The Serpent of Venice

The Serpent of Venice by Christopher Moore, 326 pages

So what would happen if you mixed together The Merchant of Venice, Othello, and The Cask of Amontillado, and threw in a foul-mouthed fool from King Lear's court? Um, The Serpent of Venice, that's what. This is Moore's second foray into Shakespeare, the first being Fool, which told the story of King Lear from the point of view of Pocket, the king's fool. Pocket (and his dimwitted apprentice Drool and his monkey Jeff) is back for The Serpent of Venice, weaving together the two Shakespeare works and Poe's tale seamlessly and with a lot more humor than either Bill or Ed intended. I like Serpent much better than I remember liking Fool, which struck me as a little too heavy on the crude humor. (Also, I'm not at all familiar with Lear, and I have at least a passing knowledge of Othello and Merchant, which probably helped immensely.)

Some of the highlights here are the narrating Chorus (and the fact that Moore has the characters interact with the Chorus) and the way that Moore magnifies the absurdity of the characters, Iago in particular. As he notes in the afterword (which is definitely worth a read), Moore fought hard to not use the word "sociopath" in describing Iago. A couple of things that bugged me: some of the chapters were in first person (from Pocket's POV) though most weren't, and the titular serpent, Vivian. While I appreciate the nod to Arthuriana in her name, I kind of think that the main purpose of her existence in the novel springs from two things: the fact that The Serpent of Venice is a clever title, and Moore's fascination with semi-anthropomorphic sea creatures (see: Fluke, Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove).

Generally speaking, however, this is a good one from Moore. He seems to churn out his best work when he delves into historical settings, and this is no exception. I still like Lamb and Sacre Bleu best, but this one's pretty good too.