Goneril, married to the Duke of Albany, and Regan, married to the Duke of Cornwall, see that their futures depend on “loving” Lear without reservation. As the novel opens, Lear, who has become senile, is persuaded to divide his kingdom among his three daughters, since he has no sons, and he announces that he will give the most territory to the daughter who loves him most. The narrator, Pocket, known as the Black Fool because of his clothing, was raised by by the nuns at Dog-Snogging Abbey, where as the only male, he was often paraded nude, on the refectory table during dinner, “waving his winky.” Cast out of the abbey in his teens, after being caught while engaged in unconventional sex with a very willing participant, he wandered the country, learned to become a fool, and eventually ended up in Lear’s court, where he became a particular friend to Cordelia, the youngest of Lear’s three daughters. Moore delights in his vulgarity, invents uninhibited and sexy characters who celebrate their body parts (the bigger, the better), and creates wacky and unexpected imagery which would have Shakespeare’s rabble in the pit absolutely rapt with attention. And however off-color and sexy Shakespeare can sometimes be, he cannot begin to compare to Moore. Lear, neither tragic nor a hero, is the unwitting (and unwitted) turning point in a farce which rivals the comedies of Shakespeare in twists and turns, surprises, and irony. Writing from the point of view of Lear’s fool, who regards himself as the “chief cheeky monkey to the King of bloody Britain,” Moore turns the King Lear story on its head. He never rests on his pile of laurels, however, often stretching in new directions and tackling more challenging topics, as he did with Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings, which investigates the plight of whales off the coast of Hawaii, and in this novel, in which he gives new life to the King Lear story.
Whether he is writing a mystery that includes a talking, sunglass-wearing fruit bat in Island of the Sequined Love Nun, a satire about the “missing years” in the life of Jesus in Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal, or a love story about vampires in Bloodsucking Fiends and its sequel You Suck, Christopher Moore never fails to entertain and astonish the reader with his wacky take on life and love. That said, if that’s the sort of thing you think you might enjoy, then you have happened upon the perfect story.”
If that sort of thing bothers you, then gentle reader pass by, for we endeavor only to entertain, not to offend.
Herein you will find gratuitous shagging, murder, spanking, maiming, treason, and heretofore unexplored heights of vulgarity and profanity, as well as non-traditional grammar, split infinitives, and the odd wank. The author’s warning: “This is a bawdy tale.
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