The Fool's Tale

The shortest review I can give this book: I read the last 4 chapters (around 100 pages) in one go. I haven't been able to read more than 2 chapters of a book in one go in like 15 years, but I HAD to keep reading at the end of this book. Excellent.

For a longer review: There's a problem with historical fiction in that in order to be as accurate as possible, the characters get less and less sympathetic, simply because things that were normal back then are generally not acceptable these days. I think this book did an excellent job of portraying characters who aren't very palatable by modern standards in their accurate(ish) historical setting. Pretty early on we get something for the three main characters that manages to be very sympathetic even though they each have some unpleasant characteristics: We have Maelgwyn (referred to as Noble all but like 5 times), who very obviously cheats on his wife, allows his friend to torment the court (including his wife), makes no effort to try to make his new wife feel included, and is general kind of a dick - but we also see that he's very burdened by trying to take care of his kingdom, and it takes him some effort to care for his wife who is the niece of the man who killed his father. Then we have Isabel, the wife - she's prudish, she makes no effort to try to relate to her new subjects, she's kind of haughty about things are more civilized where she comes from (which is, humorously, only a few miles from the main setting); but she can't help her upbringing, nobody in the setting tries to be friendly to her or include her in anything, her husband cheats on her, and she has nothing to do all day; and finally we have the titular fool, Gwirion - he's crude, his pranks go too far, he's very vicious to Isabel; but he's also essentially a slave in the kingdom, he has no real status or title, he basically can't even kiss a woman without the king's permission, and his life is ultimately entirely dependent on the whims of the king.

As the story goes on, Isabel and Gwirion in particular become more sympathetic, and Noble at least becomes more understandable (both to us and to Isabel).

The main characters grow as people even though the book takes place over the course of exactly one year (not counting the prologue), in a believable way.

The ending is... wow. It makes sense entirely based on how the characters developed, and I loved that the author left what EXACTLY happened in the climax vague. Every possibility made full sense given what the characters went through, and ultimately what EXACTLY happened isn't the important part.

Bonus: The author fully admits in her notes that she took a lot of liberties with the storytelling - for instance, the real life Maelgwyn died before the book takes place, Isabel Mortimer never existed, and there wasn't anything like a “court jester/fool” position in the setting (although in the story itself, Isabel points that out - that on the continent they have court jesters and it seemed like Gwirion was filling that role, although nobody in the kingdom had ever heard of such a thing). It's historical fiction so I never expect anything to be 100% accurate, but I do appreciate when the authors explain that they changed this, this, and this for storytelling purposes.
Also the author includes a pronunciation guide which was VERY HELPFUL.

Notes: There are some spicy scenes but it's clean overall. There's mention of “exploring bodies” and lifting legs and crying out in ecstasy but nothing more explicit than that is described.

My roommate read this before me, and when she handed it to me she said, “After you read this, I want to know who your favorite character is.” Hers was the king; mine was the fool – and when we handed it to a friend, hers was the queen. Each of us chose a different character, though all three of us tend to have similar tastes. Many interesting discussions were had once we'd all read it!

The author chose to set this novel in medieval Wales, thus giving all her characters names that made discussing them afterwards even more hilarious (I'm pretty sure we each had different ways of pronouncing each name). I wasn't struck by any glaring problems with the setting or style; the book was an easy read stylistically, and for that I commend the author.

There was a point near the end of the book where the plot twists came to a head and it became clear to me: this will not end well. And boy, did Galland deliver. It was definitely a thrill to read!