Review: Boy by Roald Dahl

Summary (from Goodreads):

Twenty-five years ago in “Boy,” the world’s favorite storyteller recollected scenes from his youth–some funny, some frightening, all true. “More About Boy” is the expanded story of Roald Dahl’s childhood, with his original text augmented by never-before-seen material from behind the scenes, and some of the secrets that were left out. Dahl’s adventures and misadventures during his school years are crowded with people as strange and wonderful as any character he created and are as exciting and full of the unexpected as his celebrated fiction. This special keepsake hardcover edition is filled with personal memorabilia such as family photos, letters, report cards, plus dozens of illustrations by Quentin Blake, as well as a quiz to test the knowledge of Dahl aficionados of all shapes and sizes.

Review:

Every now and then I experience the absolute need to read a Roald Dahl novel. Don’t ask me where this need comes from, but when it does, I pick up either a much-loved, much read novel of his or one that I had not read before (which tend to be his autobiographical work).

This particular novel, Boy, was suggested to me by a colleague who had used it with her grade seven students and she could not contain herself when she told me how much the students had loved it. So, to make a long story short, I read the novel.

And loved it! The novel focuses on Dahl’s education and his experiences at the different British boarding schools (his father insisted that his children receive a “British” education) he attended before finishing secondary school. While most of his experiences (friends, photography, writing) appeared to have been positive, he seemed to have had a terrible time with principals and teachers, especially when it came to discipline.

The most touching part of story was the number of letters Dahl wrote his mother every time he was away from home – from the first time he went away to school as a young boy to the times when he traveled for work, and then for war. Mrs. Dahl kept every letter the young Dahl wrote her, which I find touching and unspeakably sad.

This is a wonderful novel, and although most teachers are painted as horrors, it was nice to spend time with and get to know the boy behind the legendary author. Recommended.

Review: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Summary (Goodreads):

Oscar Wilde’s story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is one of his most popular works. Written in Wilde’s characteristically dazzling manner, full of stinging epigrams and shrewd observations, the tale of Dorian Gray’s moral disintegration caused something of a scandal when it first appeared in 1890. Wilde was attacked for his decadence and corrupting influence, and a few years later the book and the aesthetic dilemma it presented became issues in the trials occasioned by Wilde’s homosexual liaisons. Of the book’s value as autobiography, Wilde noted in a letter, “Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be–in other ages, perhaps.”

Review:

An impressionable young Dorian Gray meets Lord Henry whose views on life, morals, values, pleasure, love influence Gray so much that he exclaims an oath that he be able to experience every pleasure without marring his physical beauty. His ‘wish’ becomes reality when he notices that his portrait by Basil Hallward (his masterpiece) changes as Dorian Gray’s experiences take a toll on his soul.

Oscar Wilde being one of my favorite authors, I made the pledge to re-read some of his work that I had not read in some time this summer. Re-reading this after many years – not since high school – I realize now how much I missed in the first reading. The idea of being selfish and experiencing every pleasure without thought to consequence and effect on others resonates in a modern world where the individual’s desires come first, which explains why the novel is still relevant today. I enjoyed the novel much more this time around, especially the complex characters who are not easily labeled as good or bad. This is definitely a must read and I highly recommend it.

Review: 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

Summary (from Goodreads):

84, Charing Cross Road is a charming record of bibliophilia, cultural difference, and imaginative sympathy. For 20 year

s, an outspoken New York writer and a rather more restrained London bookseller carried on an increasingly touching correspondence. In her first letter to Marks & Co., Helene Hanff encloses a wish list, but warns, “The phrase ‘antiquarian booksellers’ scares me somewhat, as I equate ‘antique’ with expensive.” Twenty days later, on October 25, 1949, a correspondent identified only as FPD let Hanff know that works by Hazlitt and Robert Louis Stevenson would be coming under separate cover. When they arrive, Hanff is ecstatic–but unsure she’ll ever conquer “bilingual arithmetic.” By early December 1949, Hanff is suddenly worried that the six-pound ham she’s sent off to augment British rations will arrive in a kosher office. But only when FPD turns out to have an actual name, Frank Doel, does the real fun begin.

Two years later, Hanff is outraged that Marks & Co. has dared to send anabridged Pepys diary. “i enclose two limp singles, i will make do with this thing till you find me a real Pepys. THEN i will rip up this ersatz book, page by page, AND WRAP THINGS IN IT.” Nonetheless, her postscript asks whether they want fresh or powdered eggs for Christmas. Soon they’re sharing news of Frank’s family and Hanff’s career.

Review:

This is a collection of letters (the first half) and diary entries (second half) about one woman’s love affair with books and the person with whom she corresponds in order to purchase the said books. The letters in the first half of the novel are wonderful – Helene Hanff’s clever, no-nonsense, wit, and warmth jump off the page, while Frank Noel’s very English voice – proper, reserved (attempting to be in the later letters) echoe just as re-soundly as Helene’s. What I loved most was also reading the letters from other members of Marks & Co. as they, too, began to correspond with Helene. Seeing an insight into post-war Britain was fascinating, especially that books were being delivered all over the world, while basic necessities were not always available. The last few letters in the first half were the most difficult and most touching – I didn’t think I would be so effected by them.

The second half is a diary that Helene Hanff kept of her visit to London on a book tour to promote her book 84, Charing Cross Street. Again the entries are wonderfully detailed, alive with Helene’s voice, and quite bitter-sweet. Her love-affair with books was second perhaps to Helene’s love affair with London and all things English. And reading about her first encounter with England and how she “… [felt] letdown … and [her] insides offering the opinion that the entire trip was unnecessary” to the comment on the very next day – “… for as long as I live I’ll never forget the moment. From across the street a neat row of narrow brick houses with white steps sat looking up at me. They’re perfectly standard eighteenth-or nineteenth- century houses, but looking at them I knew I was in London.” – I was absorbed into Helene’s discovery of London – the London she had always imagined … “as [her] dreams [were] made on.”

This is a wonderful book about books, people, and the things that we imagine and finally experience, if we’re very lucky. 84, Charing Cross Road reminded me very much of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, also a collection of letters between writer Juliet Ashton and a man from Guernsey, who comes across her name written on the inside of a Charles Lamb book, taking place in post war London. If you have read the latter, you’ll love the former (as I did) or if you have not read either, but want to melt into a world of books, people who love books, and the worlds they inhabit, then this (these) novel(s) is/are for you.

Review: The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford

Summary (from Goodreads):

Childhood at Alconleigh is scanty preparation for the realities of the outside world and Linda, sweetest and most aimless of the young Radletts, falls prey to a stuffy banker and a rabid communist before she finds her ideal in a Frenchman…

 

Review:

This is the story of the Radlett family told through the eyes of the niece, Fanny. She spends her holidays with her Aunt Sadie, Uncle Matthew, and cousins, and the day-to-day life and dramas of the family are nothing short of adventures.

The story is mostly about the younger daughter Linda, who we meet as a headstrong young lady who loves to hunt, but later wants only to fall truly in love. While we are told the story of the remaining family members, it is Linda’s story that takes center stage because, quite honestly, it is the most interesting one. She is eccentric, completely mad, head-strong, charming, spoiled rotten, but with a heart of gold, and it is this that appealed to me, and made me like her even though I wanted to knock some sense into her most times! Linda’s carefree character echoes the lifestyle and the world that she grows up in … a world that no longer exists, which is what is saddest about this novel.

I love that it is British, that it does not hold back on poking fun at this elite world, and that the characters feel like some members of my own family. Very much enjoyed this one and would recommend it highly.