Review: Going Solo

Going Solo by Roald Dahl
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Roald Dahl has been a favorite author for many, many years now and I went into the book hoping to read another five star book. And of course, he delivers again.

The book is different not because it documents the adventures of him as a pilot in the second world war but because he keep referring them as more of 'misadventures'. There are places he glazes over details but if you only pause and reflect, then it dawns on you.

The book starts with his journey to Africa on a 'floating bath-tub' to work for Shell. He meets all these Empire builders and memsahib, all of whom come out as nutty. His relations with the native Africans are more on a neutral ground and he has a lot of good things to say about them but I was a little surprised that he didn't say anything about the social conditions in the continent at that time.
Its either he didn't notice or decided not to get into political talk. So it was all about the animals of Africa, the snakes, the servants and cooks and little anecdotes.

Then war breaks. Being in the fringe of action and with lower priority on everything, becoming an Air force pilot was a little different than in the other theaters of war. And Dahl goes over the craziness of war and the idiosyncrasies of the people who are running it.

In the middle of the war, he drives across the continent, across the Sinai and them passes over them in a couple of pages. I wish he had written a little more on the sights and adventures during this time.

But then, I am nit-picking. Over all, an wonderful adventurous book if you are a young adult or an adult.

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