A review by charlote_1347
The Princess Bride by William Goldman

2.0

I'm a big fan of the core story - Westley, Buttercup, Inigo, Fezzik, even Humperdinck. There is a compelling element to their individual stories which only grows in strength when they are forced together. The tone was brilliantly simple, and while lacking in details I would have loved to read, I garnered enough about plot and characterisation to understand where Goldman was taking things. What I didn't like about this novel, and it's a big honking thing, were the abridgements and commentary chapters and asides. I found them tedious, long-winded and confusing. They interrupted the flow of the story, yanking me out of the fairy-tale trope completely. Perhaps that's their purpose, in which case I consider them a success. But that's not a good thing. I skipped whole chunks of them, unable to bear reading a single page at the risk of putting myself to sleep. The only redeemable part was the scene with King in it and even then, it was come and go as to whether it held my attention. If I had to put my finger on one thing that bothered me about these chapters, other than their sheer refusal to adhere to the form of the story, it's that I wasn't sure if they were honest reflections or part of the narrative. Maybe that makes me stupid, for not realising the difference. Maybe my interpretation of this novel was clouded long before I opened its first page yesterday, since I watched the film and loved it in that format. Either way, I would not read this novel again if you paid me. The basic story is all that kept me going - and I can find that again, if I want it, in the film.