Rating: 
Summary: A One Day Read
Review: 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...
Rating:
Summary: Vintage suspense novel
Review: William Goldman's "Marathon Man" is my favorite novel of all time. I have probably reread it 20 times. It can act as a virtual textbook on the creation of suspense and terror. Goldman has a firm grasp of what frightens people. He juxtaposes different points of view very effectively and creates characters which you cannot help but care about. It contains what is probably the most famous (and infamous) torture sequence ever commited to paper. The novel is violent but doesn't glorify violence which is a very delicate line to walk on. Goldman is wordsmith without peer. His prose sparkles and is memorable. He lately has been concentrating on screenplays and has not written a novel since 1986 (which coincidentally was a sequel to this novel called "Brothers".) I can only hope that he finds the time to produce a few more novels. Thirteen years has been too long to wait for another Goldman novel. Read all of his novels, you won't be disappointed.
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