The Princess Bride by William GoldmanMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is the 4th or 5th time I have read this. (I haven't been keeping track. I know there was the time I was a teenager and the time Goodreads has listed but was there 1 or 2 more times between there? I'm not sure.) I always skip the first part and most of the italics, but since I was reading for book club this time I read it (to be honest I skipped most of the parentheses if they were too long though) and I remembered why I always skip it. I have also never read Buttercup's Baby, I don't know why I have just never wanted to, let's hope it doesn't come up at book club.
It was only a couple of years ago that I learned this book is satire. (I don't know why I didn't know it, Goldman says it many times that it is satire, though I do tend to skip those parts.) And now I can fully appreciate the satirical nature of it. The parentheses portion (the short ones) have always been one of my favorite parts about this book. How can something be before Europe but after America? Now I realize its all part of the satire.
During this read through I realized this is the only book thus far that I have been able to pay attention to the action scenes. I'm not sure why, it might have something to do with the fact that its more technical based than just he landed a punch and then he jumped. The fencing part was all fencing jargon and I learned awhile ago that some are real fencing terms. (They could all be fencing terms, I don't know. I have actually heard some of those terms.)
This is all one of the few movies that is actually better than the book. Like I said I skip some of the parts and the movie leaves out all of those parts. It also cuts out Inigo's and Fezzik's back stories which I found a bore when I was younger ( though not so much anymore).
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