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Title: My Uncle Oswald by Roald Dahl ISBN: 0-14-005577-0 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: May, 1990 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.6 (30 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Quick witted, quick read
Comment: Roald Dahl is one of the most compelling yet unpretentious writers I have ever read. He is infinitely clever and can master children's books, short stories and erotic novellas. This book is a great example of how crafty he can be with adult subject matter. This is not a book for children, as it deals with sexual matters throughout.
"My Uncle Oswald" is a rollicking story of how a shrewd businessman made his fortune off of powerful men and their enflamed sexual desires. The female character of the beautiful Yasmin Howcomely is a great example of an intelligent and self-aware lady who uses her brains and looks to get somewhere. The book is pure comedy from beginning to end and highlights how Dahl can make any subject funny. If you have enjoyed his short stories, you'll enjoy this short book.
If you aren't prudish, love witty yet accessible writing and have a few spare hours on your hands, you'll love this book. It is short enough for a cross-country flight or a few nights pre-bedtime reading.
Rating: 3
Summary: My Uncle Oswald
Comment: I think this is one of the inferior books of Dahl. He is a great short story teller but as far as novel is concerned it lacks maturity. Of coarse we should not compare him to Marquez or Proust still he cannot build the canvas. I would say the book is good for one 10 hrs cross atlantic travel or two days of weekend holidays. Too much copulation in too little time and he could have handled that in more subtle ways. These books actually makes the difference between great (read genius) authors and "not so great" ones. If you have to judge Dahl please do not judge with these chronicles of a seducing uncle but with his children's stories and short stories.
Rating: 5
Summary: A delighting, funny, totally weird story
Comment: Those who only knew Dahl as a writer of funny short stories and haunting children's books, should look here. This is one of his more lengthy stories, although it doesn't have much more than 200 pages. His witty and capricious style hasn't changed either: this is a book as funny as you'll seldom read them. It's not for the youngest kids though, mainly because of its main subject. For there is just one thing this whole book depends on: sex. Not the kind of it you meet in most books, though: the story is rather a caricature of all sexual values that have ever existed. The story's main person, Oswald Cornelius (who is called 'uncle' because the whole story is quoted from his 'diaries' by a nephew), is, according to Dahl, "the greatest rogue, bounder, connoisseur, bon vivant and fornicator of all time". He seems to get every lady, not regarding age or whatever else, into bed with utmost ease. This gentleman comes across a lot of absolutely ridiculous adventures that are all described in this wicked book.
This story takes place around 1912, when Oswald is barely seventeen. In spite of his young age, he is already a great diplomat and communicator. When he hears about a mysterious African beetle that, when stamped to powder, increases a man's potency highly, he's the first to go on expedition to Africa and get hold of some of these beetles. He accomplishes his mission and gets back to Europe where he sells his 'high-potency pills' at exorbitant prices to noble people from all over the world. But then he realizes there's much more (money) to get. Oswald then develops an ultimately ridiculous plan. Take a look at the cover if you're curious about it, I'd say. Anyway, to execute this plan he needs help. He picks out two people as his sidekicks: a chemist called A.R. Woresley and his schoolmate Yasmin Howcomely, "a girl absolutely soaked in sex" as Dahl describes it. And off they go for their mission...
While Oswald is presented as a great bon vivant in the beginning, I need to say that his person changes during the story. At the start he's an audacious boy who fears nobody and even dares to challenge older ladies, but during the second part of the story Oswald is mainly a witness of Yasmin's actions. He has become a businessman who lets others do the work for him. And as with real businessmen, not everything goes as they had planned it... But in the end any kind of character development doesn't matter all that much, for this novel is just a very humorous story that made me laugh as I'd seldom did before with any book. The undertaken actions, and especially the way Dahl describes these, are incredibly funny. You're really in for a (hopefully positive) shock if you haven't read anything like this before. I can absolutely recommend this book for anyone who likes a very lucid and deliciously weird read.
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Title: Switch Bitch by Roald Dahl ISBN: 0140041796 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 1989 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Skin and Other Stories by Roald Dahl ISBN: 0141310340 Publisher: Puffin Pub. Date: January, 2002 List Price(USD): $8.99 |
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Title: Tales of the Unexpected by Roald Dahl ISBN: 0679729895 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 14 July, 1990 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Best of Roald Dahl by Roald Dahl ISBN: 0679729917 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 14 July, 1990 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life: The Country Stories of Roald Dahl by Roald Dahl, John Lawrence ISBN: 0140118470 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: April, 1991 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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