Did you ever have an author whose books you always thoroughly enjoyed and whose new releases you never missed as soon as they became available? And then, for reasons unknown, you sort of lose track of them until, years later, you realize you haven't read anything by that person in years?

Christopher Moore is like that for me. I absolutely devoured his books in days gone by, and I still recommend them to my friends. But a few days ago, while browsing the stacks in a local bookshop, I realized I hadn't read anything new by him in years. So I tottered off to see if I could find him loitering about in fiction and, success, I headed home with two not-quite-new but not-yet-read novels to add to my collection.

First up is Fool, a twisted retelling of William Shakespeare's King Lear. The central character here is Pocket, the king's fool, but the whole Shakespearean cast is here: Lear, his daughters Cordelia, Regan and Goneril, their husbands and suitors, and various members of the English court. (Check the characters against Shakespeare's play; they're all present and accounted for, although not always exactly as Shakespeare wrote them.)

For one thing, Shakespeare didn't include quite as much sex as Moore does, and believe me, there's a lot of it. Pocket, short of stature but tall in wit, is also quite the ladies man. His halfwit apprentice Drool doesn't do too badly, either. And then there's the ghost, but of course there's always a bloody ghost. (Don't take my word for it; Moore will remind you of it quite often.)

Moore's novel unfolds similarly to Shakespeare's play, although there are differences -- foremost among them the machinations wrought by clever Pocket. Everything ultimately occurs according to his design, although much of it he seemingly makes up on the spot. The three witches, who stumbled into the story on their way to Macbeth, apparently, also lend some vital assistance.

He adds additional humor with an assortment of explanatory footnotes, such as this one for a casual reference to the ancient holiday of Saturnalia.

The celebration of the winter solstice in the Roman pantheon, paying tribute to Saturn, the "sower of seeds." Celebration of Saturnalia involved much drunkenness and indiscriminate shagging. Observed in modern times by the ritual of the "office Christmas party."

Mucking around with Shakespeare is always a good time, and I have to say Moore has done an admirable job with it!! Fool is laugh-out-loud funny, but it also pays a surprising amount of respect to the source materials. I've noticed that Moore has penned at least two sequels to this book, so it looks like I have some more browsing to do.