into this thinking he'd be like Terry Pratchett, and he isn't. I much prefer Pratchett, although I don't laugh out loud quite as much from his books. So I'll be sticking to Discworld when I want something light and amusing. ( )

Pocket ha sido el apreciado bufón de Lear durante años, desde la época en que las hijas del rey eran apenas unas niñas. Así que, como es natural, Pocket está junto a su señor cuando Lear exige que sus hijas hagan un juramento de amor eterno ante un nutrido grupo de invitados. Goneril y Regan no tienen inconveniente en tratar de congraciarse con su padre. Pero Cordelia considera que la petición de éste es un poco estúpida, y su sinceridad acaba por costarle su parte del reino, al tiempo que es enviada al exilio. Así las cosas, todo el país se encuentra en peligro debido al orgullo herido de un viejo tozudo. Y la única persona que, quizá, sea capaz de arreglar el entuerto es Pocket, un payaso enclenque con un mordaz sentido del humor.