Note: This is a much longer version of an essay I wrote for Quillette last year to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of William Goldman’s The Princess Bride.
Terrific post, Kevin! I'm a longtime fan of the book, and you're right about all the weirdnesses in it. Your points are all well made. That intro certainly establishes the "Goldman" narrator as an absolute jerk, though since it's fictional—he wasn't married to a psychiatrist named Helen or had a fat son—I saw it as a character he'd created, adding to the meta-fiction of it all. The actual Goldman, I also agree, was brilliant (if a bit too attached to gruesome torture scenes), and I love that we're still talking about his work a half century after it was created and six years after his death. May the discussions/readings/viewings long continue!
Thanks, Jan. He was a fascinating guy. One of Hollywood’s greatest screenwriters, a bestselling novelist, author of nonfiction books on Broadway and the movie business, as well as a writer for children. His brother James was also an Academy Award winning screenwriter (for The Lion in Winter). Seems long past time that someone should have written his biography. I hope I live long enough to see the publication of a full-length critical biography of the man and his work.
Terrific post, Kevin! I'm a longtime fan of the book, and you're right about all the weirdnesses in it. Your points are all well made. That intro certainly establishes the "Goldman" narrator as an absolute jerk, though since it's fictional—he wasn't married to a psychiatrist named Helen or had a fat son—I saw it as a character he'd created, adding to the meta-fiction of it all. The actual Goldman, I also agree, was brilliant (if a bit too attached to gruesome torture scenes), and I love that we're still talking about his work a half century after it was created and six years after his death. May the discussions/readings/viewings long continue!
Thanks, Jan. He was a fascinating guy. One of Hollywood’s greatest screenwriters, a bestselling novelist, author of nonfiction books on Broadway and the movie business, as well as a writer for children. His brother James was also an Academy Award winning screenwriter (for The Lion in Winter). Seems long past time that someone should have written his biography. I hope I live long enough to see the publication of a full-length critical biography of the man and his work.
You just might be the guy to do that biography!
As both novelist and screenwriter, Goldman had one of the most impressive CVs in American popular culture.