Before he died, my grandfather, a former minister, gave me a copy of Lamb by Christopher Moore and told me that the humor was right up my alley, comparing Moore to Monty Python. Not only was he completely right, I get to tell everyone that my Dr. Reverend Grandfather loved a book that has been called blasphemous. And maybe it is a teeny bit blasphemous (the gospel according to Biff, Jesus’ childhood pal, who was with the lord and savior during the much ballyhooed ‘lost years’ of Christ’s life), but it’s also respectful. And raunchy and sweet and lots of other contradictions. Basically, Christopher Moore is a genius at writing books that would be horrifically dirty if they weren’t also so sweet and funny and good.
Why do I mention this? There’s a new one, of course.
Fool, which is a reimagining of King Lear from the point of view of the court jester, was everything I hoped it would be. First of all, it’s a comedy. And yeah, Shakespeare’s tragedies are where we can understand why the man is still considered a genius—King Lear and Hamlet and Macbeth show a deep understanding of human psychology that was unrivaled in Elizabethan England, and some would argue is still unrivaled today. But his comedies are so much fun! Give me bawdy jokes and word play a la Midsummer Night’s Dream, and I’m happy. I’m pleased to say that Moore has written a comedy worthy of Shakespeare’s plot, filled with sex, inside jokes, outrageous puns, bondage gear, religious and political commentary, more sex, and some cameos by other famous characters of the Bard. My favorite? The traveling theater group from Hamlet reciting from the play “Green Eggs and Hamlet.”
Green Eggs or not Green Eggs?
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to eat them in a box,
or with a fox…
But it isn’t all silly jokes. Buried in the retelling of the remarkably complicated story (and I think Shakespeare’s version of Lear earns my vote for ‘Most Complicated Plot of All Time’), is real substance. Pocket, the fool, is a wonderful character, pulling all the invisible strings that drive the plot and generally displaying what I think will one day be acknowledged as the philosophy of my generation: humor and irony, though (because!) they are misunderestimated, have the power change the world, even save it.
Well, maybe.
Or maybe Christopher Moore has just succeeded in doing again what I have so appreciated before: creating a novel that is sweet and good and funny, however crouched in sex jokes and offensive language. If you’re not already a fan, I beseech you to check out Moore’s work. If you are a fan, I probably don’t have to beseech you, only assure you that you need not have read King Lear; your high school English classes have left you with enough information to enjoy Fool, though a more intimate knowledge of Shakespeare will yield more laughs.
To make matters even better, Christopher Moore will be at BookPeople on Sunday, February 22 at 3PM to sign copies of his books and make me feel okay about the fact that I prefer comedy to tragedy. Suck on that, whiny, brooding protagonists of yore.
BookPeople 