Review: Mandragora by H.D. Greaves

Title: Mandragora
Author: H.D. Greaves
Format: Ebook
Publisher: Bougainvilla
Publish Date: September 2, 2013
Source: I received a copy from the author; however, this did not affect my review.

Why You're Reading This Book:

• You're a fiction fan.
• You want some comedy in your reading diet.

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "Add a conniving servant and his amoral master; a murderous priest and his equally homicidal sidekick; an odious mother-in-law; a beautiful but barren wife wed to an ancient attorney; and a potion brewed from the root of the Mandragora, a plant alleged to help women conceive, and you have a prescription for pandemonium, especially when Mandragora (known in less reputable circles as “God’s Little Joke”), possesses a fatal flaw: after a woman drinks the potion, her body becomes a temple of poison. The first man to have sex with her will be dead in seven days. What's a man to do?

Filled with bawdy and irreverent wit, outrageous situations, characters it would be unwise to invite for dinner, and lots of good old-fashioned belly laughs, this highly literate and sophisticated satire is a joy to read from start to satisfying—and most surprising!—finale.

Based on The Mandrake, notorious Niccolò Machiavelli’s Italian Renaissance comedy, Mandragora is the only novel ever created—even after five centuries—from his famous (some say infamous) play."

My Two Cents:

As the synopsis says, this book is based on Machiavelli's comedy, The Mandrake. I had no clue that Machiavelli wrote a comedy! I only knew that he wrote The Prince, a decidedly less happy story. Reading Mandragora made me think that I definitely need to go back and read Machiavelli's The Mandrake to see what it was like. It's still so eye-opening to me that he wrote comedy! Mandragora is a very funny book with some interesting characters.

The book starts out a bit slowly but then it gathers steam rather quickly and turns into a nice story with a lot of humor in it. Some of the book is a bit outlandish but this is, of course, a satire so it definitely works here in this story! The book reminds me a lot of a Mel Brooks movie. Some of the humor is a little naughty and therefore, it might not be for everyone. That sense of humor is right down my alley though so I ate this book up!

There were a lot of funny characters in the book that I really liked. I love a book that can make me laugh and there were definitely some moments that had me giggling quite a bit. The characters get themselves into really crazy situations

The real star of this book is the writing. I think it can be really difficult to write things in such a way that the humor shines through but the author succeeds in this endeavor!

Overall, if you're looking for a story to make you laugh, this is it!!!