Book cover Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl (1972)

I’ve read some weird books in my time, but this book takes the chocolate cake. I don’t know much about Roald Dahl besides the fact that we’ve enjoyed a great number of his books recently, but after reading this sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that he got caught up in the LSD fads of the late 60s and wrote this books completely baked.

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This book picks up where the previous book left off, Charlie skyrocketing into the atmosphere inside a glass elevator with Mr. Wily Wonka himself, Grandpa Joe, and the rest of Charlie’s family—eight people drifting off into space to explore what adventures await them. They connect themselves to the U.S.’s extravagant Space Hotel, get nearly gobbled up by a swarm of Vermicious Knids, and communicate with the President (and his nanny) all within the first few chapters.

Before continuing my quick summary, I’ve got to pause and relate Dahl’s jokes against China. This book was published the same year that Nixon visited Beijing, so a reference to this secluded people group was timely (albeit incredibly insensitive):

“Mr. Wong speaking,” said a voice at the other end.
“Mister Who?” screamed the President.
“Mr. Wong, assistant stationmaster, Chunking, and if you asking about ten o’clock tlain, ten o’clock tlain no lunning today. Boiler burst.”
The President threw the phone across the room at the Postmaster General. It hit him in the stomach. “What’s the matter with this thing?” shouted the President.
“It is very difficult to phone people in China, Mr. President,” said the Postmaster General. “The country’s so full of Wings and Wongs, every time you wing you get the wong number.”
“You’re not kidding,” said the President. (29-30)

After this foray into the cultural climate of the early ’70s, Charlie and the elevator crash back into the Chocolate Factory and begin a long (nearly half the book) adventure into the magical pills of Mr. Wonka’s invention, including Wonka-Vite and Vita-Wonk. Promising to get the grandparents out of bed in a jiffy, he gives them some pills to make them younger, but in their greed they take too many and become babies and worse. Grandma Georgina ends up in Minusland (because turning the clock back 80 years when you’re only 78 is never a good idea), but thankfully Wonka’s got a remedy.

These final chapters definitely give us a taste of what it must be like to explore the world through experimental pills (whether those pills are Wonka’s or Dahl’s or both, I don’t know), but it just goes to show Dahl’s prowess as a writer. I read portions of this to my kids on the plane from CA to MN, so I can’t imagine what the folks sitting ahead of us were thinking—especially when we came to the Umpa-Lumpas’ poem about Goldie Picklesweet (pp. 116-120)! What a ride! I recall memorizing Ogdan Nash’s “The Tale of Custard the Dragon” for speech class in college, but boy, I wish I had memorized this one instead!

A couple of other great lines from this book (including one that really made me laugh) are the following:

“I’m afraid the camera got smashed against the side of the Space Hotel, Mr. President,” Shuckworth replied. The President said a very rude word into the microphone and ten million children across the nation began repeating it gleefully and got smacked by their parents. (66)

It was an unhappy truth, [Willy Wonka] told himself, that nearly all people in the world behave badly when there is something really big at stake. Money is the thing they fight over the most. (107)

This book was certainly weird, but not weird enough to make us stop reading the guy. Next up for us will likely be Fantastic Mr. Fox and then whatever else I was able to purchase at a used bookstore a few weeks ago. Bring them on!

©2022 E.T.

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Read More from Roald Dahl:

• Adult Short Stories:
  Over to You (1946)
  Someone Like You (1953)
  The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (1977)
  
• Children Fiction:
  James and the Giant Peach (1961)
  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964)
  The Magic Finger (1964)
  Fantastic Mr. Fox (1970)
  Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (1972)
  Danny the Champion of the World (1975)
  The Enormous Crocodile (1978)
  The Twits (1980)
  George’s Marvelous Medicine (1981)
  The BFG (1982)
  Dirty Beasts (1983)
  Boy: Tales of Childhood (1984)
  The Giraffe, the Pelly, and Me (1985)
  Going Solo (1986)
  Matilda (1988)
  Esio Trot (1990) 
  The Minpins (1991)
  The Vicar of Nibbleswicke (1991)