Though he's best known as a screenwriter, William Goldman has also written quite a few novels of note. His best probably remains the thriller Marathon Man. With a nicely complex but hardly difficult plot and amazingly strong characterization from the major players to the minor placeholders, this is a thrilling, at times harrowing book that also manages to provide a great deal of humor and a strong subtext of lost dreams. With his villians, Goldman truly manages to capture the outright banality of some of the world's greatest evil. And as for his hero -- I would defy anyone not to root for poor, awkward Babe Levy from the first minute they meet him. In recent years, its become strangely unfasionable to run the risk of injecting anything resembling humor or humanity into thrillers and instead, those qualities have too often been replaced with meaningless violence and a smirking sadism. Read Marathon Man and see how great a good thriller can truly be.

William Goldman has a gift for creating three dimensional characters and larger than life situations that actually seem possible. Besides this his prose is entertaining with tight plotting.

Of his fiction Marathon Man is a perfect example of all the features of Goldman's skills. I remember starting to read this a few hours before a really hot date. I became so engrossed in the plot, the twists and turns and tension growing within Marathon Man which initiated a first for me. I called and ended up cancelling the date just to finish the last 100 pages.

It is a rare book that motivates me to drop everything else and read it from page to page. Marathon Man was the first and one of very few.

You feel for the protagonist and visualize his experiences in your minds eye. You feel the terror, the racing heartbeat and surprise with each page. Goldman had a run where he was the master of the thriller novel. Getting freaked out in a literate fashion is truly a unique experience, one you should experience if you have not yet read Marathon Man.

In the end I made up for my faux pas of cancelling the date in part by giving this book to the woman I cancelled on. She confirmed she couldn't put it down either, chances are neither will you.

Highest recommendations...

Goldman's Marathon Man gallops to the finish line, never slowing, never giving away too much too soon, keeping on a steady pace to the end of the race. Thrillers don't get better than this -- simple yet complex, easy-going but quickly moving, funny yet chilling. The perfect subway read.

As a medical transcriptionist, there are many times when a doctor will say the name of a drug incorrectly or I cannot quite understand what the doctor is saying. In the Quick Look Drug Book, there is a section in the back of the book called the Indication/Therapeutic Category Index. In this section, you can look up the patient's diagnosis and it will list the medications used for that illness. Most of the time I am able to determine what drug the doctor is referring to by using this method. It has saved me a lot of time and effort over the years. I highly recommend this book if you are a medical transcriptionist.

Great book! Use it a lot, but would like to have the latest vesion..

Sam Price

I am one of the handful of people who haven't yet read "The Princess Bride," so I can't comment on how this compares to that book. However, this was an entertaining little tale and a cute fable.

Everyone once knew that the gondoliers of Venice were the best singers in the world -- so amazing, in fact, that the great Enrico Caruso was overwhelmed when he heard them singing. One talented young gondolier with a "goony" smile, Luigi, is incredibly skilled as a gondolier and wins the heart of the girl he adores. But when he tries to sing, chaos reigns. People pelt him with vegetables and dead fish, even when he isn't singing.

Out of necessity, poor Luigi is drummed out of the gondoliers. His girlfriend dumps him, and he ends up washing dishes in a tavern with only his dreams to sustain him. Can Luigi overcome his terrible singing voice and realize his dreams?

This is a cute little story, though "fable" might be the wrong description for it because there is no firmly-defined lesson in it. Is it the special-rubbing-off line? Never give up on your dreams? Be an insane optimist? I never really figured it out. The outlines of it are rather uneven, especially the entire chapter devoted to the history of surfing. This might work in a book three or four times "Gondoliers"'s length, but in a story this short it merely feels awkward. And for the record, the translation of "pizza" is not "pizza," but "pie."

Nevertheless, Luigi is a sweetie, with his goony smile and obsessions with being a gondolier. The reader really does want him to succeed, and boos enthusiastically at the unsympathetic The Great and the aptly named "John the Bastard." The line drawings add a nice touch, very pretty in most cases. And the author manages to make Venice sound like one of the loveliest places in the world.

A nice little book, good for passing twenty minutes on a rainy day.

I must admit that I shot myself in the foot by expecting this book to be another Princess Bride. This "fable" is definitely not the same. No high adventure here. But the book certainly has its merits. Goldman/Morgenstern is able to create characters with whom you instantly connect. You can't help but adore them--even in the case of John the Bastard, the overly-critical professor of hopeful gondoliers. The ending, overly sentimental for my taste, was a bit disappointing. Overall, the book was not an unpleasant read. When it was out of print, I would have said it wasn't worth the trouble of hunting down a copy. But since it's been re-released, I think it would be a shame not to check it out. It's a nice addition to any collection.

