Most of the memories of life at Repton make George Orwell's school years sound heavenly. The young Dahl plants a dead mouse in a Gobstopper candy jar, and is caned at school a doctor snips off his adenoids without anesthetic his nose is severed in an automobile accident (and fortunately sewn back on) he suffers such loneliness at boarding school that he always sleeps facing his home in Wales. The style is simple, straightforward, and the tone is genial, but the incidents remembered are traumatic and painful. Not quite an autobiography, Boy chronicles anecdotes and highlights of Dahl's first 20 years. Anyone, whether child or grown-up, who has enjoyed these books should rush out to acquire Dahl's superb Boy: Tales of Childhood. The understated thrill of that war story can be found in virtually everything Dahl has written, from the classic suspense and horror of "Lamb to the Slaughter," "Royal Jelly," and "Man from the South" through the equally notable children's books James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on to the racy adult novel My Uncle Oswald.
On the grass is a sign: "Gardez au chien." When the Air Force offices return with their seemingly innocent questions, the pilot responds only with his name, rank and serial number.
Slowly, painfully, he crawls across the hospital floor, raises himself with great effort to the window sill and looks out on a tidy, neat street. That afternoon, though, the injured man hears the sounds of planes above him, and these set him thinking. After he regains consciousness in a military hospital, various Air Force officers come in to ask him about his squadron, but he is too disoriented to answer. In ninth grade I read my first story by Roald Dahl, "Beware of the Dog," and have never forgotten it: During World War II a pilot, who flies missions into occupied France, has apparently crashed his fighter over England and been lucky to survive. January 13, 1985īOY: Tales of Childhood, by Roald Dahl (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $10.95 ages 9-up). By Michael Dirda Michael Dirda is children's book editor of Book World.
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