My take on King Lear? Cordelia could have prevented a lot of deaths had she been more tactful, including her own. Still studying for the GRE subject test, and the next book on my list was King Lear. Now I have an ethical issue with reading Shakespeare. Plays are meant to be seen, preferably live, not read. Forcing kids to read them in school is not going to open their eyes to their literary merit.

But King Lear isn’t performed all that often, so I watched every version of it I could find. My favorite had Gandalf as Leer (I’m sure that actor has a real name, it’s just escaped me for the moment). I was still having a tough time remembering all the characters and their motives, so I read Fool, by Christopher Moore. I would read this for entertainment alone, but in the case of studying don’t use it to study the plot, JUST to remember the characters and the setting. But the book was incredible. The plot interwoven like a tapestry, and Pocket was such a great character. I really can’t say enough good things about this book.

Random side note: I wonder if I’m the only one who thinks “The Last Unicorn” every time I hear the name Lear?