Someone Like You by Roald Dahl (1953)

Posted on 2022-05-31 by thelittleman

Rating: 4 out of 5.
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I’ve recently been on a Roald Dahl kick. Having been weirded out before by the movies based on his books, I’d never taken the time before to actually read anything he’d written. But since 2022 is supposed to be my short-story collections year, and since I ran across a copy of The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Other Stories (1977), I’ve gotten a taste for his magical style.

I’ve had this copy of Someone Like You on my bookshelf (or in boxes while overseas) for years, and in fact, it fell apart as I read it. Like literally disintegrated. I’m down to a chunk of about 70 pages, coverless and taped together so that I’d not miss the ending of the final story. I enjoyed nearly every story in this collection, though interestingly enough, there’s isn’t one titled “Someone Like You” (he had published such a story in 1945 but it apparently didn’t make the cut). Below you’ll find my summary/critique of each in this collection.

I’ll state it from the outset, though, that this is not a series of stories for children. I’m reading James and the Giant Peach to my kids as I read this one on my own, and man, they couldn’t be any more different! Many of the stories in this book are morbid and dark. Nearly every story has either gambling, smoking, or drinking as a major theme—and death (or near-death) seems to be a pretty constant companion as well. Dahl published this book several years before he broke into the children’s market, so don’t assume that everything the man ever wrote was “scrumdillyumptious!”

  1. “Taste” (1951)
    In this first tale, two men gamble incredibly high stakes over whether one sommelier can distinguish the vintage and vineyard of a claret provided by the other. A slight twist at the end let’s me know that I’m probably in for a wonderful, O.Henry-style romp through 15 great old-time short stories. I can’t wait.
  2. “Lamb to the Slaughter” (1953)
    Someone blurbing the cover of my copy (before the cover fell off, that is) said something about “macabre,” and I wasn’t sure if this would be an accurate description of Dahl’s stories. It is. This story is like an Agatha Christie mystery but in reverse. No one ever finds out. I loved it, but I feel a little guilty for doing so.
  3. “Man from the South” (1948)
    Your imagination flies away with this one, wondering how it’ll end. And darn it all, it could have been a while lot worse! Another story of reckless gambling. Also, it’s another story where Dahl’s first-person character is only a small part of the action but gets to watch it all. It’s a very unique perspective he offers in many of his stories (much like in “The Boy Who Talked with Animals.”
  4. “The Soldier” (1953)
    Did anyone know about PTSD in 1953? Was that when it was called “battle fatigue”? About ten million soldiers including Roald Dahl did, they just didn’t know how to describe it yet. This story is detached and disoriented, a confusion of persons and tenses and moments. It almost puts you into the soldier’s mindset. Almost. It’s tragic no matter how you view it. It’s a cry for help to which no one would listen for decades. Nearly half a century actually.
  5. “My Lady Love, My Dove” (1952)
    The tension of this story reminded me of “The Telltale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe, though the stakes and situation differed. A married couple seeks to take advantage of another couple when they visit their home, but one degradation leads to another. Once again from first person, this is not Roald speaking but Arthur. I love the style of dramatic recollection. It reminds me of how Geoffrey Household writes. Could it possibly be that I’m becoming a fan of 20th century British literature!? BTW, this couple totally reminds me of “The Newlyweds” in the first American season of LEGO Masters, so that’s how I pictured them in my mind’s eye.
  6. “Dip in the Pool” (1952)
    While some of the stories thus far have had tinges of very dark humor, this one un-dims the light a bit. A man aboard a cross-Atlantic vessel gambles it all in the day’s mileage auction. The only time I’d heard of this type of game was recently in Ian Fleming’s Diamonds Are Forever. 
  7. “Galloping Foxley” (1953)
    The backstory for this one was definitely based on Dahl’s own experiences at a boarding school, as he wrote about in his autobiographical story, “Lucky Break: How I Became a Writer”. This fictitious reminder is an exercise in revenge fantasy.
  8. “Skin” (1952)
    A dangerous tale of a famous painter and a tattooist and one that most certainly must have been made into a movie by now, though I certainly don’t want to Google it.
  9. “Poison” (1950)
    I had to Google “krait”, but once I did, man this story was one I just couldn’t put down! The suspense! Again, I felt some ties to Edgar Allen Poe, and it makes me want to go back to try his stories again as well. This story will make you question what “poison” actually is.
  10. “The Wish” (1953)
    As simple a plot as anything and something with which every “child” my age can relate, though interestingly enough, some kids today might not. He doesn’t say it in so many words but: “the floor is lava.” A frantic dash into an unwinnable yet self-inflicted game of daring-do. It’s a short one but very familiar…and a bit frightening.
  11. “Neck” (1953)
    Dahl fit some unnecessarily unfamiliar words into this one (new to me at least). He describes “the faint smell of embrocation,” something called “topiary” and “parterres.” This story otherwise is dark comedy at its best. There was a whole lot of set up for this story, but all of it was necessary to make you understand that “infinitesimal lift off the eyebrows.” (177) What a picture!
  12. “The Sound Machine”(1949)
    Dahl could have taken this story in any number of directions, so this one, while surprising, shouldn’t have surprised me. I’d like to give this plot to a room full of students in a short-story writing class and see what they come up with. Bet you none of them go where Dahl goes.
  13. “Nunc Dimittis” (1953)
    Translated from Latin, this title means “Now lettest thou depart.” This story is a very long one, another story of revenge. And goodness, this one just makes you feel…blech. Horrible. It’s the sign of a good writer, though, stringing you along, making you sympathize with one or more of the characters. It’s an age-old plot of misunderstandings gone awry, and it doesn’t make you feel great.
  14. “The Great Automatic Grammatisator” (1953)
    Another slightly humorous story, filled with pages of detail for that single punchline, yet not a waste of time. A fascinating imagination this man had. I like the line: “Give us strength, oh Lord, to let our children starve.” (247)
  15. “Claud’s Dog”
    This final collection of four short stories are all loosely connected by the man, Claud, and his dog Black Panther. These stories contain a number of “Jesus” cursings and “Christ.” I hadn’t had much trouble with Dahl’s language up ’til now. The stories were somewhat entertaining but I can’t say I loved them. I could have done without them all, in fact.

