Mini Book Review: Roald Dahl/BOY
A book review in 500 words or less
Title: BOY/Author: Roald Dahl /Copyright: 2022/Publisher: Slightly Foxed Edition from 2019 (copy №1465)/Medium: Cloth-covered Hardcover (183pp)/Genre: classic memoir
Purchased: John Sandoe Books in London, England.
Summary: Self-written stories of Roald Dahl’s childhood.
Short Review: Simply great.
Reading this book once a day might have medicinal qualities. It certainly couldn’t hurt. It is short, funny, touching, and horrifying in parts, start to finish; altogether delightful.
It might be awhile since you’ve picked up a Roald Dahl book given that he’s most famous for children’s books. Boy is a short read that will catapult you back to age 7 when you might have been in thick with him. What I always loved best about Dahl’s fiction was that the children characters were smarter than the adults, and he spoke to the reader (children and inner children) in the same respectful and knowing manner. He realized that children fully knew horror and pain in their own special way. I would put him up against any child psychologist.
We learn much about Dahl’s adventurers in boarding school from letters to his mother, many of which are signed “Boy,” which she kept and handed back to him on her death bed. Within are stories of his mother and father and siblings, medical procedures, pranks, schooling, and travels until he joins the Royal Air Force shortly before WWII.
A must read for any Roald Dahl fan.
