I first read Fool back in 2008 shortly after it was published when I was around thirteen or fourteen years old. At that point I'd read every single Moore except for Lamb and Stupidest Angel (which are still on the list! I just grew up in a 'Harry Potter isn't allowed because witches' household, and my mom was financing my More Moore addiction at the time.) Fool is probably my favorite Moore next to Coyote Blue, and a huge part of that is because of sweet Pocket, who is my favorite Christopher Moore character. He's his own thing, as is Fool, because calling it a King Lear retelling isn't quite right. There's a short ending chapter where Moore talks about how he decided to pull from Lear, noting that the entire play is largely anachronistic, and as such it's best to just sit back and let the book happen as it does. I second that whole-heartedly. That being said, reading it nearly twenty years later (yeesh), I'm faced with the same realization as when I recently reread A Dirty Job--Moore's zaniness hasn't aged the most gracefully. It's definitely still funny at times, but it's largely relying on some comic writing tropes that are, well, not comic anymore. Similar to my read of Hiaasen's Bad Monkey, we have a subplot where Pocket is insistent on having a pet monkey and tries to bargain for him throughout the book. In the mid-2000s, the funniest thing a guy could do was have a monkey, I guess. When Moore isn't being funny though, it's mostly fond eyerolls from me, like when you read a really old facebook post you made when you were fourteen and Gir from Invader Zim was peak comedy. What keeps me revisiting Moore, aside from nostalgia, is that the man is deeply earnest. The one thing that stuck with me about Fool through the past twenty years is the scene where Pocket meets Cordelia. It's a sweet emotional anchor, and I remember re-reading the scene a few times the first time I read the book because I couldn't stop thinking about it. Coming at it from where I am now, I know that this is because it's what I think Moore does best. He's like a friend putting his hand on your shoulder, telling you bad joke after bad joke for eternity with his prose because eventually something is going to hit, and it'll feel good to smile. Anyway! I love Pocket! I love Fool!