Boy by Roald Dahl

            Boy is a memoir by Roald Dahl about his childhood. Boy opens with Dahl talking about how his one armed father and his Norwegian mother met. When he was six, his eldest sister, Astri, caught pneumonia and died, and his father then died of grief and pneumonia two weeks afterward. Later during his elementary school years, he and his friends hatched a scheme to get back at the much hated woman who owned a sweet shop on the way to their school. Roald Dahl was sent to a boarding school when he was nine years old. He was extremely homesick during the first few weeks and actually faked having appendicitis to be allowed to be sent home. During Christmas break of that year Roald was in a car accident and his nose was sliced off before the doctor was able to sew it back on again.  When he was twelve he was sent to a larger boarding school called Repton. At Repton, Roald discovered that he excelled at sports and at one sport in particular, Eton-fives, and at photography. After he turned eighteen he applied for a job with the Shell Oil Company and was sent to work in Africa.

            The theme of the book is that his stories were the sum of his unusual experiences. In Boy, Roald cites several books that he wrote later in his life. Roald talks about the inspiration for his book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which came from tasting chocolates for Cadbury as a kid. I think that the book The Witches was inspired partly by the matron from St.Peters. When he describes her smiling as she sends boys downstairs to be caned, it reminds me of the sadistic witches in the book.

            I think this book differs from modern day cultural norms in many ways. When Roald Dahl is first sent to boarding school, he is nine years old and away from his family for about four months. Nowadays, that would set up the child for hours of therapy later in his life. There is a passage in the book about how Roald Dahl had his adenoids taken out. The doctor took them out without giving him any anesthetic, or even telling him what he was going to do. The kids in the book are expected to endure a lot more pain than would be acceptable now.

            The reason I enjoyed reading this book was because of the intriguing experiences Roald Dahl had. He had a very interesting life and to learn about just part of it was not enough for me. After I finished Boy, I read the book that talks about his adult life, Going Solo. Boy is a great book and one that I would recommend to anyone. I loved reading Boy.

I got this image from here