I won this book as part of a Goodreads giveaway, so here is my review:

I am a fan of Shakespeare. Not a fan of reading his plays, but a fan of seeing and experiencing his words as they were meant to be experienced: aloud. I took a college class or two about Shakespeare and have a vague recollection of the ferocity contained in Lear and was hopeful for an inventive or novel retelling of the original. I am sad to say that this book was rather bland. It began with Dunbar (Lear) and Peter (the clown) and moved outward introducing the other characters. I felt that Florence was still much too two-dimensional of a character, even though St. Aubyn had bothered to give her more of a back story, and a love interest, she was still flat to me. Her sisters weren't much better, one appearing to be a violent sociopath who enjoyed S&M and the other being a caricature of a typical rich, powerful woman. It was a faithful retelling of the story, to the point where nothing was surprising except for the abruptness of the end of the book. One major complaint I had was the way Peter was written. He was clearly meant to be a man of many voices -- I pictured Robin Williams in the role -- but it was hard to follow the characterization of his delivery with it changing so consistently.

Overall, it was okay. I knew what was going on, I understood why it was all happening, and felt like St. Aubyn tried to give a lot of insight to Dunbar's inner monologues. I had hoped for more, since writing a book allows for omniscient narration and the ability to delve deeper into the characters than a play might allow for. Alas, this was not to be and I felt gypped that this version of Lear lacked all the passion the original brings to the world.