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Skin And Other Stories (2002)

Skin and Other Stories (2002)

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Rating
4.06 of 5 Votes: 4
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ISBN
0141310340 (ISBN13: 9780141310343)
Language
English
Publisher
puffin books

About book Skin And Other Stories (2002)

Even though yes I am indeed an adult, I have a soft spot for YA Fiction or Teenage fiction as it is also known. I am currently reading Arthur Golden’s ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ and it is a little hard going at times. I decided take a trip to the local library and trawl through the teenage section in search of something light and easy. I was surprised to see a Roald Dahl title amongst the shelf; surely it has been misplaced? Well apparently not!Skin and Other Stories, published by Puffin Books in 2000, is in fact a collection of short stories written well before his fame and fortune came as being a magical, illustrious children’s author. They are all written for teenagers and consist of eleven dark, macabre and sinister tales. Forget the light and easy pal; this definitely was coming home with me.As I sit here and write this blog post however, I can’t help but think ‘what a let down.’ Was it because of shabby writing? No. Was it because the stories were rubbish? No. I think it is more to do with his more famous works. As a child I loved The Twits and Matilda and The Witches. These short stories just lack that escapism that the previous works offer.A lady called Wendy Cooling writes the introduction, very well actually. In it she says ‘(Dahl) became interested in writing stories that could be read in one sitting.’ The problem with that is you have to create a set of characters, introduce them quickly, describe a problem and solve it by the end. Unfortunately with some of these stories, he fails right at the end. There just isn’t enough of a resolution to warrant satisfaction.My favourite has to be ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ in where Mary Malone kills her husband with a frozen leg of lamb and then feeds the lamb to the policemen investigating. It is full of dark humour, quirky details and yes, macabre emotions. Sadly a lot of the other stories fail to live up to this.Though it is worth noting that the story ‘The Champion of the World’ influenced his novel ‘Danny: The Champion of the World’, one of my all time favourite Dahl novels. Roughly half of these little tales are worth at least a read, but I think it is safe to say that Dahl is better at writing for children with his fantastic imagination and inventive writing style, than he is writing short stories for teenagers.

I actually received this book through a kind of secret santa/book exchange last holiday season. I was excited to receive it, though, as it was billed as Roald Dahl writes short stories for adults, which, I guess, is what it was.I grew up on Dahl. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie and The Great Glass Elevator, James and the Giant Peach, and The Witches were all staples of my early reading years, so I was excited to see what happened when this imagination was applied to some more mature themes.Unfortunately, my answer is that it wasn't applied very well. The writing seemed weak and timid, although there were brief instances of brilliant imagery. Perhaps the biggest problem I had, though, is the structure of the stories.It's as though Dahl wasn't quite certain of what to do with a short story. Tales of this nature typically involve introduction, conflict, action, and (sometimes) resolution. The majority of the stories in this collection, though, (I'd say 80%) hardly made it past the conflict stage. You met the characters, the plot line gets introduced, and then the story ends. The conflict is typically a twist of some sort, and ending the story on this twist just makes the story feel like a cliffhanger. The problem is that nothing feels resolved or even acted upon. It's like watching a play with three acts but they only show you Act I. The effect is ultimately disappointing.The stories, although billed as "macabre," are simply more imaginative (and occasionally mildly sinister) than anything, and they do show a degree of promise, but in the end, they are lacking.

Do You like book Skin And Other Stories (2002)?

I'm a nasty person. And so are you - in a secret sort of way. That's why we get along together." Wowzers! I loved this collection of short stories! From the author who brought us Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, Jame's Giant Peach, Matilda, The BFG (Big Friendly Giant) and more. This collection of stories was published after the death of Roald Dahl and brings together a perfectly wonderful batch of fun written for adults rather than children.Within the pages of Skin are the answers to many of life's mysteries such as how to catch pheasants with raisins and where to look for early works of art by famous painters.I absolutely loved SKIN and highly recommend it to all my twisted friends.
—Dustin Crazy little brown owl

Beloved children author Roald Dahl wrote a series of delightful, dark humour for teen readers and eleven of them are compiled in Skin and Other Stories. [return][return]Dahl once said, "The success to a short story is simple, it must have a beginning, a middle and an end. The reader must never want to put it down."[return][return]There is no reason to put down this book too early. A single story, if not the entire book, is short enough to finish in one sitting.[return][return]Take for instance, the story "Skin", where an old man finds that the tattoo on his back is worth well over a million pounds because the one who did it for him is now a famous painter. He received offers for it but how do you sell something that's etched into your skin?[return][return]Creative murder is the theme for "Lamb to the Slaughter". Mary Maloney didn't take the news that her husband is dumping her ver well, so she kills him... with a frozen leg of lamb that the police never found. Although they did have a very nice dinner while at the scene of the crime.[return][return]In "The Sound Machine", a man named Klausner invents a most remarkable machine. It can detect the sound of plants crying. That's probably enough to make anyone seem mad.[return][return]And the whimsy continues - a child who decided that certain colours in the carpet will certainly eat him, a surgeon who received a diamond as a gift and has to hide it somewhere, and so on.[return][return]A few of these stories start with a lot of preface before it gets to the point, which is usually rather short and turns the entire story around. Oh, the characters here don't usually do the morally right thing. They do something unexpected, if not blatantly wrong.[return][return]One could say Dahl has a sick mind, but the rest of us would love the irony. After the first couple of stories, I found myself already anticipating what kind of twist of he has in store next.[return][return]Some younger children will need some of the stories here explained to them, but teens and adults should enjoy it just fine.[return][return](2006)
—Georgette

Short stories always have that pleasant quality about them. It's no wonder Roald Dahl is the person I turn to when wanting some good ones.Dahl's short stories build up the normal way: a lot of description in the beginning and middle, and at the end there is a moment when you can just tell that something is about to happen, and then Dahl keeps on writing as if that moment did not occur and the ending comes in. It's a bit like an old-fashioned film, the reel just keeps on rolling. The thing about these short stories is that they are such a mixed bunch. You'd think that with the cover and Skin that the whole thing would be filled with creepy stories. Well the first three were quite twisted, which was fine. However as you keep on reading the dark factor just fades away and you get a bunch of pointless stories with no apparent change in the story. Some of them were funny though, and others had that British dry humour. Overall this compilation of short stories started off with a bang then just sputtered and died. But they were still entertaining reads which was good since I wouldn't have expected any less of Dahl.
—Mawa Mahima

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