Boy: Tales of Childhood
By Roald Dahl
Publication Year: 1984
Type: Non-fiction
Genre: memoir, humor
Read on 2019-03-10
View additional specs on this book in Muhan’s 2019 Reading Survey ➞
★★★★★
Roald Dahl makes his childhood seem every bit as magical and wonderful - and occasionally terrible - as his fiction books. I read every single one of his books in my early childhood, and this just felt so warm and familiar, like sinking into a bath of hot chocolate and marshmallows (metaphorically tho because ew). I had definitely heard about this nonfiction Roald Dahl as a kid and thought I would read it someday but mostly wrote it off as a probably somber and serious reflective memoir. Joyously, THIS WAS NOT THAT! He says in the beginning that this is not an autobiography of his life but just a collection of the most interesting and memorable tales from his childhood, which he had only to skim off the top of his consciousness - and BOY did he deliver. Just everything from his father and uncle's stories of immigration and businesses, going to Norway as a child, pulling pranks with his friends, every bit of it seemed like the most fun and gloriously nostalgic. My absolute favourite was when he described having candy and going to the candy store as a boy, and relating those treasured experiences to writing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory later in his life.
I also definitely found my way to this because I was looking up audiobooks narrated by Dan Stevens on Libby because I recently rediscovered how cute he is. So yeah I listened to this very short audiobook read by the luscious voice of Dan Stevens and it was great.