    a. “The Ratcatcher” (1953)
    This story might be the absolute weirdest of all, yet I’ll withhold my judgment, seeing as it’s just Part 1 of 4 in this, well, “novella” would we call it?

    b. “Rummins” (1953)
    All I’m left with following this equally weird story is, “Why??”

    c. “Mr. Hoddy” (1953)
    A while back in time, it seems, with Claud a young man courting a girl and meeting her father. Trying to convince the man that he’s capable of providing for his Daughter, he’s afraid to tell him the truth about his greyhound scam. Instead he tells him that he hopes to buy a maggot farm, you know, for fishermen. This doesn’t go over well.

    d. “Mr. Feasey” (1953)
    The most entertaining story of the lot, this one. It’s a dog race, greyhounds, and a peek into the slimy world of backwater gambling in London in the 1950s (or whenever this was). In fact, Dahl describes the scene well:

    People were still coming through the gate into the field and there were easily three hundred of them now. Not a very nice crowd. Sharp-nosed men and women with dirty faces and bad teeth and quick shifty eyes. The dregs of the big town. Oozing out like sewage from a cracked pipe and trickling along the road through the gate and making a smelly little pond of sewage at the top end of the field. (307)

    Not a place I’d want to be and not a life I’d want to live. Claud and his friend, the Narrator, hope to con the playing field with their ringer dog but don’t seem to be aware of the fact that in as smelly a little pond as they’re trying their trickery, they might just face some trickery in return.

So there you have it, a good 18 macabre and darkly humorous stories by the man who brought you the weirdness of Charley and the Chocolate Factory. I’m not done with Dahl yet, and I look forward to what he’s got in store for me next.

©2022 E.T.

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