The Silent Gondoliers (1983) is another example of Goldman's attempt to adapt traditional genres to modern form. The Princess Bride appropriates the form of the fairy tale, while The Silent Gondoliers is in the shorter, more compact form of a fable. Both works succeed as vehicles through which Goldman (in the voice of the fictitious S. Morgenstern) can satirize both the literary forms themselves and the modern values that are so humorously contrasted with the expected traditional values of fairy tales or fables.

The central character is Luigi, a gondolier with a "goony smile." S. Morgenstern, the narrator, translates the Italian word as "goony" since no other is quite right in English, or so Morgenstern claims. Luigi's father is a gondolier. Even as a child, Luigi sneaks out to practice his steering in the Grand Canal late at night while the city of Venice sleeps. Often near...