Going Solo

I have been feeling just a little silly over the last few weeks (since I was in Buenos Aires) because I have been reading some books by Roald Dahl.

In my childhood, I held a special place for "Danny, the Champion of the World," and I have had cause to revisit some of the other childrens titles by the author through the years.

As I've said recently, the stuff you want to read changes with you're on vacation in a country with a different language. So in Argentina, in addition to Remnick and Friedman, I read Dahl. I read "Boy," and "My Uncle Oswald." Oswald alone appears to be the only of these titles targeted to the adult market.

And now back in San Francisco, I needed to finish up Dahl's autobiography, which started with "Boy" and ended as "Going Solo." Not quite childrens books, these are more what I'd call "young adult," and they've got typical Dahl wonder, charm and humor as they recount childhood, British boarding school, a job in the British Empire and World War II. I have enjoyed them both very much.