Book Review: The Princess Bride

The Princess Bride 
by William Goldman 


I can't believe I'm almost 40 and I never knew about the Goldman literary hoax that is The Princess Bride. I read the 25th anniversary edition, so there is even more Goldman half-truth-half-lie-half-fiction-half-non in a new introduction, wherein likely but unlikely things happen, like Mandy Patinkin decking Andre the Giant because the brute delivers his lines too slowly. True? Maybe? Likely? Not. But who knows?

Once you get past the cleverness of the concept, though, the device wears a little thin. I got a little annoyed but one can assume this is because I was reading it solely for the purpose of reading it out loud to my five year old son, Ergo, the entire time, I had one half of my brain paying attention to how I was going to abridge the fictional abridgement when I read it aloud to my kid. That's too much brain power for me to want to use on an enjoyable pastry like this.

AND the best line from the movie isn't in the book, so I close with it here; "Anybody want a peanut?"