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Author: Jeffery S. Williams
Publisher: iUniverse, Inc
ISBN: 978-0-595-52979-7
Jeffery S. Williams second book marks a change in genre for this Fresno, California author; his first book was titled Pirate Spirit: The Adventures of Anne Booney and focused on one of historys most infamous female pirates. In this second ambitious foray, Whos To Blame
Williams crafts a rollicking spoof and an absolutely hilarious take on
two of Shakespeares most famous plays that many hold sacred, Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet
which are divided into two distinct parts or books. This is certainly
not the first of such spoofs and probably will not be the last as over
the years there have been a flood of parodies written about
Shakespeares works. Just look at the infinite number takes on Hamlets
famous soliloquy, To be or not to be. However, Whos To Blame is an unexpected delight!
You can easily tell that
Williams has done plenty of work as he exercises a great deal of
latitude in constructing his own versions of Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet.
However, he never loses sight of the principal characters of both plays
as he captures the style and substance of Shakespeare. And in order to
really shake up the plots, Williams has crafted the whacky characters
of Sir SherChristispeare, Great Britains greatest sleuth in
sixteenth-century England as his protagonist and his sidekick Pancho
who is described as the most loyal of sidekicks during Renaissance
England.
For readers who are not too familiar with The Bard, Book One patterns itself for the most part on the general theme of Hamlet
with its setting and contextual elements wherein Sir SherChristispeare
is informed by Prince Henry that the entire court of Denmark consisting
of King Hamlet, Prince Hamlet, Queen Gertrude, King Claudius, Councilor
Polonius, Brother Laertes, and a pregnant Sister Ophelia, have been
brutally murdered and he fears that there is some kind of conspiracy
going on. Nightly, ghosts are haunting the castle and it has become so
unbearable that King Fortinbras of Norway, who has now taken over in
Denmark, requests that the priest that he might beteem the winds of
heaven to exorcise the ghosts from the castle. When that fails,
Fortinbras returns to Norway. Consequently, the task at hand is for
Sir SherChristispeare to immediately go to Denmark and ferret out the
ghosts and goblins of these weird and inexplicable deaths. As Sir
SherChristispeare states, he doesn't believe that neither Prince Hamlet
nor King Claudius is to blame and thus the challenge of uncovering the
truth behind the mystery has ignited him to action.
Book Two likewise humorously mimics the original Romeo and Juliet
and it likewise involves a murder wherein six members of the royal
families of Verona were slain, notably Mercutio, Tybalt, Paris, Lady
Montague, Romeo and Juliet. Again there seems to be a conspiracy,
however, it is will be a difficult task to pinpoint just what happened
as there does not seem to be any clues as to whom may have committed
this hideous crime.
One of the key ingredients of Whos To Blame
is Williams admirable skill with dialogue which is continually peppered
with witticisms particularly during the rapid-fire bantering between
Sir SherChristispeare and Pancho, case in point: Remember, if brevity
is the soul of wit, then redundancy is the excrement of the fool.
Another: I broke into soliloquy, though Pancho was with earshot,
which technically made it a monologue-a dramatic ironical tone.
And how about Williams twist on Hamlets soliloquy To Be or Not to Be:
For me or not for me: that is the query.
Whethertis nobler in the loins to suffer
The slings and arrows of frustrated sexual fortune
Or to take her in mine arms against a sea of moral laws
And, by opposing, end them with ecstasy. To couple, to tumble
No more-and by giving into temptation say we end
It is here as well as many
other sections of the parody where Williams true intelligence,
refreshingly unique voice and acumen for humor are revealed to the
reader. (It should be mentioned that Williams is a high school English
teacher and I can well-imagine how he makes Shakespeare come alive in
the classroom.) In fact, there were times Williams even had me
comparing Sir SherChristispeare to our modern day Detective Columbo of
TV fame who thanks to his eye for detail and his meticulous as well as
his committed approach manages to solve the crime. I wonder who
Williams was pattering SherChristispeare after?
Williams is very inventive
and innovative and coupled with his gifted imagination succeeds in
avoiding a common pitfall of alienating lovers of Shakespeare as he
effectively stitches farce, slapstick and even some romance into a
ridiculous quilt of literary entertainment. I am sure you will chuckle
and laugh until your belly hurts! If you enjoy offbeat fiction, Whos To Blame is likely to win your heart and do come along for the ride. You won't be sorry.
Click Here To Read Norm's Interview With Jeffery
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