Collected Stories
by Roald Dahl />850 pages - Everyman's Library

Though Roald Dahl is now known mostly for his books for children, he began his writing career with short stories for adults, and it was only as his inspiration for these mostly dried up that he moved on to write his material for children. Though all his writings share the same sort of twisted imagination, his adult stories can be quite macabre and cruel, and at times quite adult indeed. This book collects all of those adult stories, which were previously collected in the books Over to You, Someone Like You, Kiss Kiss, Switch Bitch, as well as a few other assorted stories. According to the introduction, the only material omitted was Two Fables from 1986, at the request of the family, and it would be interesting to learn more about the story behind that.

The first group of stories is based upon Dahl's experience as a pilot in the Air Force during WWII. Interestingly, Dahl once got lost while piloting a plane, ran out of fuel and crashed, but always told people in conversation that he had been shot down.

In a lot of these stories humanity can come across as quite repulsive. Though I do like Dahl's work, I think what made me refrain from mentally classifying this book as being in the top tier is that a lot of Dahl's stories are just a bit too sophisticated and refined, as evidenced by the publications they originally appeared in (New Yorker, Esquire, etc), and could do with being a bit rougher around the edges.