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A review by jamestomasino
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
5.0
Ok, so for those of you not in the know, this book is fantastic, but a little confusing to explain. First of all, William Goldman--writer of Butch Cassidy and the like--wrote this book. Some people get confused at that, thinking that he just edited the work of another author, but don't fall for it. The other author, S Morganstern, is a fictional author. In a way, that makes this novel a book within a book. The author creates a fake story of his own childhood in which his father read him stories from the make-believe novel. Now that he's a grown author, he's taking it upon himself to release and edited version that he calls the "Good Parts" version. I'm not sure if that cleared things up for you or not, but oh well.
About the content I'll say this: it is remarkably close to the film. Goldman wrote the screenplay as well, so that's to be understood, but what really amazed me was how he managed to fit so much of the book into the film without overburdening it with exposition or silliness. A lot of the dialog is straight off the novel's pages, and even some of the subtler story elements managed to find their way on screen (Inigo & Fezzik's rhyming game, for instance). Still, as with every novel, there's so much more to be found than can fit into a movie. I'd definitely say, if you're a fan of the film, you'll love the book. It's like watching an extended version of an old classic.
About the content I'll say this: it is remarkably close to the film. Goldman wrote the screenplay as well, so that's to be understood, but what really amazed me was how he managed to fit so much of the book into the film without overburdening it with exposition or silliness. A lot of the dialog is straight off the novel's pages, and even some of the subtler story elements managed to find their way on screen (Inigo & Fezzik's rhyming game, for instance). Still, as with every novel, there's so much more to be found than can fit into a movie. I'd definitely say, if you're a fan of the film, you'll love the book. It's like watching an extended version of an old classic.