Sad Stories of the Death of Kings Book

William Shakespeare's history play, King Richard the Second, examines the political corruption, betrayal, revenge, and ultimate tragedy surrounding the throne of England. In contrast, Barry Gifford's Sad Stories of the Death of Kings - The title is taken from a monologue towards the end of the aforementioned play - chronicles the childhood of Roy, a boy living in Chicago in the 1940's and 50's , through a series of short stories, ranging from three to six pages. The stories are not told in strict chronological order, and generally revolve around a different character as told by Roy. Roy is an intelligent, observant, and conscientious young man who loves going to the movies and writing stories. Even though his world is one laden with poverty, crime, and death, Roy's narration rarely hints at despair or regret. Instead, he treats each individual he comes in contact with - from boxers to waitresses, and shopkeepers to strippers - with the same amount of respect and interest for their life's story.

With the brevity of each chapter you cannot really get a good feel for any of the characters (even the ones, mostly Roy's closest friends, who pop up frequently) except for Roy himself. Additionally, the stories do not unravel a central plot, build on each other, or work towards any unified conclusion, but rather can only be properly digested as contributions to an overarching experience that the author tries to get the reader to empathize with. Although Roy's navigation of both his physical and societal surroundings is keen and thoughtful, the snippets of interactions are too short and matter-of-fact to fully connect with. This pacing and voicing work extremely well in communicating Roy as the societal underdog forced to grow up while still a child, but if the author wants us to wholly relate to his protagonist, we have to be able to get a sense of his environment as well, and to this end Sad Stories is slightly underdeveloped.

When, in Act 3, Richard II says, 'for God's sake, let us sit upon the ground, and tell sad stories of the death of kings," he was lamenting the fate of kings, who, despite their divinity, must still succumb to the limitations of a finite world, specifically his own steadily-approaching decline as it became more and more apparent to him. Perhaps, in titling his collection of succinct accounts after this passage, Gifford wished to demonstrate this same sense of constraint as it relates to the contemporary, common urbanite.