Review: "Boy" by Roald Dahl

Boy: Tales of Childhood

Roald Dahl


Summary:

With his regular quirky sense of humour, Dahl recalls anecdotes from when he was child. These moments are humorous, strange, frightening, sad, or even violent. They may or not resemble stories in his fictional stories and books, but they certainly give you a sense of where the writer came from to create such characters as "The Witches" or the "BFG" or a chocolate factory.


Points of Concern for Parents:

There are extremely funny anecdotes in this book; there are also very violent ones. Dahl was frequently abused by his superiors as he made his way through different boarding schools in the UK. He describes in detail what it was like to be whipped and the cruelty of the people who were supposed to be watching over him. He also speaks of his lack of a need for a God, and his turning towards alcohol as a way of solving problems when he got older.

"The writer walks out of his workroom in a daze. He wants a drink. He needs it. It happens to be a fact that nearly every writer of fiction in the world drinks more whisky than is good for him. He does it to give himself faith, hope and courage."

"Church-going never became a habit with me. Letter writing did."

There seems to be very good justification in this book for why Roald Dahl might have been turned off church-going, and turned instead for solace towards alcohol (and later, other drugs). Of course, other people might be better role models for your children.