{"id":695,"date":"2005-06-04T01:12:00","date_gmt":"2005-06-04T01:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/book-review-the-silent-gondoliers-by-s-morgenstern\/"},"modified":"2005-06-04T01:12:00","modified_gmt":"2005-06-04T01:12:00","slug":"book-review-the-silent-gondoliers-by-s-morgenstern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/book-review-the-silent-gondoliers-by-s-morgenstern\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Silent Gondoliers by S. Morgenstern"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

“Where The Princess Bride<\/i> was lightheartedly brutal, this story is gently whimsical, well-complemented by Paul Giovanopoulos’s zany drawings.”
— San Francisco Chronicle<\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Silent Gondoliers<\/i> is the lesser-known (but equally wonderful) book written by S. Morgenstern, William Goldman’s favorite pseudonym. It was released in hardcover in 1983, and a nicely-done trade paperback version came out from Del Rey in 2001. Paul Giovanopoulos pen-and-ink illustrations do indeed serve the story well.<\/p>\n

This book is ideal for all ages; parents might enjoy reading this one aloud to their little ones, because younger readers will likely have trouble with some of the vocabulary, particularly the scattered Italian phrases. Teenagers, if they haven’t been properly introduced to the joys of Goldman’s writing in the book or movie version of The Princess Bride<\/i>, might find this one too old-fashioned, but the book is so short (110 pages) that you might be able to convince them to try it anyway. Adults like myself who enjoy a good fable well-told will likely find this one delightful.<\/p>\n

The Silent Gondoliers<\/i> tells the tale of an aspiring gondolier named Luigi. He is a talented boatman, but he’s a horrible singer. In fact, he’s so awful that people get stomach cramps and migraines just listening to him. And in his Venice, that’s a problem, because the gondoliers have their reputation as the best singers in the world to uphold. A tone-deaf gondolier just won’t do, no matter how skilled he is with his oar.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, we learn why the Venetian gondoliers no longer sing. You know it’s because of Luigi, of course. Reading his misadventures as he pursues his seemingly-impossible dream to become the best gondolier in Venice and meets zany characters such as John the Bastard, Porky XII, the Great Sorrento, and The Pickle is a real joy.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Where The Princess Bride was lightheartedly brutal, this story is gently whimsical, well-complemented by Paul Giovanopoulos’s zany drawings.”— San Francisco Chronicle The Silent Gondoliers is […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[31,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8qT6f-bd","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":570,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/s-morgenstern\/","url_meta":{"origin":695,"position":0},"title":"S. Morgenstern","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"January 22, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"S. Morgenstern (the \"S\" stands for Simon) is author William Goldman's whimsical narrator of The Princess Bride and The Silent Gondoliers. Morgenstern's is a sweetly cantankerous authorial voice, prone to all manner of entertaining tangents. According to his fictional biography in the books, he lives in Florin City where he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "biography"","block_context":{"text":"biography","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/biography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":586,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/book-review-storyteller-by-kate-wilhelm\/","url_meta":{"origin":695,"position":1},"title":"Book Review: Storyteller by Kate Wilhelm","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"November 23, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Storyteller: Writing Lessons and More from 27 Years of the Clarion Writers' Workshop by Kate Wilhelm Small Beer Press ISBN: 1-931520-16-X 190 pages I attended Clarion the year after Kate Wilhelm stopped teaching there. She (along with Robin Scott Wilson and her husband Damon Knight) was one of the original\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "book review"","block_context":{"text":"book review","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/book-review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=lookwhatifoun-20&l=ur2&o=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":715,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/book-review-who-moved-my-cheese-by-spencer-johnson\/","url_meta":{"origin":695,"position":2},"title":"Book Review: Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"May 18, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"The full title of this little book by Spencer Johnson is Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life (ISBN: 0399144463) So will you find it amazing? Probably not. Will it help you deal with change in your life? Maybe.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "book review"","block_context":{"text":"book review","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/book-review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/05\/cheese.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/05\/cheese.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/05\/cheese.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/05\/cheese.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":645,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/book-review-devils-tower-by-mark-sumner\/","url_meta":{"origin":695,"position":3},"title":"Book Review: Devil’s Tower by Mark Sumner","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"August 3, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"A Review of Mark Sumner's novel Devil's Tower (Del Rey, 1996) Devil's Tower is a sprawling, entertaining novel that blurs the boundaries between fantasy, western and horror. Set in an alternate Wild West ruled by hexes and conjurations, it tells the tale of Jake Bird, a reluctant hero who begins\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "book review"","block_context":{"text":"book review","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/book-review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":704,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/book-review-fair-peril-by-nancy-springer\/","url_meta":{"origin":695,"position":4},"title":"Book Review: Fair Peril by Nancy Springer","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"May 25, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Fair Perilby Nancy SpringerAvon Books, 1996 Okay, I admit it. Despite (or perhaps even because of) the glowing review blurbs that decorate the front pages of Nancy Springer's novel like so many medals on a general's chest, I was skeptical that this book would be half as good as everybody\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "book review"","block_context":{"text":"book review","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/book-review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":773,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/book-review-the-sandman-book-of-dreams\/","url_meta":{"origin":695,"position":5},"title":"Book Review: The Sandman: Book of Dreams","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"July 7, 1997","format":false,"excerpt":"a review by Damien FilerThe sandman has been present for a very long time in folklore and fairy tales as the man who puts sand in the eyes of children to make them sleep. DC Comics unveiled a sandman (millionaire Wesley Dodds) replete with fedora, cape and gas mask in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "book review"","block_context":{"text":"book review","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/book-review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}