Someone Like You

by Roald Dahl

Paper Book, 1979

Status

Available

Call number

823/.91

Genres

Collections

pd, mc

Publication

Harmondsworth : Penguin, 1979, c1961.

Description

Try a refreshing 'Dip in the Pool' and savour the delights of 'Skin', follow 'Galloping Foxley' and sample a little 'Poison'. This collection, one of Roald Dahl's earliest, is guaranteed to appeal to Someone Like You. In the opening story, 'Taste', the stakes of a dinner-party bet reach distasteful heights, and a wife serves up a new dish in 'Lamb to the Slaughter' which goes down well with the boys in blue. Layers of deceit are stripped away in 'Nunc Dimittis', but what is revealed is far from honest. Meanwhile the 'Man from the South' questions whether you really do need the little finger on your left hand...' Vendettas and desperate quests, bitter memories and sordid fantasies thwarted - here are fifteen reasons why Roald Dahl is the master of the short story.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member jemsw

If one were to sum up Dahl's short stories in a single word, that word would be cruelty. Unalloyed viciousness is the medium through which Dahl crafts his tales, unmixed with hope or kindness. They are, as such a description may suggest, best consumed in small doses. One cannot dwell for too long

in the rarefied world in which man practices upon his fellow man constantly.

But each story (barring the last few, a loosely linked set of rather clumsy stories that don't live up to the earlier stories and don't really belong in the collection) is as perfectly crafted as a Venetian stiletto. Dahl is a practiced master of the whip-crack ending, but his real skill as a virtuoso is revealed in his depictions of people suffering from trauma. Indeed, he anticipates modern trauma theory and brings to life neurological disorder in stories like "The Soldier," vividly depicting the horrors of such disorders, the flashing faces, unexplained footsteps, the nerves that don't feel.

The relations of lovers come in for special digs here as elsewhere in Dahl's work, with partners committing all manner of psychic and physical violence upon one another. The result is as likely to be comedy as horror, and the suspension between the two is what propels the stories forward. In Dahl's world, if the meek inherited the earth, they would promptly rain ingenious terror on their former oppressors while the reader watched, caught in a deliciously uneasy space between horror and delight.

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LibraryThing member stipe168

Just like Kiss Kiss, a must read. Full to the brim of wonderful, plot-hatching short stories. All of his stories are for children. Either written for children, or written for adults who need the child to come out of them. Typical Dahl build-up : “At exactly that moment, his eyes and mouth began

slowly to open, in a sort of wonder, and slowly he raised his head and became still, absolutely motionless, gazing at the wall opposite with this look that was more perhaps of astonishment than of wonder, but quite fixed now, unmoving, and remaining thus for forty, fifty, sixty seconds.”

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LibraryThing member izzynomad

This book made me appreciate reading short stories again. Roald Dahl's dark, bizarre and sometimes grotesque stories are brilliantly written.

LibraryThing member thesmellofbooks

I will never forget that rose.

LibraryThing member leslie.98

This collection of short stories shows a darker side to Dahl's writing. I particularly liked the story "Lamb to the Slaughter", and found "The Soldier" & "Skin" interestingly creepy.

LibraryThing member lukeasrodgers

Many of the stories in this collection follow a somewhat predictable pattern, but they avoid feeling formulaic simply because they are so good:

We are introduced to a host of characters, many if not all of whom are presented as morally or physically defective--or both--in some entertaining way. Dahl

manages to have even the attractive characters come off ugly, if only in the judgements of the narrator who frequently professes a distate for and distrust of the attractive and tall;

One or several of them find themselves involved in some kind of scheme or ploy that, if it starts out by their initiative or consent, quickly outstrips their capacity to control it or even grasp its true nature, revealing something sinister and unpredictable in their character or the world at large;

Some twist, often announced in the very last paragraph, somehow manages to deepen the already disturbing and macabre atmosphere of alienation that Dahl has painted.

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LibraryThing member jeffome

St. Bart's 2015 #8 - A very intriguing set of short stories, many of which literally had the ability to make me feel uncomfortable. And this from the author who gave us Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG!!!!! I stumbled across this at a used book sale and had to have it since I was

unaware that he wrote other than children's fare. Well, now I know! Some truly unsettling situations are presented throughout, and happily for me, a host of unexpected twists at the end. My favorites were 'Lamb to the Slaughter,' 'Skin,' & 'Neck.'. A nice ride in unexpected territory. Now, if I could only tell what the artwork represents on my charming old Dell paperback cover.....any thoughts???

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LibraryThing member Faradaydon

What an engrossing weaver of tall tales

LibraryThing member Arkrayder

I never even knew this book existed until I found it. If you’ve only read Dahl’s children’s books you’re going to find this …….different. It was an enjoyable book. Dark in places. But fun over all.

LibraryThing member DinadansFriend

It turns out that this is the title of the book, but Dahl's short story of the same name is NOT included. still the forteen selected stories are quite engrossing. It starts with the story about identifying a wine's vinyard, and bottling year by an expert. Perhaps this was the first use of this

device?

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