As an opera singer and having visited Venice for the first time this past year, this was a perfect book. I loved this novel--as a diversion from an otherwise boring Sunday afternoon, as a jaunt into the life of someone special, and even as a complete story worthy of never being compared to it's predecessor "The Princess Bride." My main point in this review is to state that there IS no comparison between this and "The Princess Bride." The only simularity is the fact that Willian Goldman wrote both under the pseudonymn "S. Morgenstern." In all actuality... and this is a big thing for a dedicated romantic, like myself, to state... I think I liked this book better than "The Princess Bride." It was concise, to the point, short, and all the while it lost no magic that was intended and even drew me in more because of it's clear-cut nature. It is a fable that should be read over and over... I believe the moral is there for anyone to see, however, one must choose for himself or herself what the message is for him/her as an individual. Don't read this for a message though... read it to become wrapped up in the glitz and glamour of Venice, to become enamoured of the romantic nature of Luigi, and mostly...to become lost in the dreams and the discovery that those dreams can come true.
I particularly liked the part - chapter XIV - where "S. Morgenstern" breaks in with a statement about famous swimmers.... I know this makes no sense if you haven't read the book. Just read it; when you do you'll understand the brilliance of Goldman's intervention. This is amazingly perceived and brilliantly written. It touched me and I do believe that I will always consider the Luigi character a personal hero.

I have read other William Goldman novels "Brothers" and "marathon man" which were great!! So to be honest compared to those other novels this was quite a dissapointment. I really didn't buy that mind control, time travel stuff. It was just too confusing for my liking and really seemed not to make any sense. The novel was filled with too many extremely dull moments with Edith going in the past with overly long descriptions. Most characters were likable, but so many names were tossed around i just lost track. New characters were introduced towards the end and I quite frankly didn't care about them.

Now on to the good stuff. I have to say the book was quite humorous at times. Billy Bob had his very funny moments.... The action sequences were very detailed and quite entertaining and I really liked the friendship between Eric and Haggarty. The idea of having these characters then connecting the stories together worked quite well at times. Generally the novel was decently entertaining, but it just seemed very inconsistent. One part would be extremely intense, while later on it turns into a ... bore fest.

In general it's a decent novel. It however doesn't measure up to William Goldman's other novels.

As already noted in the reviews, Control has some wonderful characters-- the housewife painter Edith Mazursky, the killer Billy Boy, the erudite cop Eric. Unfortunately, the plot itself (a convoluted conspiracy theory about reincarnation and time travel) doesn't hold up and feels rather hackneyed. Possibly that's because the ground has been covered so much since Control was written.

I just read the other reviews here, and I am in agreement with them - I just want to add a few words about Goldman's style. His style is absolutely captivating. He is one of the few authors I read (Trevenian also comes to mind here) not so much to see what he says, but, rather, how he says it. The book has so many stylistic gems that there is no room here to recount them all. However, I must say that the "beer identification" scene is prehaps the funniest piece of prose I have ever read. When Hagerty claims that the actor's name (Mifume, I think) is the only other Japaneese name other than "Hirohito" that he could think of, and even Eric would not have fallen for that, I swear I laughed out loud for about a week. Very, very entertaining read.

Maybe I missed the fine-print or something, but this book isn't what I was expecting, really, or what I was looking for. The book doesn't get three stars because it's bad -- it's not a bad book -- but because I think, well, the title is a sort of false advertising. When I picked up the book, I was expecting essays by successful writers about how they broke into the business of screenwriting ... inspirational-type stuff. Instead, what the book contains are stories about:

"The first time I ...

"... sold a tv-pilot after working for fifteen years as a staff-writer for a highly successful television show."

Or ...

"The first time I ...

"... adapted one of my highly sucessful stage plays into a screenplay."

And so on.

Many of the personal essays are interesting, some are funny, and the book is worth reading, if what you want to read are the kind of mildly amusing, sometimes hopeful essays contained in this book. If what you want is a book of essays by highly successful screenwriters about how the broke into the business, you'll find little (although some) of that here.

For anyone who's ever wanted to get paid for it, you ought to read this book. Especially wonderful for those who follow the Who's Who of Hollywood writers, and how they struggled. The foreword by William Goldman is especially charming as is the closing anecdote by Steve Zaillian, which I found touching. Audrey Wells' tale is flippant and funny as is Pamela Gray's.

One of the things I'd like to do in my life is write a screenplay. I haven't actually done it yet, and I have no idea what the process is like. But this book was a very interesting read. It has given me a renewed sense of hope. Some of the writers' stories in this book are like fairy tales to the hopeful screenwriters, and some of the stories show the reality to us. Reading these has helped me learn what to expect--because I understand that most of these writers were lucky, and that's a lot of what it takes to make it in Hollywood. Let's hope I have it.

Also, I must point out that the forward by William Goldman was worth the price of the book all by itself. I thought I was going to die laughing. I think I read the whole thing out loud to my roommate.

