Boy

 

Image credit: Goodreads

Leaving behind the world of the fantastical and significantly dated literature, this week the book that I plucked off the shelf was a swift and glorious look into the childhood of one of my favourite authors: Roald Dahl. 

Simply entitled Boy, this book chronicles Dahl’s boyhood from kindergarten right through to his first job at the age of eighteen. Dahl regales readers with stories of mischief, fearsome authority figures, and chocolate, all of which inspired some of his greatest works. 

After the struggle that was Gulliver’s Travels, I was most definitely in the mood for easy reading for the next little while. And Boy proved to be exactly that. Reflective of its title, this is a short and sweet little autobiography that I particularly enjoyed, not merely because it’s the life of one of my all-time favourite authors, but because the book itself is a work of non-fiction that is targeted towards a young readership. While it tells true stories, it tells them in such a simple, yet exciting way that captivates and expertly paints vibrant images in the mind, making it just as engaging as a children’s fictional novel.

Dahl was one of the earliest authors I remember loving as a child. I can remember sitting up with my dad after dinner –this was just when I was getting a handle on reading, so 6-7 years old- and reading Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory out loud to him. The simplicity and childlike innocence with which he writes his novels is prevalent here in his autobiography and I was emotionally transported to that dining room table, reading to my dad. 

Image credit: American Library Association

Despite the simple prose, Boy is also a comparative reflection on the way things have changed, particularly travel, educational disciplinary routines, and medical procedures. Indeed there are some scenes in the book that are quite gruesome and horrifying, making me quite grateful that I did not grow up in the 1930s. 

From page one, Boy is a fascinating glimpse into the life of one of literature’s most celebrated and beloved authors. I am keen to open the cover of the next instalment: Going Solo. 

Author: Roald Dahl, 1984

Published: First published in Great Britain by Jonathan Cape Ltd. First published in the USA by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1984