Book Review: The Princess Bride

Pure Fun.  I don't know how else to describe this book.

First, a little personal history of this book and me:

This story is an integral part of my life.  It is literally a part of the culture of my family and friends.  I quote it in conversation on a regular basis.  I have watched the movie dozens if not hundreds of times.  At any moment I could recite the entire movie and I’ll bet it would be 95% verbatim.  Earlier this year for a church talent show – I performed the entire movie in 5 minutes by chopping the script down to my favorite parts and using 113 screen shots. (here’s my script)

SO – I like this story… (just a little bit)

The movie is great because it starts in the current day with a little boy who is sick, and his Grandpa comes to read him a book: “The Princess Bride” - by S. Morgenstern.  Throughout the movie and telling of the story it cuts back to the boy and his Grandpa as they interrupt the story with funny quips, questions, or explanations.  It great.

I never knew the book was written the same way.

The book, by William Goldman, starts out with the story of Goldman’s own childhood.  When he was home sick his father came to read him the original book by Morgenstern.  When Goldman becomes an adult he buys the book to read it to his son, but finds that Morgenstern’s original book is not the same version his Grandpa told him.  The book has all these boring parts – histories of the kingdom, who planted what flowers where, the trying on of wedding dresses, etc…

So in Goldman’s version of “The Princess Bride” he leaves all that stuff out.  He interjects in the story every once in a while to tell you what he cut out and why, (and how his Grandpa told the story the right way) – and then gets you back to the action.

It’s fun, it’s hilarious, and it’s all a beautiful lie.

There never was an S. Morgenstern.  There never was an original book.  Goldman made up the whole thing.  I think he found the perfect way to write a book the way he wanted and skip any parts he didn’t want to write.  He simply said his book was an abridgement.

If he doesn’t know how to connect two parts of the story – just skip it and say it was boring.  If he thought a section was getting boring, or too intense – just cut as the "abridger" and explain what happened.

IT’S AWESOME!

This book has it all - Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles...

Read it, Love it.