Books |
Roald Dahl
By
Published: Oct 16, 2018
Category:
Children
Roald Dahl’s books appeal to kids for the simplest of reasons. They’re great stories — and the author is firmly on the side of children. "Parents and schoolteachers are the enemy," Dahl once said. "The adult is the enemy of the child because of the awful process of civilizing this thing that when it is born is an animal with no manners, no moral sense at all." That’s his polite answer. In book after book, the message is nastier — adults are mean and stupid, and kids must learn to defeat them.
Dahl was a genius. And a self-promoter. And, for his publishers, an abusive jerk. It’s best to ignore that last truth and stick with the image of Dahl as a great storyteller.
Consider Willie Wonka, the candy king in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” Willie is a theatrical character: a showman, a circus ringleader. So was Roald Dahl — he commanded your attention, he made your visit into an event. From earliest childhood, he loved stories and told them expertly. He adored chocolate, and had the good fortune of participating in blind tastings at a candy bar company. In his early 20s, at one of his early jobs, he began a lifelong habit: eating a candy bar after lunch. He used the silver wrappers to make a ball, which grew larger and larger. Later, he kept packets of candy in the glove compartment of his car, and gave those sweets to his kids for telling the best story on car trips.
The story of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ deals with the two sides of Dahl’s personality — the paranoid genius who has been stripped of his innocence by greedy and evil competitors, and the pure young boy who is heartbreaking in his goodness. As a plot device, it works out this way: Willie Wonka has closed his factory because some of his employees have been selling his secrets to rival candymakers. Years pass, and he’s back in business, using tiny creatures and squirrels as workers. He decides to insert five ‘Golden Tickets’ in his chocolate bars. The children who find them will win a tour of the factory, with one getting a special surprise.
All the kids but Charlie Bucket are dreadful: selfish, boorish, on the make. (Their parents are overwhelmed enablers or immoral accomplices. Very satisfying.) These louts prove that Dahl is more than a kids vs. adults moralist. His kids are also cruel and loutish to other kids. Which is a delightful irony: In these stories, obnoxious kids read about obnoxious characters — and, of course, never see themselves in those characters.
“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ was an instant hit when it was published in America in 1964; its first printing sold out in a month. In the early l970s, Dahl produced a sequel, ‘Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.’ Later, a movie with Gene Wilder — a very different movie from Tim Burton’s — turned Charlie into a kids’ classic. [To buy the book or Kindle of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” from Amazon, click here.]
Starting around age 8 or 9, all the smart kids I’ve known have loved Dahl’s books — and the drawings by Quentin Blake. [To buy Dahl’s books or kindles from Amazon: Matilda. James and the Giant Peach. . The Fantastic Mr. Fox. The BFG.]
And some lucky child will get the literary equivalent of a Golden Ticket: a boxed set of 15 Dahl books. The Phizz-Whizzing Collection, a bargain at $45.
Dahl’s books are comedies, but they deal with the big issues: evil, integrity, loneliness. No wonder kids love them, and cherish them, and identify with their heroes. And how right it is that this flawed man produced such flawless books, one after another, the quality never faltering.
