“Is it safe?”

Who can forget that immortal line coming out of the late Laurence Olivier’s mouth in the movie based on William Goldman’s book, the Marathon Man

Olivier’s psychotic Nazi dentist is one of the great villains of the screen. If ever a character epitomizes the secret fears we hold for a profession, this is it. Olivier tearing at the nerves inside Dustin Hoffman’s mouth served to scare thousands out of the dentist’s chair for years.

The book, on which the movie is based, is an easy-to-read, page-turning thriller. Goldman knows how to write sparingly, and judiciously. He writes like a master craftsman, knowing the story he wants to tell and how to get there in the most straightforward manner.

This is marvelous if you’re looking for an easy-to-read page-turner to lie beside your bedside table, less so if you want something meatier to chew on.

The story is about a young college student and marathon runner, Babe, who gets caught up with international assassins, and one Nazi on the lamb. There’s lots of cool killer-for-hire, secret spy stuff going on, a little romancing, and one gruesome anti-dentite scene.

The problem there is that I kept thinking about the movie and not paying attention to the book. It’s a well-crafted book, for sure, but it’s really hard to beat Sir Laurence as a psycho Nazi dentist looking for diamonds.

I have a habit of reading books that later become movies, or reading books after watching the movie it’s based on, or reading a book just before I see a movie. I’m not really sure why. I guess I like books that are good matches for the silver screen, and I really like movies to the point of wanting to read more about them, and get more in depth. It kind of spoils the surprise of a book or a movie when I have consumed its counterpart, but for whatever reason I do it a lot.

People say books are usually better than the movie because they supply more detail, but I have to disagree. There are plenty of movies that are better than their books. Take Marathon Man as an example. Neither the book nor the movie is a perfect masterpiece. They are both well-crafted throw-aways. But for my money, I’ll walk away with the movie. The thrills are tighter, the big scene is absolutely classic, and well it’s got Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier playing against each other.

It could also be that I saw the movie first and it’s hard to get thrilled about a thriller when you know how it ends. It could also be my reading habits where I tend to read one novel for 15 minutes and then pick up another one, and sometimes even another one. I have been known to read 4 or 5 books at a time and some of the details (especially important in a thriller) tend to get lost in the shuffle.

It’s a fine book, a well-crafted, well-oiled machine of a novel. It is a page-turner, and a killer thriller. It’s a good weekend beach read. Something to hold onto until every page is read then toss away when you’re finished. Heck, for creating one last terrifying scene for Sir Laurence Olivier to chew on, William Goldman deserves a knighthood himself.