About the Book:

What happens when the most beautiful girl in the world marries the handsomest prince of all time and he turns out to be…well…a lot less than the man of her dreams?

As a boy, William Goldman claims, he loved to hear his father read the “S. Morgenstern classic, The Princess Bride. But as a grown-up he discovered that the boring parts were left out of good old Dad’s recitation, and only the “good parts” reached his ears.

Now Goldman does Dad one better. He’s reconstructed the “Good Parts Version” to delight wise kids and wide-eyed grownups everywhere.

What’s it about? Fencing. Fighting. True Love. Strong Hate. Harsh Revenge. A Few Giants. Lots of Bad Men. Lots of Good Men. Five or Six Beautiful Women. Beasties Monstrous and Gentle. Some Swell Escapes and Captures. Death, Lies, Truth, Miracles, and a Little Sex.

In short, it’s about everything.

Book Review:  ★★★★★★

This is a book that I was first introduced to in a High School English class.  We were getting down to the end of a quarter, and I think even the teacher was looking for something that wasn’t quite so demanding.  This is what we were assigned to read.  I fell in love with it even then — long before it was ever presented in movie form.  The book is quirky, bizarre, and just plain weird.  And you can’t help but fall in love with it.  Beginning to end you find yourself wondering if you are reading a fairy tale, a piece of fiction, or something that is so far out there that you are sure the author must have been using some kind of controlled substance to finish it.  (Not to imply that the author uses any form of illegal substances.  But the make up of the story is just crazy enough to make one wonder.)

Also, if you have only seen the movie — you are really only getting half the picture of what a piece of art this story truly is.  Not only can you not put it down, but you find yourself laughing throughout.  The asides in the voice of Morgenstern, the commentary of the author, the one liners from the characters.  Everything is just simply fun to read.  (And if that didn’t make sense, trust me you need to read the book to follow the logic.)

There are three different layers to this story.  The author’s, the author’s author, and then the characters.  And everyone of them have been combined to present an amazingly fun work of fiction.  Having reread this book, I came away with the exact same response I had in High School.  Simply put — I have a favorite book.  And even the ending — though you find yourself going what the h–l?! is an incredible piece of work.

The characters, as you know from the movie, are fun.  They are the stuff of fairy tales — oh but then that was the idea!  They are not to be anything but enjoyment.  And in this case, since many of the characters fit so well with the actors in the movie, there is nothing lost in having seen the movie before reading the book.  But I truly believe that one cannot fully appreciate the movie, unless you have read the book.  Because while the one liners from the movie are entertaining, and all — the true pieces of great writing are found in the parts left out of the movie.  The parenthetical asides, which leave you wondering when exactly did this story take place?  The abridgment commentary that keeps you laughing at the crazy things that the author inserts — very little of which was found in the movie.  And then of course there are the one liners you remember from the movie that are still a classic piece of writing — even in the printed format.

I love this book, and I would recommend this for any and all readers.  It is fun, pure enjoyment, and I would class it as a real work of art!

Tags: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Loss, Love, Romance

Category: Classics, Clean Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Romance, Suspense/Thriller