All in all, this is a wonderful book, with many memorable and hopeful stories.

I must admit that I shot myself in the foot by expecting this book to be another Princess Bride. This "fable" is definitely not the same. No high adventure here. But the book certainly has its merits. Morgenstern is able to create characters with whom you instantly connect. You can't help but adore them--even in the case of John the Bastard, the overly-critical professor of hopeful gondoliers. The ending, overly sentimental for my taste, was a bit disappointing. Overall, the book was not an unpleasant read. However, I don't really think it was worth the trouble of hunting down a copy, since it's out of print.

S. Morganstern and his protege William Goldman are storytellers of the first water. It's extremely difficult to describe my admiration for this story without sounding like a gushing fool. I am a voracious reader with a sizeable personal library and this book has to be in my top three list of all-time favourite reads. I wish it were 6,000 pages long! Anyone who believes that dreams can come true, or anyone who has lost that ability to believe, should read this story. It touches everything that is human and good in the soul. A book I will cherish for the rest of my life and pass on to my friends and family as a treasured heirloom. Thank you, Messrs. Morganstern and Goldman, for this priceless jewel in the literary firmament. Buy, find, procure this book...and anything else you can find by these writers!

Having been in 2 college level courses that use this book, one being in my ap govt in high school and the other here at UTD, its a standard for Govt classes that are good

If you've seen the movie Magic, you don't necessarily have to read the book. Being a fan of the movie, I bought the book to see if there were many differences, and the answer to that question was no. William Goldman, who is a brilliant writer and screenwriter must have written this novel with the intent of turning it into an excellent movie.
However, if you haven't seen the movie, then I urge you to get the book. Corky, an as good as can be young man, tries to make it as a magician. When this fails, Corky turns to a ventriliquist routine with a dumby named Fats. As the book goes on, the reader finds that Corky is seriously disturbed and when his routine begins to give him fame, he flees to the home of an old high school classmate whom he had a crush on, who is now married (She was played by Ann Margaret in the movie).
The events that unfold after this move are both horrifying and shocking. I would suggest strongly to anyone who has not seen the movie with Anthony Hopkins to read the book. If you've seen the movie and want to read the book, that's good, but don't expect too many changes.

It's an injustice for this novel to be out of print. Although as one reviwer mentioned, the ending is a bit too obvious up-front, the story has many compensating qualities, especially the excellent portrayal of a good guy, Corky, plaqued by inner demons he just can't control. Thus, we have an excellent drama of the downward spiral of a character we come to like. Incidentally, the movie featuring Anthony Hopkins is even better, and it, too, was written/scripted by William Goldman. Also, maybe some of you might remember the trailer for this film in the late 70s. I was still a kid/preteen back then, and the trailer with the dummy scared me half to death, and to this day, it stays with me. Unfortunately, the video copy I have of the film doesn't contain the trailer. Anybody out there remember it, too? Anyway, if you aren't able to buy a copy of this book on an Amazon.com auction, try to get it through an intra-library loan at your local library. I think you'll be glad you did, for this is a forgotten gem from the greatest era of horror, the 70s, and it should still be in print today, because it's as good as any psychological-suspense-horror novel I've ever read.

A long-forgotten little gem of William Goldman's, it's becoming more and more difficult to find this book anywhere. I was lucky to have found my copy in the library. The book is both very funny, touching and violent, with moments of brilliant humor, suspense and romance scattered throughout. Goldman can make a somewhat silly idea seem unquestionably plausible. The book switches back and forth from present time to the past, then back to present time. Also, the movie (starring Anthony Hopkins and Ann-Margret) is wonderful if you can find a copy as they too are scarce. Great to read and watch if you can find copies.

I'm a huge fan of Goldman's books and most of his screenplays, and the original Adventures in the Screen Trade still stands as the definitive how-Hollywood-works primer. It's great to have him deconstructing the industry once again, praising some unlikely subjects--who would think the 67-year old author of Marathon Man would have picked the Farrelly brothers' There's Something About Mary as 1998's best film?--and attacking even more unlikely subjects--would you expect the screenwriter of A Bridge Too Far to loathe Saving Private Ryan? Goldman does, and how.) I have two key problems with Which Lie Did I Tell, however. One is, many Goldman fans will have seen a lot of this text before. Much of this material has appeared in Premiere Magazine over the years, as well as in collections of Goldman's screenplays. Long-time Goldman enthusiasts, then, might be a bit miffed about buying recycled material. My other misgiving is Goldman's tendency to rely too much on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid when he's trying to get a point across. The original Adventures, remember, included the complete Butch screenplay and a lot of background material about the real-life duo and the making of the film. So it's disconcerting to see scene after scene from Butch used in the new book, along with many of the same anecdotes Goldman told us the first time around. On the other hand, if you're going to use a single film for a lot of your examples of screenwriting, you could do a lot worse than an Oscar-winning Western classic. So, if you read (and liked) Adventures in the Screen Trade and haven't read Goldman's movie pieces elsewhere, give this review an extra star and give Which Lie Did I Tell a try. If you know every line of Adventures and sought out everything Goldman has written since then, you might consider waiting for the paperback. (Hey, he's rich and his children are grown, no one's going to starve if you pass on the hardcover.)

