Holy Jester: The St. Francis Fables

by Dario Fo, Mario Pirovano

Overview

(Book). "Fo emulates the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden." Nobel Prize Committee These fables spark the imagination, challenge the conscience, and delight the soul. Greed and corruption are Fo's irreverent subjects for this satirical Fellini-esque provocation. Fo convenes courtiers, popes, cardinals, generals, peasants and one man who despite his own earthly appetites and desires becomes a saint. "Imagine" wrote The New York Times about Fo, "a cross between Bertolt Brecht and Lenny Bruce, and you may begin to have an idea of the scope of Fo's anarchic wit."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781623160821
Publisher:	Opus Books
Publication date:	08/01/2017
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

Editorial Reviews

11/20/2017
This illustrated collection of fictionalized vignettes by the late Nobel Prize–winning playwright Fo (The Pope’s Daughter) is a touching ode to the life of St. Francis of Assisi. Fo opens with an introduction that lays out the purpose of the fables: to revive a version of the saint based on historical materials, many of which the Vatican destroyed in order to present a docile, sanitized Francis for the canon. (Fo’s information is based on the work of historian Chiari Frugoni, who draws on sources, such as Thomas of Celano, that escaped censure for centuries in Italian churches and libraries.) Fo’s Francis is irreverent, antiauthoritarian, creative, and devoted to the poor and his faith. The fables themselves are told largely via dialogue, translated into contemporary-sounding (albeit somewhat clunky) English by Pirovano: “He really was a bona fide jester with all the tricks of the trade up his sleeve.” Though these lengthy exchanges sometimes seem better suited to the stage, they effectively convey Francis’s grandiose, comic personality and the lively society that surrounded him. Readers will follow his adventures communing with animals, persuading the pope to allow him to preach, combating traditional hierarchy and violence, and outsmarting objections to his approach to Christianity. The tales are aided considerably by Fo’s bright, distinctive illustrations, which both pay homage to and transcend the stories’ 13th-century setting. Readers may not be left with a substantive understanding of St. Francis’s biography, but Fo succeeds in bringing him to lasting, appealing, revisionist life. Agent: Domitilla Ruffo, Agenzia Danesi Tolnay (Italy). (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

12/01/2017
As Nobel Prize winner Fo explains in his introduction, in the Middle Ages, jesters were both loved (by the multitudes) and reviled (by those in power who suffered their barbs), and St. Francis of Assisi took the appellation Holy Jester as a matter of pride. After Francis's death, the Vatican remade the rogue friar—famed for his gutsy, performative sermons—into a docile soul. Here, Fo uses a witty vernacular to resurrect the real Francis in fables that take him from his stone masonry days through his work for the church. In "Francis Meets the Wolf in Gubbio," he's determined to chat with a marauding wolf despite protests: "You've gone crazy again. First you embrace the lepers, then you strip off naked in the church and now you want to talk to wolves! Why don't you just write the Wolf a letter instead?" What follows is a reflection on our responsibilities for our actions, with the wolf later helping Francis out of a scrape. VERDICT A bold, bright Francis for our time, with illustrations to match, and charmingly translated.

Library Journal