Review: The Serpent of Venice, by Christopher Moore

Rating:

🐉🐉🐉🐉 .75

First Response:

I think this is the weakest of the three. Or maybe I'm just too unfamiliar with it's source material.

One Sentence Summary:

Pocket is almost murdered by a cabal of merchants in Venice, and seeks his revenge on them while the events of The Merchant of Venice and Othello unfold in the background.

Tell Me More:

I'm conflicted about this book. On the one hand, it was really good, and made me laugh out loud (hence the 5 dragons). On the other hand, I didn't quite enjoy it as much as the others. Part of me thinks that it might just be that I wasn't as familiar with the source material for this book as I was with the sources for the others. I've only read Merchant once, and I'm not even sure I've actually read Othello all the way through. If I have, it was just once a long time ago. Merchant I remember as a fun romp-- the puzzle with the chests and Shylock's draconian contract were sufficiently melodramatic for my tastes (though Shylock's baptism by decree at the end of the play is kinda harrowing to think about). All I remember about Othello is that it's about race, and everybody has all kinds of feelings about whether it should still be performed, particularly in America.

Because of my almost negligible familiarity with the source material, it was hard for me to have moments similar to those I had in Shakespeare for Squirrels, where I recognized major excerpts from the original play; and while I did recognize some of the scenes that appeared in the novel as being recreations from its dramatic counterparts, I didn't know those scenes well enough to really catch on to what was different about them. That kinda spoiled the fun.

I think it also didn't help that there was so much happening in this book. Moore does a good job of weaving the two stories together; but ultimately, Othello and Merchant of Venice are very different stories (one's about a murderous moor, the other's about... bros) doing very different things (one's a tragedy, the other's a comedy), and mashing them together like this was a little overwhelming. The cloth of the story is well woven, but kinda hard to look at. There's a lot of competing patterns. And that's before you account for the modern spin Moore puts on the tale.

Also, there's a Poe story mixed in with the Shakespeare, and that kinda threw me off a little bit. A retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask of Amontillado kicks off the novel, and I spent those first few chapters just wondering "Why is Poe in this book? This is supposed to be Shakespeare!" It's a useful way to introduce all the major characters, and gives Pocket a catalyst for his revenge plot, but personally, I'd like to keep my Poe separate from my Shakespeare, thank you very much!

Overall, though, this was a fun read. I know this review seems like it's been mostly negative, but remember that I'm still rating this book 4.75 dragons out of 5. I'd read it again, and recommend it to other readers. Particularly those who might be partial to the source plays. Knowing the material definitely enhances the experience, as my out-of-order adventure with Moore's Fool saga has taught me.