I loved Adventures in the Screen Trade, so I bought Which Lie did I tell? While not quite as good as the first book, it was still entertaining and informative. I loved reading his section on The Princess Bride, and I was glad to read that he actually liked that movie (since he tends not to like anything he's written).

Unfortunately, since I read Adventures in the screen Trade so recently (and he wrote it 20 years ago), a lot of the information--especially when he would talk about Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid--seemed like he was repeating himself. It wasn't that bad, though. It was still fun to read it a second time around.

As with Adventures..., I loved the section at the end of the book where he included a screenplay and had people analyze it. It's very interesting to see what works and what doesn't in other people's eyes. It helps to give a good idea to what to include in my own screenplays.

Overall, it was a wonderful book--just not as good as the first one. C'est la vie.

William Goldman's follow-up to "Adventures in the Screen Trade" follows much the same form as that book. It's intended for an audience of prospective Hollywood screenwriters, but can be equally enjoyed by those interested in frank Hollywood gossip and tales from an insider. Goldman is a perfect tour guide across this terrain, for he loves to teach from his experiences, and is an entertaining and economical writer. Most of this book feels like a private chat with a friendly old uncle who's lead an exciting and adventure filled life.

Goldman starts by revisiting a successful section from his earlier memoir: anecdotes from his experiences writing his most recent work. Tales of adapting his own "The Princess Bride", his love for the material and for Andre the Giant; the good intentioned but eventual failures of "The Year of the Comet" and "The Ghost and the Darkness" (the latter is a good example of how the material can get away from the writer once an egotistical star is on board, in this case Michael Douglas); and how he went about adapting "Misery" and "Absolute Power". This last example was my favourite, for even though the book it's based on was pulp, and movie barely registered, Goldman uses it as a fine example on the problems of adapting, and how you need to be ruthless just to make the thing work. He takes you through his process step-by-step, and the parts where he's racking his brain on how to make the sucker work are tangible in their frustration. Also, there were some nifty Clint Eastwood moments that make you respect the Man with No Name even more.

The second section takes a look at several of Goldman's favourite film scenes (from a screenwriter's point of view), and proposes to analyze why they worked. While his passion for these moments is palpable, Goldman skimps on the analysis. Why was the zipper scene in "There's Something About Mary" so effective? Why does the chess scene in "The Seventh Seal" resonant still? He does a fine job, though, finding the importance of the cliff scene from "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". But then he should know that one inside out, because he wrote it (Warning: if you have never seen or do not at all appreciate "Butch and Sundance", I'd stay away from this book; Goldman has enthusiastic affection for his first big hit, and returns to it often for examples; I myself love the movie and was glad to read more about it). The best part of this section is his attempt to wrestle credit for the crop-duster scene in "North by Northwest" from Alfred Hitchcock, and give it to the screenwriter, Ernest Lehman. I was convinced.

The third section offers the reader a chance to be screenwriter. Goldman presents several newspaper clippings as examples of possible source material for an original screenplay. He then takes us through the process of molding and shaping the materiel to the demands of the screen. It's pedantic Goldman at his best.

In the final section, Goldman presents an original screenplay he's written to various professional screenwriters, to show the function of a "script doctor" (Goldman's latest and most notorious Hollywood incarnation). The screenplay he's written, a tired detective adventure called "The Big A", is still in process, and it's a treat reading Goldman thinking out loud. He doesn't know where to go with the story at some points, and presents the reader with various possibilities. He's unsure about a scene he's just written, and admits to its inadequacies. He's having problems with character, and admits to that too.

But Goldman is not nearly as hard on himself as those he's solicited for help are. This was my favourite section of the book. On the one hand, the submissions he's received are biting, witty, and malicious in the most entertaining of ways. On the other hand, they full of a variety of great ideas, all of which would turn "The Big A" into a bona fide movie. Tony Gilroy (who wrote "The Devil's Advocate") is particularly effective on both of these fronts; his writing is lovable curmudgeonry at its best.

If Goldman ever decides to finish off this trilogy, I'll be right there waiting. Whether in narrative prose or memoir form, his writing is easily digestible, fun, and most importantly, informative. He wears his passions on his sleeve, and invites the reader to do the same. I was right there with him the whole time, lapping up his nuggets of wisdom. I guess the best praise I have is that everytime I finish a Goldman book, I get the itch to go write a screenplay myself. And feel perfectly equipped to do so.