Roald Dahl’s AutoBiographies: Boy and Going Solo
According to C.S Lewis, reality is indeed more beautiful than the land of imagination because it is true. This statement applies true to Dahl because I consider his biograhies Boy and Going Solo far more fascinating than his works of fiction. This is because working with the ordinary really fleshes out Dahl’s knack for carefully choosing words to make a great story out of simple things like his childhood. In his first autobiography entitled Boy, we encounter Dahl’s childhood experience and start to get glimpses of where he practiced his writing skills (writing letters to mumsy) and how got his michievous mind (placing dead rats in candy bowls). Thus, we get to piece together Dahl’s psychological makeup. Yet, what makes Dahl magical is that he has had the same childhood as most of us but he seems to have the power to convey that his was more special than ours. We all went through pulling pranks to our friends, causing trouble and meeting our cousins during the summer but Dahl seems to make his experience simply more memorable.
On the other hand, Going Solo is a harrowing adventure in itself and is a far cry from anything ordinary. This is because it recounts Dahl’s time in Shell Africa and as World War II Pilot. We get to vividly ride a jeep with Dahl and watch him pass by the towering giraffes and feel the hot sun of African Dessert. The latter part gets better as he writes about his near death experiences as he pilots his way around enemy lines and struggles to survive. This book actually inspired me to take hold of my youth and try to travel as Dahl did.
On a side note, Dahl’s experience as pilot was the reason why he providentially became a writer. Upon arriving to the U.S, he was interviewed by C.S Forester of the Saturday Evening Post on his adventures in Africa. Before meeting, Dahl first wrote a summary of his experience to give as a primer to Forester’s article. The summary was so good that C.S Forester told the young Roald that it was perfect and had no need for editing. He even received $900 to boot! The story can be found in Dahl’s Henry Sugar and Six Other Stories as “A Piece of Cake” and his meeting with Forester is also documented in this compilation too as “A Lucky Break”.
I guess the long and short of Dahl’s life is that sometimes some people are just born writers.
p.s Quentin Blake illustrated the covers above.
Next: We have two more Dahl Posts to go! His fictional works and his legacy! Ciao!