The Serpent of Venice

January 13, 2014
Moore’s mash-up of Othello and The Merchant of Venice with Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” is a standout sequel to Fool, his twisted retelling of King Lear from 2009. After a dastardly trio of Venetians (including Iago) plot to bury alive Pocket the fool for thwarting an attempt to cook up a new Crusade from which they’d hoped to profit, he is saved by what he believes is a seriously horny mermaid. He washes up in Venice’s Jewish ghetto and is rescued by Shylock’s lovably abrasive daughter, Jessica. She leaves with Pocket, hoping to elope with a Venetian gentile with whom she is in love, as he attempts to rescue his motley companions with his friend Othello’s help, and to warn the general that a plot’s afoot. Moore’s imaginative storytelling, bawdy prose, puns aplenty, as well as his creation of a violent sea creature intent on helping Fool’s cause, and Jessica’s “piratey” disguise, succeed in transforming two classical tragedies into outrageously farcical entertainment. In conjunction with the historical setting, the humor also allows Moore to skewer greed, hypocrisy, and racism—e.g., Middle Eastern wars for profit, segregation (in this instance, of the Jews)—all of which are still endemic in modern culture.

Starred review from June 30, 2014
Evan Morton has a field day in his laugh-out-loud reading of Moore’s latest bit of novelistic frivolity. Playing off of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice and Othello and Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” Moore produces an unlikely but often hilarious story that finds Pocket the fool in Venice on behalf of his English Queen and falling into one whacky situation after another. Narrator Morton takes full advantage of Moore’s wild imagination. His out of the box, over-the-top narration fits the zaniness of the story perfectly. He never falters or stumbles, but leaps into each madcap scene with near-perfect comic timing. Commendably, the performance never overshadows or undermines the more serious themes, such as anti-Semitism and the destructiveness of jealousy, tactfully addressed in the narrative, but like all good humorists, they deliver messages with laughter. If you tickle us, as Moore and Morton surely do, there is no need to ask we do indeed laugh. A William Morrow hardcover.

Listeners are transported to Venice at the time of Shakespeare to follow the adventures and misadventures of the fool Pocket. He and his sidekicks, Drool and Jeff, become entwined in the intrigues of Venetian society--and a selection of characters and plots from the quill of William Shakespeare. Narrator Euan Morton is the perfect choice for recounting this bawdy tale. He infuses it with a sprinkling of the spirit of the Carry On movies of old, an approach that offsets the ribald and earthy language of many of the characters, not the least Pocket. Morton's characterizations bring the full cast of this fantastical tale to life and ensure that it's never difficult to follow as it flows along at a lively pace. K.J.P. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

Starred review from December 1, 2013

Pocket of Dog Snogging, the eponymous hero of Moore's best seller Fool, is back and better (though not bigger) than ever. While serving in Venice as the envoy of the queen of Britain and France, the recently deceased Cordelia, Pocket gets enmeshed in and runs afoul of the plan of three prominent Venetians to start a war for their own profit and political benefit. Drugged, walled up in a wine cellar, and left to die, Pocket is rescued by a mythical, and quite amorous, creature and finds himself in a perfect position to foil everyone's nefarious plots and see to it that all involved get what they deserve, whether they like it or not. VERDICT Add one part Merchant of Venice, one part Othello, a dash of Edgar Allan Poe, and a ghost (there's always a bloody ghost), and season liberally with Moore's sardonic wit, and you have the recipe for a laugh-out-loud good time that would leave Shakespeare himself chuckling. Fans of Fool will be overjoyed to rejoin Pocket and company (his apprentice Drool, his puppet Jones, and his monkey Jeff) for their latest adventure, and newcomers will find that Shakespeare isn't nearly as dry and dusty as they thought, at least not when Moore is at the helm. Highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, 10/20/13; 12-city tour.]--Elisabeth Clark, West Florida P.L., Pensacola

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2013

Several centuries ago in Venice, the rapscallion Fool Pocket, envoy of France and Britain and widower of Queen Cordelia, is lured to a dungeon by the merchant Antonio, the senator Montressor Brabantio, and the naval officer Iago. (Sound familiar?) They promise wine and debauchery but intend murder, a change of plans Fool Pocket heartily resists. With a one-day laydown on April 22 and a 250,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2013
Iago from Shakespeare's Othello, Antonio, the titular merchant of Venice, and Monstressor Brabantio from Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" walk into a bar.... It's a joke but it's quite a complicated one in the latest historical farce from Moore (Sacre Bleu, 2012, etc.). In this follow-up to Fool (2009), Moore brings back Pocket of Dog Snogging, his prodigious companion, Drool, and pet monkey Jeff for another round of satirizing the Bard of Avon by way of the Marx Brothers. After trouncing King Lear, Moore has decided a mashup is in order, reconciling its multiple inspirations to a mythical Venice circa 1299. Pocket starts his new adventure poorly, having been walled into Poe's fictional prison by Brabantio, where he's reduced to talking to the Chorus (there's always a bloody chorus). "I am not bloody mad, you berk," he exclaims, to which the Chorus replies, "You're shouting at a disembodied voice in the dark." Bid by his queen, Cordelia, to travel to the sunken kingdom of Venice to help the Moor, Othello, and stop a conspiracy forged in greed from prosecuting a crusade, Pocket fumbles his way through a complicated adventure buoyed by Moore's half-cocked Shakespearean dialogue, puerile humor and ceaseless banter. The setting helps the author's cause, lending a rich historical backdrop that includes trade disputes, political intrigue and Shakespearean spectacle. Readers who are steeped in Shakespeare and aren't too sensitive will enjoy outrageous lines like, "Cry havoc, and let slip the trousers of most outrageous bonkilation!" Purists are better advised to stick with safer adaptations, where they're less likely to encounter Marco Polo lollygagging in a Venetian prison, the prodigious use of perennial Moore vulgarities ("Fuckstockings!") or our hero shagging a dragon. It is, as the author himself calls it, an abomination, but fans who enjoyed the rollicking play within a play of Fool or the historical whimsy of Sacre Bleu will find many of the same gifts here. Fool's gold, replete with junk jokes, from one of America's most original humorists.

COPYRIGHT(2013) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from February 1, 2014
What do you get when you stitch Othello, The Merchant of Venice, and The Cask of Amontillado together? Well, you get this rollickin' adventure in which Pocket, the royal fool introduced in Moore's Fool (2009), is lured to Venice, where he thinks he'll be having a fun time with the beautiful Portia, but where three men (including a fella named Iago) are actually planning to murder him. To some, the idea of combining two Shakespeare plays and an Edgar Allan Poe short story might be vaguely chilling. To begin with, Moore, author of such delights as Sacre Blue (2012) and The Stupidest Angel (2004), has to move the events of the plays from the late sixteenth century to the thirteenth to keep the chronology in line with the events recounted in Fool, which means Amontillado is moved roughly 500 years back in time. And let's not forget that the plays are tragedies, whereas this book, which also interpolates elements of King Lear, from which Fool was derived, is a farce. The upshot is, if you're the kind of reader who insists Shakespeare is untouchable, then this novel will probably annoy you on general principles. On the other hand, if you're a fan of Moore's brand of history-mangling humor, you'll dive right in with a big grin on your face. The grins win in the end.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)