From the Bookshelf of 2015 Reading Challenge [Closed]…

The Princess Bride

William Goldman

Discussion: . Week 2: Romance

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. Week 2: Romance

* Week 2: Introduction
By Jessica · 43 posts · 618 views

last updated Feb 03, 2015 01:13PM

* Week 2: Progress Post
By Jessica · 54 posts · 221 views

last updated Dec 30, 2015 12:26PM

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What Members Thought

Jan 01, 2015 Michelle rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Since the movie is a cult classic that most people will have probably seen before reading the book, the answer is yes. Yes, this book is every bit as bright, humorous, and entertaining as the film. Like the movie, the book is full of witty dialogue and perfect one-liners. And, in keeping with the theme, the movie and book both host a full assortment of colorful characters that are either instantly lovable or enjoyably revolting. You certainly won't miss out on any of the action, intrigue, romanc ...more

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Aug 05, 2012 Kelsey rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, magic, books-set-in-fictional-places, narrative-styles-i-enjoy, secret-identity, read-in-2014, reviewed

I'm just gonna cut right to it with this one: this book is misogynistic as heck. It's also racist. Here's why:

Misogyny
Helen, the starlet, Buttercup's mother, Queen Bella, Fezzik's mother, Miracle Max's wife Valerie, and of course Buttercup hersef are the only women in the entire novel and none of them are treated well. Helen (the fictional version of William Golman's wife) is a cold, unsexy psychiatrist whom fictional!Goldman's narration complains about constantly. The starlet, who is so bland t I'm just gonna cut right to it with this one: this book is misogynistic as heck. It's also racist. Here's why:

Misogyny
Helen, the starlet, Buttercup's mother, Queen Bella, Fezzik's mother, Miracle Max's wife Valerie, and of course Buttercup hersef are the only women in the entire novel and none of them are treated well. Helen (the fictional version of William Golman's wife) is a cold, unsexy psychiatrist whom fictional!Goldman's narration complains about constantly. The starlet, who is so bland that I can't even remember her name, although I know she was given one, is a stereotype of blonde aspiring actresses. She exists for no reason other than to have breasts and offer fictional!Goldman sex in exchange for an acting role. Queen Bella exists only to cater to her husband's every word. Fezzik's mother is emotionally abusive, selling her son's happiness for money and Valerie is canonically acknowledged in the asides to be nothing more than a nagging Jewish wife stereotype.
Buttercup, the eponymous Princess Bride, is resourceful ("if I can't have Westley, I guess I'll use my beauty to my advantage and marry a prince and become the richest and most powerful woman in the world"), charming (the entirety of Florin fell in love with her based on one walk through the castle square), and kind (post-Westley; in her childhood she is a bully to Westley, but she redeems herself- other than Inigo she is the only one even remotely nice to Fezzik). She is not book smart, but she is actually kind of a political genius (see again her walk through the square) and quite strategic (she diverts the Brute army and gets herself and her friends out of the castle without a single drop of blood spilled in what would otherwise have been a bloodbath of a battle).
The problem: none of this matters to anyone else in the book, including fictional!Goldman. No one else sees her as anything but pretty. Not even her parents. The narration goes to great lengths to paint her as a willfully ignorant harpy shrew. Not even Westley, her supposed true love, treats her well. He outright tells her that after his fake-death, she should have killed herself out of sadness. In chapter 5, he hits her. In chapter 8, he "roars" at her the following line: "Woman, you are the property of the Dread Pirate Roberts and you do as you're told!"
That is not romance. That is not love.

Racism
Racism does not pervade this novel the way misogyny does, but it is there.
Fezzik is a gentle soul who is street smart and brave, but like with Buttercup, none of that matters. Because he is Turkish and a giant and therefore the other characters, including his parents and the narrator, can see nothing in him except brute strength.
Other than Fezzik, there are other instances of more acute racism. There may have been more than just the following three, but these are the only ones I had to presence of mind to mark down as I read them:
1. "My son Jason is this incredible-looking kid- paint him yellow and he'd mop up for the school sumo team." -Prologue
2. "There have only been eleven perfect complexions in all of India since accurate accounting began." -Chapter 1
3. 3 uses of a particular ethnic slur that rhymes with "stick." -Chapter 7
What's so perplexing to me about these 3 lines is that are all throwaway comments. Two of them are made in the narrator's asides. None have anything to do with the plot whatsoever and all so easily could have been edited out. Three red strikethroughs on a manuscript and boom! all gone. So easy.
I had read before that many considered this to be a situation where the movie was better than the book, but I am still disappointed. I have an urge to watch the movie now to see if it's not as good as I remember.

Two stars because of the Inigo/Fezzik friendship, which is great. I have a lot to say about it, but I won't here, as it doesn't really go with the rest of the review. ...more

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