I Read: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and six more

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and six more by Roald Dahl

I remember Roald Dahl from when I was in school. And of course, he's the genius behind Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I've always been amused by the way his mind works. 

My mom found this book as a set of three book recommendations from Trevor Noah on Goodreads. We both respect and admire Trevor Noah and so we decided to pick up the books. This one was the most surprising of the recommendations so of course, I read it first. I kind of always assumed that Dahl was a white, North American flavour, rather than being globally known. I still don't know any different - Trevor could have found the book once he was already in the US. But I still found it an interesting choice. 

As noted from the title, this is a collection of short stories, including the first that Dahl ever write, and also includes the true story of how he became a writer. My mom has a biography of Dahl that she's been reading as well, so I'm sure that piece will be repetitive for her. 

As always, the fictional characters in the stories here are both outlandish and completely realistic at the same time. Eccentric is one way to put it. Especially the title character Henry Sugar, which is, according to Dahl an at least partially, true story. I think that's what draws me to his work - the figures are a little bit crazy, but not so much that you can't believe they'd actually exist. They're just slightly less bland than the rest of the world. 

I have a collection of Roald Dahl's other work to read still, so this may motivate me to get to those more quickly. They're simple, and yet thought-provoking and leave you with more questions than they truly answer. I'd be interested to find out why Trevor Noah recommends this book, and especially in connection with his other recommendations. Maybe he didn't actually recommend them at all, and Goodreads just said he did, but either way, I'm reading them and learning a lot from all of it. 

I'm giving it four stars because it's standard Dahl fair - entertaining and also full of things to think about. 

#42-2020