Going Solo

 

Image credit: Goodreads

This week I continued on with the life of one of my favourite childhood authors, diving with him right into the madness and mayhem that was Greece, East Africa, and the Middle East during the Second World War. This week, we were Going Solo.

Picking up more or less where Boy left off, Going Solo chronicles Dahl’s life as a young man leaving England to work in Africa, joining the RAF when war broke out, and finally coming home again after three years abroad. Dahl recounts with great clarity exciting adventures in every chapter ranging from encounters with deadly snakes, to being in a plane crash, to being almost shot at a military road block. 

I found this book interesting for a number of reasons. 1) It tells a true story that is exciting, dangerous, and horrific. 2) It was slightly strange to read a book from an author I recognise as a children’s author, which is directed towards a more adult audience. While Boy still had this fantastic tone of innocence and childlike wonder, Going Solo really is a more mature recounting of Dahl’s life, both in narrative content and the way he frames those stories. 

Image credit: NPR

The danger and horror of many of the situations and environments is perfectly conveyed through blunt and simple prose, I do rather like the way that Dahl does not opt for long-winded paragraphs of exposition and description, but manages to get sufficient drama and emotion through short sentences and dialogue. Thanks to this, Going Solo is a reasonably fast read, giving you that accomplished feeling at the end of a book much faster. I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Author: Roald Dahl, 1986

Published: Jonathan Cape Ltd (Great Britain) 1986, Farrar Straus Giroux (USA) 1986