The Princess Bride

A friend expressed delight that her granddaughters were now old enough to enjoy the movie.

“Did we see it?” Adele said.

“The book is better,” I said.

“Did I read it?”

“I don’t think so.”

So every night before sleep I read some to her.

“Princess Bride is a wonderful book. The writing — the actual word-by-word sentences — is pedestrian, even off-putting; but William Goldman knew how to tell a story. He knew what his readers knew and what they expected based on this knowledge and he played with this knowledge and these expectations. He was a ju-jitsu master, using his readers’ strengths to flip them — and leave them laughing at how he did it — and at themselves and the magic of story-telling.