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A modern day retelling of Shakepeare's "King Lear" with a "once all-powerful head of a global media corporation" as the Lear.
This book started with a bang. I was so impressed by how the author set the scene and wove difficult characters into modern telling. How do you incorporate a royal fool/court jester? You make him a troubled comedian being treated for chronic alcoholism at the same facility as the main character!
The writing and dialog was also brilliant at the beginning. And then it began to drag...and drag. A few pages spent in the mind of an old man losing his mind is plenty. This went on for far too long. In Mr. St. Aubyn's defense the same could be said for the original play of King Lear.
The ending really annoyed me. It wasn't bad, just very, very abrupt. After many pages of rambling thoughts we get to the wrap-up, the completion of schemes, and backstabbing and bad behavior and shenanigans and we get a whimper instead of a bang.
I am not sad I read this, but I think I would recommend watching HBO's "Succession" over this for a very similar tale.
This book started with a bang. I was so impressed by how the author set the scene and wove difficult characters into modern telling. How do you incorporate a royal fool/court jester? You make him a troubled comedian being treated for chronic alcoholism at the same facility as the main character!
The writing and dialog was also brilliant at the beginning. And then it began to drag...and drag. A few pages spent in the mind of an old man losing his mind is plenty. This went on for far too long. In Mr. St. Aubyn's defense the same could be said for the original play of King Lear.
The ending really annoyed me. It wasn't bad, just very, very abrupt. After many pages of rambling thoughts we get to the wrap-up, the completion of schemes, and backstabbing and bad behavior and shenanigans and we get a whimper instead of a bang.
I am not sad I read this, but I think I would recommend watching HBO's "Succession" over this for a very similar tale.