Fun, But Ultimately Unsatisfying!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                       "King Lear" just happens to be my favorite Shakespearean play, darlings.  I mean, all that family dysfunction and tension.  We have all lived through it, haven't we?  I know I have!

                                        This is not the first redo of 'Lear,' nor will it be the last.  As far as I am concerned, Jane Smiley's "A Thousand Acres" is still the gold standard.

                                          The set-up is simple.  Henry Dunbar, owner of a billion dollar media empire, is duped by his duplicitous daughters, Abby(Goneril) and Megan (Regan).  Added to the mix is a suspicious character named Dr. Bob, with drugs and sex aplenty in this present day version.  Wilson is the lawyer/ servant, as well his son Chris, in love with Dunbar's daughter Florence, who was disowned by her father.  Get it? She is Cordelia!

                                            But who is the Fool?  He seems split between two characters, one being the aforementioned Wilson, the other being, Peter Walker, a mentally unstable, down on his luck former celebrity comedian, whom Dunbar meets in the institution his monster daughters place him in.

                                             These daughters are monstrous.  They are sexually avaricious, and they seem to have a quasi-incestuous relationship.  Abby's hubby, Mark, wants to be a hero, but is a wuss,
and the famous storm scene goes on much too long here, as though to drag the story out.

                                               Edward St. Aubyn is the author of the Patrick Melrose novels, which I have always been curious about, but I have too many series I am committed to now, and, with the Fall season approaching, the lists will be coming up, but one can get an idea of how the Melrose novels are from this.  "Dunbar" reads like a suspense mystery; the problem is, especially if one knows "King Lear," the outcome is not satisfying.  Yes, Dunbar and Florence perish, but how and by whom Florence's death was engineered is never revealed.  And Abby and Megan are still on their feet at the end of the novel, so where the hell is their comeuppance?  Shakespeare meted out justice to those who deserved it; St. Aubyn settles for ambiguity.

                                                So "Dunbar," while fun, does not do the justice to 'Lear' that it should.
Jane Smiley's retelling is still the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                 But don't let me stop you from reading it. And if you are completely unfamiliar with "King Lear," then all the better for you!

                                                  That Abby and Megan should have been slapped!  But good!!!!!!!!