Believing the Inconceivable

"Then let's look on the bright side: we're having an adventure, Fezzik, and most people live and die without being as lucky as we are."

Inigo Montoya 

It was so great to visit the world of The Princess Bride again. I have read this book several times and am never disappointed. I mean, it has everything you can possibly want: action, adventure, humor, romance, miracles and a six fingered man. What's not to love?!

Not only that, I like that it is a frame story: stories within stories. There is The Princess Bride, Goldman's memory of being read this when he was sick and S. Morgenstern's story of "writing" the novel that Goldman tells as he "abridges." Of course, I am biased and a major sucker for frame stories being that my favorite novel is Frankenstein and I have a fascination with how Moulin Rouge was filmed.

All that aside, the way Goldman presents the story is genius, considering he is fake abridging his own original work. And for some reasons the words of a self proclaimed, Sicilian genius come to mind: "Inconceivable!" Okay, now that that is out of the way, I have to admit I am not Buttercup's biggest fan. In fact, for the most part I don't like her at all. She is selfish, naive and I don't ever think she ever grasps how much Westley loves her. I mean, the man left to find his fortune, endured pirates, bested a Spaniard, a Sicilian, a giant, braved the Fire Swamp, and, oh yeah, he freaking died. Now that is love. Buttercup, on the other hand, becomes a princess. And gets kidnapped.

But honestly, the characters that make the book for me are Fezzik and Inigo. I just find them to be two of the most well rounded, brave, quirky characters that have ever been thought up. Even though there stories are laced with humor, they both had a rough childhood and overcame great odds and managed to form a wonderful friendship along the way. Sometimes I enjoy true friendship stories better than love stories. Fezzik and Inigo accept each other 110% for who they are, faults and all. Besides, who doesn't want a friend that will rhyme with you.

The Princess Bride: A Tale of Two Stories

First of all, great choice of book Allyssa. I've never read The Princess Bride before but I love the movie so I was excited to read this this month. I love that this book is two stories in one: the love story of Westley and Buttercup and William Goldman's experience with the story.  While Westley and Buttercup's story could stand on it own, I did enjoy Goldman's aspect of bonding over the book with his father and later his journey in abridging the tale. There were a couple of times I didn't like Goldman's narrative mainly when he's talking about how he omitted a section because it was lengthy and satirical. My favorite parts were about Goldman's childhood because I think he does a good job relating to the reader over the emotions felt during Westley and Buttercups journey to a happy ending.

It was also great getting the backgrounds of Inigo and Fezzik. It just made me fall in love with these characters even more.  On the other hand, this book made me dislike Prince Humperdinck even more. The Zoo of Death made him an even darker character than I remembered from the movie. I'm glad the Zoo of Death didn't make the movie because I would love for my daughters to watch this movie sooner rather than later.  But for the book I think it worked in showing Humperdinck's nature and that he would have no problem killing Buttercup (or anything for that matter).

Clockwork Disappointment

So this isn’t going to be an in depth review of this book. I’m just going to let you guys know how I felt about it. And it wasn’t a particularly good feeling.

When I chose this book I was very interested. It had Egyptology. Possible Steampunk. And it followed descendants of Stoker and Holmes. Sounds pretty amazing and a lot of fun! Well I was disappointed. I couldn’t seem to get a grasp of the novel. I just didn’t like the writing style, and the dialogue seemed to be all over the place. I found myself confused by conversations and lost beyond all belief.

I also felt the storyline was lackluster. I just didn’t intrigue me like the book summary did. And I felt that the time travel was out of place and not something that should have been in there.

I got annoyed that Stoker was always distracted by Pix, I usually am all for tall, dark, and brooding but it just didn’t work for me here. And it just didn’t make the story any better for me.

So I guess the lesson of the story is, don’t judge a book by its cover. I thought this book looked awesome simply because of the cover art, and I ended up not like it all. Which is rare. Most of the time that works out well for me.