TALES FROM ROALD DAHL

Press, 19 August 1978, Page 17

TALES FROM ROALD DAHL

The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar, and six more. By Roald Dahl. Jonathan Cape. 249 pp. $9.20. (Reviewed by Diane Prout) Readers familiar with Roald Dahl’s short stories (“Kiss Kiss”) and his children’s books, (“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”) will be interested in this new anthology. The author dedicates the book “to all young people . . . who are going through that long and difficult metamorphosis when they are no longer children and have not yet become adults.” The first four stories, in particular, are excellent and would make first-rate material for a fifth or sixth form short story study course. “The Boy Who Talked with Animals,” as the title implies, should appeal to all who seek to conserve rather than to destroy living things. The story of a boy’s relationship with a giant turtle dredged up by fishermen at a West Indian holiday resort has a magical, almost mythical quality. The title tale, “The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar.” however, is a long, discursive story, lacking the crisp pace, decisive action, and climax which characterise the previous stories. The idea of a man being able

to concentrate his powers of inner vision through the use of yoga is interesting enough, but the story fails to hold the reader’s interest past the point where the hero masters this ability. Roald Dahl’s insistence that this is a true story and “only-the-names-have-been-changed-to-protect-the innocent” will not convince the adult reader.

Roald Dahl has the ability to make the implausible seem possible by the use of a documentary style of narrative and a careful selection of detail. He includes three pieces which are not properly works of imagination at all. These are “The Mildenhal! Treasure” which recounts the discovery of Britain’s greatest hoard of buried treasure, “A Lucky Break” which is direct, personal experience and describes how the author began the craft of fiction, and “A Piece of Cake,” an imaginative fragment based on his horrific R.A.F. experiences during the Second World War.

As an anthology, this book is unconventional. The first half is almost straight fiction. The second half consists of much autobiographical material and is more concerned with artistic processes and principles than with form.