Monday, November 22, 2021

James and the Giant Peach

 

Image credit: Penguin Books Australia

Today I have been in a bit of a strange place regarding books. For context, right now I am actually reading more than one simultaneously. the book I read when I’m out: on the train or walking to work, is Moby Dick. It’s a classic, but it’s definitely taking me some time. And then the book I read in the morning with my coffee and at night with my tea is the complete works of Edgar Allen Poe. Again, this is going to take some time for me to get through (it big). 

Today, my brain decided that the goal was to finish a book. Doesn’t matter what, just finish a book! So to the shelf I went and plucked off a thin, children’s classic (I’m a slow reader so doing a complete adult novel was out of the question if I was to satisfy my brain’s demands). Today I curled up and whiled away a portion of lockdown (writing from Sydney NSW for anyone reading overseas) by reading James and the Giant Peach.

This classic adventure story is about James Henry Trotter, a once happy little boy whose life turns to misery when his parents are killed by a rhinoceros, and he’s forced to live with his horrible aunts Sponge and Spiker. But one day an old man gives James some magic ‘things’ with the promise that marvellous things will happen. And they do. James accidentally drops the ‘things’ around the dead peach tree in the garden, which sparks an adventure of a lifetime, as the magic works on an earthworm, a spider, a ladybird, a grasshopper, a silk worm, a centipede, and a glow worm who all grow to large sizes and becomes James’ sailing companions on a giant, magically grown peach.

After reading Roald Dahl’s autobiographies Boy and Going Solo, I made a trip to the bookshop to broaden my Dahl collection because some children’s authors are just that good. Dahl not only came up with such glorious and original stories in which children are the heroes, he was a wonderfully clever writer whose stories, though easy to read, were never exclusive to a single aged audience. 

Image credit: Newyorker.com

In James and the Giant Peach there is metafictive humour, as well as funny little references to his other works, suggesting a bit of a joint Dahl-universe. The central story about having hope in hopeless situations as well as the brilliance of unlikely relationships is sweet and inspiring and I do believe that, not only do we need to raise kids on these books, but revisit them as adults once every few years. We all might be able to cope with the world better if we do. 

James and the Giant Peach is a tremendous little tale that holds enjoyment for everyone.

Author: Roald Dahl, 1961

Published: First published in the USA by Alfred A. Knopf Inc. 1961. First published in Great Britain by George Allen & Unwin 1967.


No comments:

Post a Comment