Books: Shakespeare for Squirrels By Christopher Moore (2020)

"Set adrift by his pirate crew, Pocket of Dog Snogging--last seen in The Serpent of Venice--washes up on the sun-bleached shores of Greece, where he hopes to dazzle the Duke with his comedic brilliance and become his trusted fool. But the island is in turmoil. Egeus, the Duke's minister, is furious that his daughter Hermia is determined to marry Demetrius, instead of Lysander, the man he has chosen for her. The Duke decrees that if, by the time of the wedding, Hermia still refuses to marry Lysander, she shall be executed . . . or consigned to a nunnery. Pocket, being Pocket, cannot help but point out that this decree is complete bollocks, and that the Duke is an egregious weasel for having even suggested it. Irritated by the fool's impudence, the Duke orders his death. With the Duke's guards in pursuit, Pocket makes a daring escape. He soon stumbles into the wooded realm of the fairy king Oberon, who, as luck would have it, IS short a fool. His jester Robin Goodfellow--the mischievous sprite better known as Puck--was found dead. Murdered. Oberon makes Pocket an offer he can't refuse: he will make Pocket his fool and have his death sentence lifted if Pocket finds out who killed Robin Goodfellow. But as anyone who is even vaguely aware of the Bard's most performed play ever will know, nearly every character has a motive for wanting the mischievous sprite dead.With too many suspects and too little time, Pocket must work his own kind of magic to find the truth, save his neck, and ensure that all ends well."

The idea of Christopher Moore taking one of Shakespeare’s most beloved stories, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and using squirrels is perhaps genius or just plain dumb. Having been a huge fan of Moore’s for years, nothing surprises me with his tales. They’re all wildly funny, full of his typical snappy dialogue with a lot of self-referential comments. The bawdy jokes remain as well (there is not a four-letter word Pocket cannot use), and Moore’s marvelous prose remains as his greatest hallmark. The flight of fantasy and magic that Shakespeare for Squirrels lines up here is weird, because I guess I never thought of the play being so supernaturally filled, but when dealing with Pocket (this being the third adventure with him, after Fool and the after mentioned The Serpent of Venice), nothing is out of bounds. It’s another fun book that sort of runs out of gas towards the end, even though the send-up of resolving the murder mystery and doing Midsummer play during the final quarter of the book is well handled (if sometimes confusing). Where Moore goes next is anyone’s guess, as he has multiple characters to bring back, including (I would assume) another Pocket adventure. Perhaps he’ll do something more original, but it’s always safe to return to San Francisco to catch up with various, and sometimes, interconnected characters and stories.